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Feb 03 2022
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Lost Goldmine - Shaka CavePhoenix, AZ
Lost Goldmine - Shaka Cave
Phoenix, AZ
Hiking avatar Feb 03 2022
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking3.75 Miles 555 AEG
Hiking3.75 Miles   2 Hrs   45 Mns   1.67 mph
555 ft AEG      30 Mns Break15 LBS Pack
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Peralta road was in great shape. Parking at the trail head was limited. An easy to follow trail leads to within 40 feet of the cave and then continues past it up and left to the waterfall area. There was no water flowing, but still it was worth hiking to. See picture. The Cave itself was larger than I expected. There were just a couple of potsherds left in a niche.
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Jan 26 2016
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Kofa Butte - KOFASouthwest, AZ
Kofa Butte - KOFA
Southwest, AZ
Hiking avatar Jan 26 2016
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking
Hiking
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
We arrived in King Valley Tuesday morning via McPherson Pass in the Castle Dome Mountains.  Soaking in the beautiful, sunny & warm January day as we drove the dusty roads north across the wide open valley.  The KOFA Range spread out in front of us, covering the horizon.  What a rugged range.  Some of the most austere and difficult terrain in Arizona.  A huge bookend to the southwest, KOFA Bute looms over the valley floor below.  How can something that imposing not be on your bucket list?
I spent Tuesday afternoon doing recon, making it to within a hundred vertical feet of the edge of the top.  It looked to me like one might start from the end of the road and work directly up a series of ledges and ramps all the way up to the base of the final rampart.  Siege-style.  Epic fail.  The ledges and ramps proved sketchy and steep and the cliffs were a hundred feet of dead verticality.  Nice to explore, but I'm soooooo glad I didn't have Nancy and the dogs.  This is why one does recon.

Every intersection in The KOFA is numbered.  What a brilliant idea!  Our approach road is the road that heads Northeast from intersection number 21.   Wednesday morning we set out to do a light recon walk.   Thus we only brought 1.5 liters of water.  6 liters would've been about right.  Also, this is a tough hike for dogs.  Our young guy, Pico did fine, but I ended up carrying our 10 year old boxer mix through much of the steeper and cholla infested sections.  Typical for us.  A stroll ends up in a summit push.

We took the wash that angles to the right from the end of the road.   It snakes it's way through the most ghoulish and gnarly rock formations for perhaps twenty minutes of easy walking.  Look for our cairn on the right at a side wash.  The entire route is sparsely cairned but the cairns are big.  KOFA Bute will now be more or less south of you and the remainder of the hike takes you up to a series of ridges that run up the northeast corner of the formation to the one weak spot in the upper cliffs.  This "weak spot" is on the eastern edge of the bute where the rampart has tumbled enough to allow class 2 access to the top.  Basically, the hike takes you around the formation clockwise along the north and then northeast flanks for about 180 degrees on the compass. 

From where the small wash leaves the main wash you should likely be able to see where it breaks through a 30 foot headwall.  The idea is to leave the main wash and hike up the small wash through this break and continue up to a ridge on the northeast slope, then work your way up and across several ridges trending southeast until you see one ridge that leads up the slope past a small (15 foot) ledge.   You will easily pass this small ledge on the right end.  This will deposit you on the talus just below the the final tumbled cliff band.  You are now looking up at the tumbled cliffs along the top of the mesa.  Work your way left cross-hilling, staying low until you can see the first broad and open access point through the tumbled cliffs above you. "Top" is relative.  Once on top of the mesa, you'll see the summit about a half mile away to the south.  From here you simply beeline to the easy valley between the two prominences.  As you reach the saddle at the top of the sloping valley you'll get a drop-away view of the entire King Valley.  The actual summit well be the one on your left.  Big cairn, 360.
Our return went much smoother although we were pretty dehydrated having given the dogs most of our water.
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Mar 04 2014
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 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Battle Axe Butte 3,531 - Teapot Mtn QuadGlobe, AZ
Battle Axe Butte 3,531 - Teapot Mtn Quad
Globe, AZ
Hiking avatar Mar 04 2014
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking1.66 Miles 1,520 AEG
Hiking1.66 Miles   4 Hrs      0.42 mph
1,520 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
What a summit!  Commanding views over the White Canyon Wilderness, across the Gila valley, and east to the Pinals.  Sorta like looking down on a huge diorama of everywhere we've been wandering over the last week.
We approached from Battle Ax Road and beautiful Walnut Canyon.  The road was tight and a bit pinchy towards the bottom of the canyon as Battle Ax came into view- about 4 miles in.  A moderate 4WD road.  We made it down to about the flowing well only to find a stranded party in an ATV/dunebuggy.  We are able to tow them in their vehicle back out to the highway.  Once back down, we contoured around the north side of Battle Ax and camped in a wide open trail head area looking up at it.
Next morning we drove back to a wide spot in the road at the toe of the ridge that leads up to the saddle.  You can see this saddle from the base.  It is right on the knife edge ridge, and the false and actual summits lie just to the southeast of the saddle on that same ridge.  We headed up through a criss-cross of cow trails to the low ridge that heads up to the saddle.  We never found an actual "trail" during the entire hike.   We did find 3 huge cairns with no real trail near them (likely property line markers?)  Nonetheless the hiking was easy, albeit steep.
Once on the low ridge we wandered upward through open vegetation and rocks until we reached the base of the gully still substantially below the saddle.  Here you must choose to work up the gully on the right through dense vegetation, or work up through a series of easy and non-exposed class 3 ledges with slightly less vegetation.  We chose the ledges.  It was scratchy and kinda worky but not bad.  The views are getting nice about here, and there was one very big ledge with great views to the east.  We traversed this ledge and worked our way upward into the very large open gully above that leads to the saddle.  Your route up to the saddle will be completely original... as there is no trail.  Upon reaching the saddle you will get a preview of the views to be had.  Up to the saddle the hike is easy going class 2 or 3 making the saddle a worthy destination in itself. 
After enjoying the view from the saddle we headed up an easy non-exposed class 4 gully that starts right in the saddle.  This leads to a rugged ridge that ambles to the southeast over low exposure class 3 rocks to the false summit.  The false summit is not very false.  It's maybe 2 feet lower than the actual summit 100 feet away.  Sheesh!  Again, a worthy destination itself. 
The route to the actual summit lies out along a very exposed knife edge ridge.  Again, sheesh!  Take heart dear reader for there is hope.  Have faith and follow the ridge to where it meets a large and pointy boulder that the intrepid Sirena straddled.  Yikes indeed.  I elected to down climb a 15 foot section of 5.2-ish rock immediately to the right.  This route is much less exposed.  Much.  You then amble up to the actual summit with Sirena's rock on your left.  You will need to be able to climb back up this 15 foot section of 5.2 rock on your return, but it is easy and low exposure climbing.  I don't think this calls for any technical gear (cordelette, harness, etc.) just go slow and be careful.  Ginger the dog waited at the saddle while we sumitted.  The return is quite chill as the down-climbing is fairly low exposure.  Camper to camper 4 hours.
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Feb 10 2014
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 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Courthouse Rock / East FaceSouthwest, AZ
Courthouse Rock / East Face
Southwest, AZ
Climbing avatar Feb 10 2014
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Climbing
Climbing
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Great summit with spectacular views!  8 hours camper to camper.  Friendly climbing, sketchy pro, tedious raps.

Last year we had, what turned out to be our most physical day in the desert.  Eagletail- north feather.  Standing on top, we were inspired by the imposing monolith that rises 1,300 feet above the desert floor to the north.  We knew then- we had another objective.

The technical climbing on courthouse is straight forward and the belay stations were easy to find.  The protection was another matter.   I led all pitches, and I placed pro at every opportunity- but this route was pretty hard to protect.  I kept placing pro that would probably hold a light fall, only to go 30 to 40 feet before finding another marginal placement.  However, it did seem that the cruxy bits were above the best pro, so hellyeah bring a rack.  Lastly, despite the very easy climbing, this would be a bad climb for a new leader.  There are not many opportunities to place pro, so not much learning.  Furthermore, to be led safely the route must be well within your climbing ability. 
As we roped-up at the base of the route it started to rain.  Hmmm...  We decided to take it one pitch at a time.  During the 2-1/2 hours it took us to climb the 5 lower pitches the weather improved slightly.  Another hour put us on the summit, by which time the weather had substantially cleared.  There were just a few stray and distant showers brushing around the desert floor. The raps were slowed (a lot) by us painstakingly avoiding cholla -and we did.  We did pull down several small rocks with ropes.

Hands down, this is the best route beta:
http://www.dankat.com/swhikes/courth.htm

I would just add that there is a big cairn near the base of the summit pitch and that the path over to it starts from pretty much right in the saddle. Also, in case you are wondering, the actual summit IS the huge thumb foreground right.

Ginger the dog did not summit. Cholla, safety.
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Feb 02 2014
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 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Signal MountainSouthwest, AZ
Signal Mountain
Southwest, AZ
Hiking avatar Feb 02 2014
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking
Hiking   5 Hrs      0.00 mph
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
We came north into the area between Woolsey and Signal wildernesses from the painted rock area on this moderate 4WD road.
We parked on Woolsey Wash Road more or less due east of Signal Mountain.
Our route loosely followed the gps track posted by fellow HAZers.  5 hours car to car at a steady pace.  Basically, we were on a straight ahead route heading towards the yellow fins left side.  As we got higher we worked saddles and ridges (photos) to get up to a point where we could see the slight rock gully on the left of the fin (photo).  We then followed this gully along the base of the fin (photo).  There is a nice little saddle at the upper end of the fin and from here you can see the ramp that leads up and to the left along the base of the summit block.  This takes you past a conspicuous saguaro where we dropped our trekking poles.  From here we headed up the southern ridge trending westward towards a large boulder (photo with finger).  The route to this point was 2nd to light 3rd class.  But the section above was semi-exposed 4th class for maybe 70 feet.  From here we headed up a tight gully (photo) that helps limit the fall potential.  At the top of this gully we exited left and found ourselves on an exposed ridge that we carefully traversed to the true summit at the north end of the ridge.  Take note of this gully as you will need to descend here as well.  Going down I spotted Nancy while we both faced the rock.  Cholla index was low for this hike.  Ginger the dog stayed back at the base of the summit block tied in by her harness.  In retrospect, she could have sumitted but it would have made the last bit arduous.  Not to mention short roping the dog takes attention away from personal safety.
The views from the summit are great. Saddle Mountain to the north, Eagle tail to the northwest, Woolsey to the southeast. There's a 10x10 flat area where a tower must have been. All in all, a great hike that can be done with a reasonable risk level. Be careful and you will see the effort matches the view!
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Jan 25 2014
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 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Saddle Mountain - TonopahSouthwest, AZ
Saddle Mountain - Tonopah
Southwest, AZ
Hiking avatar Jan 25 2014
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking4.00 Miles 1,500 AEG
Hiking4.00 Miles   5 Hrs      0.80 mph
1,500 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
We started from the parking area on the north slope in the red dirt. There is another (grey) road that is further east and climbs up into a saddle. The grey road gets you higher, but it would suck to hike across the slope to get into the draw that goes up the north slope. The start of the trail is very obvious from the red parking area. Trail lateral to the east to an intersection (photo). This trail now heads right up (south) into the drainage that leads to a high saddle(photo). For the first time you can see the view to the south and it is excellent. To this point the tail is quite obvious and easy, but from here it is more challenging to follow and to hike. (I would say 80 feet of class 3 with low exposure.) Once in the saddle, head northwest-ish passing just to the left of a saguaro (photo) and up 10? feet then turn left and follow a narrow ledge left (photo) to the base of a open gully of grey rock studded with darker grippy bits (photo). Scramble up this gully to easier terrain and an intermittent path above. From here head directly uphill to gain the knife edge (the knife edge is dizzying but not dangerous as long as you keep a safe distance.) Note where you came up onnacounta this is the easiest way down. Once on the knife edge, work your way north-ish to the subtle summit. Ginger the wonderpooch summited without need of her harness. The hike is easier than it appears from below. You can see this summit from everywhere out here and the views on top are fabulous. Another big bonus is the lush micro-climate you hike up through on the north slope. So cool!
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Mar 23 2013
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Signal Peak 4877 - KOFASouthwest, AZ
Signal Peak 4877 - KOFA
Southwest, AZ
Hiking avatar Mar 23 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking3.25 Miles 2,010 AEG
Hiking3.25 Miles   8 Hrs      0.41 mph
2,010 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
2nd favorite non-technical peak in the KOFA after Castle Dome. Maybe the best for views. Top of the world views to the SE over some of the most rugged terrain in southern Arizona.

A full day hike- light class 3 scrambling. Ginger the dog summited without harness. Basic route finding if you pay attention- unlike us. No really exposed scrambling.

Drove in on KOFA Queen wash. Later, we ended up camping at the very end of this road for 3 days and never saw anyone. The road was high clearance 4WD, but I think a good driver with good clearance is more than a match for it. The trail head sneaks up on your right and you have to look back and to the right to see 2 metal fence stakes about 3 feet apart that mark the start of the trail. Also, look for the huge valley on the right that the trail leads up into as it is easy to spot.

Trail was dispersed in spots, but you basically know where you are headed, so if you lose it look around. We followed the topo route and used large topographic features and summited without issue. Coming down we got lost-ish. What can I say? We enjoyed being lost-ish. Like, half hour lost(ish). We looked down a feature-length ravine that lead out to the south and east with the Signal Peak massif towering overhead. We told ourselves it was worth the detour.

As for the summit, wow! Looking out over a humbling and panaramic vista, we could see maybe twenty beckoning peaks many of which look to be verrrry technical. Rugged and remote.
Brief lunch on top, then back to the camper. We did not get cell service on top with Sprint.
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Mar 01 2013
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Elephant Head - South ApproachTucson, AZ
Elephant Head - South Approach
Tucson, AZ
Hiking avatar Mar 01 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking6.20 Miles 2,343 AEG
Hiking6.20 Miles   7 Hrs      0.89 mph
2,343 ft AEG15 LBS Pack
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Most of a day. Ginger the dog summited with us. Really fabulous views of the Baboquivaries, plenty of class 3 scrambling. Didn't find any class 4 nessesary, there were always class 3 options if you look around. We had no harnesses or gear. I don't think most experienced scramblers would find this hike frighteningly exposed. No serious navigation challenges. Fun!
_____________________
 
Feb 26 2013
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 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Weaver's Needle SummitPhoenix, AZ
Weaver's Needle Summit
Phoenix, AZ
Hike & Climb avatar Feb 26 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hike & Climb8.10 Miles 3,414 AEG
Hike & Climb8.10 Miles   10 Hrs      0.81 mph
3,414 ft AEG
Onsight IV G  • Trad • 5.7 Unknown Good
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Pro: standard rack, doubles of small cams up to 3, plus singel #4, plus passive, slings, one 70m rope. HELMETS
200 people on Peralta trail that day according to register. Just the 3 of us on Weavers' Needle! Ginger the dog did not summit, but not for lack of effort. Less than classic climbing with a more than classic summit. Overall a really fun and exhausting day.

Why would someone try to take a dog up Weavers'? Without trying to sound too Malloryesque- to see if it could be done? She was ok on the first pitch, but it all went pear-shaped when she got to the dead vertical stuff. She was being hauled slowly up, dragging against the rock on her side. She was completely non-plussed. We lowered her to the base and she waited on a down-stay while we summited. Good dog. Craaaazy owner. She did seem to be less dissappointed than usual when we left her behind though.

The only navigational challenge was finding the climbers' trail up through the talus to the base of the climb. You follow the main trail well over the saddle almost down to the creek , finding a little promontory about 30 ft. above the creek. The dispersed trail leads down from there into and accross the creek to recollect itself on the opposite (east) bank. It is worth finding this trail.

Once at the base of the climb, we scrambled up to the start of the steep stuff. We were looking up at the chockstone when we roped up (P2?). The climb up to the chockstone is about 5.7? I know others have rated it much easier, but I am an experienced leader it felt about 5.7 to me. Not hard really, but likely 5.7. Fair pro, fair rock quality. Felt safe. From the chockstone we roped through only one short exposed section and otherwise scrambled 3rd and 4th class trail to the top. We were back at the base in about 2.5 hours including some summit time.
_____________________
 
Feb 20 2013
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 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Woolsey PeakSouthwest, AZ
Woolsey Peak
Southwest, AZ
Hiking avatar Feb 20 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking5.30 Miles 2,207 AEG
Hiking5.30 Miles   7 Hrs      0.76 mph
2,207 ft AEG
 no routesno photosets
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
This is from memory as we did this hike last year.  I'll try to dig up some photos at some point.  Still, I believe this description could be useful.
Drive in past the Gila Compressor passing south of Web Mountain.  Road was high clearance but not really 4wd. We headed somewhat left (south) towards a likely gap in the mountains where a big wash empties out. We stopped at the edge of the makers delineating the wilderness edge.  From there we hiked up washes and ridges contouring around to the southeast slope where we found a prominent wash.  The wash is prominent, cholla filed and looks like it might summit.  It becomes more of a loose gully towards the top where it eventually reaches a headwall (crux).  The headwall is perhaps 20 feet of class 3+.  This deposited yes on a broad flatish top.  Summit markers are a half mile or so southwest.  Return via same route.  From the top it looks like it might be easier to summit from the west?  Ginger the dog did not summit due to safety and extreme cholla.
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Feb 13 2013
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Eagletail PeakSouthwest, AZ
Eagletail Peak
Southwest, AZ
Hike & Climb avatar Feb 13 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hike & Climb10.20 Miles 2,027 AEG
Hike & Climb10.20 Miles   11 Hrs      0.93 mph
2,027 ft AEG35 LBS Pack
Onsight IV PG  • Trad • 5.7 Unknown Not good • 1 Pitch
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Pro: .5 to 2 c4, slings, 60m rope, HELMETS.
The longest day, most physical summit in the area. Also probably my favorite. You gotta get on this one. Amazing views, stunning technical summit, very low traffic.

Mostly followed SBKellys' route. Routefinding was easy thanks to his excellent description. The only navigation issue will be walking directly back to your vehicle in an undifferentiated sea of tall cacti. We climbed up the last little hill (25 ft.) on the way back to spot our vehicle in the binoculars and pick a spot directly above it on the horizon to hike towards. Also consulted Todds desert hiking topo.

Avoiding the knifedge makes this route class 3 except for the summit which I estimate at 5.8+. NOTE- outbound we did the knifedge ridge instead of going down through the broad gully below the summit and it indeed was horrendous. And time consuming due partly to Ginger- the dog. Ginger has a Ruffwear fall-rated ($125) harness and 20ft. Dyneema tether to allow me to "short-rope" or haul her through the tough spots. It is no casual matter to take a dog on this part of the trip. On return we elected to go down into and back up the broad gully and it was much quicker and waaaaay less exposed. I can reccomend this route to experienced hikers/climbers with a properly harnessed dog. Basically we did a bee-line from the saddle (where you first see the summit) to the summit ridge -thus avoiding the knifedge ridge. The actual sub-summit ridge looks spicy, but it is super juggy and only mildly exposed. After that part we left Ginger right at the base of the technical pitch (climb).

My wife and I both summited. I felt it was a safe technical climb with good gear. A leader comfortable at this grade will not have trouble, but it is not a total cake walk. The technical pitch was a little overhung in spots and the rock was somewhat loose, so climber and belayer should wear a helmet. I set up a belay anchored on the bolts with a re-direct (cam) to the top of the climb. This allowed a relatively low friction belay with me directly above the climber. I did not belay off my harness as I wanted to be able to rig a 3-1 GriGri pulley if needed.

What a great, long, hard, rewarding day.
 Fauna
 Fauna [ checklist ]
[ checklist ]  Dog
 Culture
 Culture [ checklist ]
[ checklist ]  Throwing a Wendy
_____________________
 
Jan 27 2013
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Castle Dome Peak - KOFASouthwest, AZ
Castle Dome Peak - KOFA
Southwest, AZ
Hiking avatar Jan 27 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hiking6.00 Miles 2,100 AEG
Hiking6.00 Miles   8 Hrs      0.75 mph
2,100 ft AEG15 LBS Pack
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
My favorite non-technical summit in the area. Big day. Missed the turn-off, got cliffed out, fogged in, and otherwise had a blast.

Followed the standard route up the wash wandering for quite a ways. Further than I tought we should. Missed a HUGE cairn and arrow of rocks. Ended up going way to far East then turning due south up a gully to a ridge, got cliffed. Harnessed Ginger the dog, got back down found the right trail and presto, the rest of the hike was on the really solid trail we shouldda been on.

The actual turn out of the wash is really just so incredibly well marked . It starts in a tributary gully that enters the main wash from the right (south). Walk up the tributary gully for only about 15 ft. then exit it via a dispersed trail that angles up the left (east) bank of this tributary gully. You will now be paralleling the main wash, but above it, up on the south bank on a slight ridge. You will likely not get lost from this point. You will likely not get lost before this point unless you are inept. Ah, but really inept could be just another word for enjoying the sceenery, eh?

Once on the strong trail we hiked at a steadily increasing rate of ascent until switchbacks deposited us at the base of a minor escarpment. Following the trail higher we scrambled up through scree and talus winding around the summit block clockwise until we were at the base of the steep stuff above the gendarme. We could see some folks had climbed up a waterfall-like route, but we elected to continue around to reach a really cool saddle on the south-ish side of the summit block. We then backed down out of the saddle about 50 ft. to a scrambly chute that exits up to the left as we back-tracked. This chute would be before the saddle on the right as you are going up. This chute proved to be the easiest route to the summit. From there we scrambled- with Ginger the dog harnessed ever upward to the summit. This last part of the trail offers plenty of class 3 scrambling with short non-exposed sections of class 4.

Ginger the dog summited as did my wife and I. Ginger was in a fall-rated rock climbing harness complete with leg loops and a 20 ft. Dyneema tether for short roping and hauling. There were 20 ft. sections where we could climb up not quite vertical rock- that she had to be hauled up. Were we to repeat the route we would take Ginger again. 8.5 hours would be about right without the detour, but leaving plenty of time on the summit.
 Meteorology
 Meteorology [ checklist ]
[ checklist ]  Sunset
_____________________
 
Jan 18 2013
avatar

 Photos 104
 Triplogs 13

65 male
 Joined Oct 26 2012
 denver, co.
Pinnacle PeakPhoenix, AZ
Pinnacle Peak
Phoenix, AZ
Hike & Climb avatar Jan 18 2013
dwightnancy • Triplogs 13
Hike & Climb3.58 Miles 1,060 AEG
Hike & Climb3.58 Miles
1,060 ft AEG
Lead II G  • Sport, Trad • 5.8 Granite Excellent • 1 Pitch
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Pro: sparse trad on South Crack start, then good bolting to top
We combined South Crack with Silhouette to top out. Car to car in about 4 hours with plenty of summit time. One great thing about this climb is having the entire summit (and route) to ourselves for the entire duration- despite the constant throng of hikers on the trail below. Great summit- several hundred feet above the hikers top-out. We checked in at the ranger kiosk and hiked up the Hiker's trail. The climbers trail start is obvious and marked. It starts maybe a third of the way up the hiker's trail? From there we kept traversing left across class 3 stuff to the base of the South Crack trad route- where we roped up. South Crack felt like 5.5 maybe? Reasonable pro.
The upper sport route, Silhouette felt about 5.8 and was exposed and fun. Real lead moves on excellent rock with adequate bolting. Summit view was unique being in the middle of Scottsdale, surrounded by urban sprawl.
Once on top we took the time to top rope Shalaylay Direct, which was fabulously thin and hard and quite worthy!
Raps were straight forward, hike down was chill. Ginger stayed in the Camper in the lot.
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average hiking speed 0.94 mph

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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