Our travel goes smoothly and Pete and I land in Tucson with all our luggage and quickly do a little shopping before fleeing town for the Tohono O’odham Nation, on whose land lies Baboquivari Peak.
The permit costs us nothing, and the camping is the same – a great deal for the easy access this provides. We scout out the beginning of the hiking trail to the peak, cook dinner and sort gear for tomorrow’s climb.
Shortly after sunset we retire expecting to wake before 5am.
Alarms wake us as planned and we have a quick breakfast and begin hiking by headlamp and appreciate the cool morning temperatures. The sun is soon rising, but we’re on the shady side of the peak and enjoying the delayed onset of direct sun.
Two and a half hours takes us to the Great Ramp/Lion’s Ledge split. We cache some water here and start scrambling along the brushy Lion’s Ledge south of the peak. Another half-hour deposits us at the base of the Southeast Arete, a 6-pitch 5.6 climb that we hope to complete to the summit. After gearing up and making one final bushy traverse to a little alcove we flake out the rope and I start up pitch one.
The climbing is fairly easy and the protection adequate. At about the 30 meter mark I reach a large horn and small saddle and recognize pitch 2 on the steep wall directly ahead. Slinging the horn I build a quick belay and let Pete know he can start climbing.
While he climbs I examine the next pitch, which has been described as sandbagged 5.6. It certainly intimidates with the immediate and large exposure off to the left. Pete soon arrives and I re-rack to attempt this pitch which has shutdown other parties.
I find the climbing to be a little thoughtful, carefully thinking out my moves given the small-sizes of cracks and the exposure. However, the difficulties really don’t last too long and I’m shortly on a large ledge sinking #2-#3 cams for an anchor and belaying Pete up.
The next pitch is easier, but climbs right through a tree, then a little bulge to another broken ledge where I decide to belay again.
The forth pitch proves to be a little delicate for the limited gear I’m able to place, but quickly eases off and I hit the narrow ledge that is traversed to two bolts and the base of our fifth pitch.
Pete handles the traverse well, and I begin to realize how so many parties get benighted on this route. The scenery and exposure is just stunning and we’re constantly stopping to take photos.
I’m even pausing on lead to take photos at the climbing below and Pete dutifully belaying.
The pitch five layback is a blast, but the rock quality deteriorates towards the top and rather than place cams in loose rock cracks, I end up running it out a bit to a large ledge.
We coil the rope and scramble to the false summit, work out the down climb into the notch between the two and then rope up for one final pitch (again, a little runout on thin gear, but technically easy climbing).
More scrambling until we can’t go any higher. We obey the tradition of leaving gifts for I’itoi, eat some lunch and leaf through the summit register.
Following some detailed descriptions, we find work our way down the Forbes route and locate the rappel anchors. A little more wandering puts us on the Great Ramp right back to our water cache.
The still-cool water tastes wonderful and powers us back down the trail to camp, for a nearly 12 hour round trip. Even the cacti seem to be dancing with us.
Dinner is started with a few beers and only hampered by the lack of a can opener.
I do love adventure climbs, and the length, difficulty, route finding, exposure and views on the Southeast Arete added up to one of my favorite days in the mountains.
Much more of our climb and descent are captured in the following video:
Adam’s photo album
Pete’s photo album
Aw…… new wallpaper for my computer. Thanks.