Nov 12, 2022
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With: | Tom Becht |
Iris Ma | |
Karl Fieberling | |
Tom Grundy |
We had driven as far as the Jeep was able and ready to start out just after 7a. There is a modest cable fenceline around the periphery of the inholding, mostly designed to keep vehicles out. One can avoid the property altogether by heading west for a third of a mile before turning north, but the obvious wash we followed had us inside the corner of the property for a short while before exiting its west side. The wash was generally easy to follow with burro trails providing firmer footing from time to time when we could find them. The wash eventually narrows and shortly before the end of the first hour we came upon the only obstacle, a 15-foot dryfall where the wash narrows considerably. TomG went up this class 5 obstacle directly, the rest of us taking the convenient class 2 bypass on the left side. Soon after, it was time to leave the drainage and begin the climb up to Tumarion. We had expected this to provide us with some scrambing challenges, but it turned out to be class 2 pretty much the entire way to the top. The lower slopes had some steep, loose choss that had several in our party looking for a safer alternative - found by traversing further around to the east side where a more congenial ascent gully can be located. The rest of us went up the SE Ridge more directly, and if the scrambling wasn't what we'd hoped, the views were. A couple of convenient ramps kept the grade to class 2 through short cliff bands, and after an hour and three quarters we found our way to the summit without any real difficulties.
At the base of the large summit cairn, behind a white-painted rock, we found the expected Leaping Lizard Tribe register. It had 16 pages of entries dating to 1994, most recently in 2021. We recognized a number of the more recent entries - Bob Cable, Stav Basis, Adam Walker, Don Palmer. Most of the entries between 1994 and 2002 were various members of the Tribe, most notably Tim O'Conner and Joel Dugdale. The views were quite fine. The Colorado River can be seen to the north, west and far to the south where it flows into Lake Havasu. Rugged volcanic terrain borders the river on both banks and nearly as far as the eye can see. Karl had been the last to arrive at the summit, about 20min after the first arrival. His knees were giving him trouble per usual, but they did better than he expected. We had a long-ish stay at the summit to give Karl a chance to rest before we all started back down.
Bonus Peak 1,762ft is sort-of on the way back and all but Karl decided to pay it a visit. The direct route we followed drops first to the original wash, then up and over two intermediate saddles, crossing two minor drainages on our way to the summit about a mile and a half to the southeast. It would take a little under an hour to get between the two, an enjoyable cross-country jaunt without any difficulties. The summit offers a bird's-eye view of the private inholding to the east. There is a collection of vehicles lined up neatly in several rows, one of them an assortment of older Jeeps in various stages of disrepair. We spent about 15min on the summit, taking in the views and leaving a register before we started down. We descended the southeast side, a class 2-3 effort that brought us back down to the main wash we had started in. Once there, we had another mile to retrace our original route back to the Jeeps.
Continued...
This page last updated: Sat Nov 19 15:59:22 2022
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