Bob Burd's Trip Reports

Continued...

Today was to be a climb of Signal Peak and Ten Ewe Mtn in the Kofa Mountains. Signal is the range and Wilderness HP as well as a DPS listed summit. I had climbed it back in 2008 with Matthew, but had missed out on Ten Ewe Mtn a few days ago when I was trying to reach it from the southeast. We failed on Signal for the reason soon to be mentioned, but found some consolation in other peaks we did afterwards.

Signal Peak - Ten Ewe Mtn

We had planned to climb this the previous day, but overnight snows in the higher reaches of the Kofa Mountains had us putting it off for a day. There was

still snow when we started out from the Kofa Queen Rd a little after 8a, but we didn't expect it to be much of a problem. We were happy to find that there is a very

good use trail, a delight after so many days of cross-country desert travel. The

snow started sooner than we expected but probably shouldn't have been surprised - the route up Ten Ewe and Indian Canyons is all

north-facing and gets minimal sun. We were a little over halfway, about a mile up the trail when we came to a slabby section that needed crossing. When I first saw it, I said something like, "Oh, this is interesting..." before gingerly making my way across. Eric followed and was

nearly across when he slipped and quickly lost control. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" was all he could shout as he helplessly sped down the slick rock. I watched him go out over an edge and out of view, but could see that there were trees and brush below to stop his fall. It was about 20ft in total. I called down for him not to move before I could get down to examine him, but he was already standing up as I was crossing back across the slabs and said that his finger was dislocated. He had then popped it back in place when I

caught up with him in another minute. He was lucky to have sustained no worse injuries, and the only other damage was some raspberries on his thigh and butt cheeks. We decided it was best to

head back down and leave the peaks for another time. We could find other peaks to do that had no snow on them.

Peak 2,550ft

This peak is located a mile north of King Rd, and appears in Purcell's Rambles & Scrambles. Purcell describes a route from US95 and up the west or north sides of the peak, but that seemed twice as long as the route I had in mind from King Rd. We had no idea if my planned route would work, but from below it seemed like it might. The first half is all class 2 as it crosses

a broad wash and then up

mildly brushy slopes leading to a notch with Peak 2,383ft to the south. There is some mild

class 3 to reach the notch from where one can get a good

view east into King Valley and a scary-looking one

up the South Ridge. It looked impossible to scramble up along the grossly serrated ridge, but there was class 2 along the east side of the ridge that we could take higher. We

followed this up until the easy stuff ended and the going above became class 3-4, steep, dotted with cholla, and worst of all, on questionable rock. I went up a short chimney to start and

Eric followed this, but balked soon after. There was more scrambling above, but it was impossible to say when it would end or if the route would even go. Eric wanted to turn back. I waited for Eric to return

down the chimney and retrieve his poles where we'd left them, then I continued up as he continued back. The hardest stuff took but 3-4 minutes to complete, slow cautious moves commeasurate with the exposure and poor rock. Exiting this messy rock, I landed above the worst of the South Ridge and

the route ahead looked better, but far from assured. There was some fun with

route-finding the rest of the way to the summit, but nothing more than

stiff class 3, and 22 minutes after leaving Eric, I was on

the summit. I found broken glass from what was probably a Lilley/MacLeod register, but no register replacement. I took a few

photos of the

views, sent Eric a text that I'd gotten to the top, then

headed back down, carefully

retracing the route all

the way back to the poles. An hour from the summit I was back to the Jeep where I found Eric relaxing and reading his book.

Boot Peak

Now Oh-for-two, Eric was in need of getting to a summit today. We were headed to Yuma, so we stopped off at the southern edge of the US Army's Yuma Proving Grounds for a climb of Boot Peak, the highpoint of the Laguna Mtns. The peak is just inside the military base, but it seems to get climbed regularly so we didn't worry much. For those concerned about parking beyond signs that say "No Trespassing", one can drive less than a quarter mile to the south and park outside the reservation for less worry. The peak is about a mile from where we parked near a wash, out of view from the highway. We followed