Sun, Oct 9, 2022
|
With: | Tom Becht |
Eric Smith | |
Tom Grundy | |
Iris Ma |
Day 3 in Sedona had us all over the map with various types of climbs. We had some scrambling, some rough Jeep driving and more mundane hikes, all with their own charms. It would keep us and our vehicles busy for most of the day.
The use trail ends here (it probably exists to service the climbing route on
The Mitten), but the cross-country travel traversing the north side of
The Mitten is not difficult. Our route took us to
another saddle
between MGS and The Mitten, then onto the northeast side of MGS where we picked
up
a use trail ascending up through forest on that side. The trail soon
leads to the first of two class 4 sections. The first is a short, but steep
bulge that needs to be surmounted. There are two ways to do this, either with a
beefy pull that TomG did right off the bat, or
a tree-assisted alternate that isn't a whole lot easier. Four of us had
gotten past this with TomB the last to go. I got a photo of him attempting
the beefy pull only seconds before he crashed to the deck, followed by
some choice swearing. To help out, I tossed down the end of a long piece of
webbing I was carrying and secured the upper end to a bush. Using the lower end
as a handline, Tom was then able to get by the bulge and
join us above.
A short bit of
airy scrambling then led to the second
class 4 section, a slanting chimney to get up a slabbly 15-foot
headwall. TomG went up and
tossed down a rope to secure
those of us that wanted it. We all
went up in turn, then more
class 3 scrambling to
the summit block which is
small and
airy, with a step-across to keep things interesting
(inexplicably, there is
an Hawaii plate found in the gap below the
step-across) - about an hour and a half to get
us all up to the top.
An
ammo box serves as
register/geocache with about 7 pages of
entries. A fine summit, this one. On our return, most of us
rapped down
the first class 4 pitch and used
a handline for the lower one, TomG
soloing both so that we didn't have to leave any slings or gear. Once we
returned to
the saddle with The Mitten, TomG and I both got
the idea for an alternate return by heading south off the saddle. TomB chose to
join us while the other two went back the way we'd come over the first
saddle.
The alternate proved a fun diversion, initially down some
sandstone slabs, then down
a dry creek channel, and eventually
onto
the Cibola Pass Trail that would take us back east to the TH
where we'd started. We got back just about the same time as Eric and Iris,
finishing up shortly after 10a.
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Morning Glory Spire - Munds Mountain
This page last updated: Fri Apr 7 12:34:02 2023
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