January 5th & 6th, 2013

Another winter weekend another long drive out to the desert to grab a pair of DPS peaks. And sadly they can't all be as pleasant as the pre-Christmas set had been.

This time it was off to Death Valley to climb Tin & Dry from Racetrack Road. Others had commented these two were a rough slog and after having done them (admittedly on a very cold weekend with bad weather) I can say they don't have near the appeal of some of the other nearby climbs like Corkscrew or Grapevine and Palmer. Not to mention the camping opportunities are poor and no campfires are allowed which takes away one of the perks of desert outings.

December 2nd, 2012

Stud Mountain (2,130')

Little Picacho Peak (1,920')

[Pics] [MapStud] [Map Picacho]

After spending the previous two days climbing Baboquivari followed by a slightly less successful trip to Mexico which morphed into a somewhat bushy descent on Mount Ajo we had relocated out to Yuma after another lengthy late night drive.

Sunday morning we woke up in the desert north of Stud Mountain at what I'd loudly declared to be Camp Studly.

December 1st, 2012

Cerro del Pinacate (3,937') (Attempt)

Mount Ajo  (4,808')

[Pics] [Map]

So while Baboquivari and Little Picacho were both repeats (the first redone because it qualified for an E provisional and the second because it's just a fun little climb) Cerro Pinacate was a peak in the area I still hadn't done.

Granted there was the small complication that it was 30 some miles into Mexico.

What: Baboquivari Peak (7,734')
When: November 30th, 2012
Where: Arizona
Who: Matthew Hengst, Neal Robbins, Mat Kelliher, Jack Kieffer, Jen Blackie, Mark Butski, Laurent Hoffman, Jeff Atijera

Pictures: Matt's Flickr  Neal's Pics
GPS Track: Matt's Track

This was to be my second time up Baboquivari after Jack Kieffer, Rudy Fleck, and myself ran down to Arizona last year and had braved 95 degree heat in order climb it along with Kino and Ajo.

This trip was also to be the second of my Sierra Club E Rock provisionals and had originally included a trip to Mexico for Cerro Pinacate followed by the always fun Little Picacho and the awesomely named Stud Mountain.

This ran afoul of Sierra Club policies and so instead we had a one day official trip followed by two unofficial days.  Fair enough.

What:  
  Hayford Peak (9,912')
When:  November 26th, 2012
GPS Track:  Track

Day 4 of the 2012 Thanksgiving Turktacular and we had one more peak in our sights before retreating back to life in Southern California.  This time it was Hayford Peak which had a bit of gain along the way.

What:  
  Virgin Peak (8,071')
When:  November 25th, 2012
GPS Track:  Track

We'd left Valley of Fire State Park (and it's depressingly nice hot showers) behind us the night before and driven several hours further east to the access to Virgin Peak past Whitney Pockets.

Virgin is a Desert Peak Section peak located near enough to Moapa Peak that it's usually logically grouped with that somewhat more interesting climb.  Of course Jack and I had paired Moapa with the also slightly more interesting 3rd class Muddy Peak when we led it back in December of 2011 so Anne and I were planning to grab it along with the peak usually paired with Muddy called Hayford Peak.  (Follow all of that?)

Two days into the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend we'd done 3 peaks and had too more to do.  And we didn't smell half bad.  Not too shabby!

What: 
  Valley of Fire Peak (2,972')
When:  November 24rd, 2012
GPS Track:  Track

Yesterday Anne and I had kicked off the long Thanksgiving weekend with a somewhat relaxed day and scrambled up the relatively short White Dome & Gibraltar.  After looking at what the park had to offer I figured we could easily amuse ourselves for another day and then we'd probably head on and grab the relatively nearby Desert Peak Section list peaks Virgin and Hayford.


The remaining named bumps on the official park map (which wasn't the best, I'd strongly recommend bringing your own) weren't overly interesting looking so we decided to head for the high point we'd been able to see from White Dome the day before.  It had the advantage of being the most interesting looking thing around.

What: 
  White Dome (2,234')
  Gibraltar Rock (2,172')
When:  November 23rd, 2012
GPS Track:  Track


Along I15 north of Las Vegas there's a sign I'd passed numerous times for Valley of Fire.  Generally it was late at night coming or going from some climb or another so I'd never taken the time to explore it.

After longer Thanksgiving trip plans fell through I ended up doing Thanksgiving dinner in town and then loaded into the car and headed for Vegas.  Not surprisingly traffic was fairly light.  One quick 11 pm stop at a Vegas Walmart for supplies and we were back on the road and pulled in to Valley of Fire sometime after midnight.

What: 
  Cathedral Peak (5,775')
   J. J. Freakel Peak (5,681')
When:  November 18th, 2012

What: 
  South Pahroc HP / Hyko BM (7,950')
  East Pahranagat (~6,280')
When:  November 17th, 2012