TR "Thanks I'itoi" (Baboquivari SE Arete) Oct. 16-18th 1998
Tim Schneider
last weekend.. warning.. hit "N" now :-)
"Thanks I'itoi" (Baboquivari TR) Oct. 16-18th 1998
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The Baboquivari Mountains, a thirty-mile long, five to ten mile wide range
are located south and west of Tucson, AZ proper. They are bordered on the
south by the Pozo Verde Mountains, which straddle the border between the
United States and Mexico and on the north by the Coyote and Quinlan
Mountains. Barely thirty miles separates Baboquivari ("Babo") from the
Mexican border. What makes this range unique and special to rockclimbers is
the one thousand foot high pyramid of porphyritic felsite that crowns the
ridge crest. In layman's terms this equates to "one big hunk of rock"! With
a summit height of 7,734 feet, and no "easy" way to the summit without
technical climbing equipment, Babo is one of Arizona's "classic" rock
climbs.
Babo is also special to the Tohono O'odham Indians that reside on their
reservation (which includes the western half of the peak) I'itoi ("Elder
Brother") is said to dwell in a cave in the heart of these mountains. To
them, the mountains remain the center of their universe, their "church" if
you will. I'm sure that after having visited and climbed the peak, many
climbers would agree. It's one of Arizona's many beautiful outdoor
treasures.
The first ascent of the peak was on July 13th, 1898 by Dr. R.H. Forbes.
Forbes, a Univ. of Arizona professor, agronomist, explorer and state
legislator, climbed the peak many times, making his sixth and final ascent
on his eighty-second birthday in 1949. After marrying at the age of
eighty-five, he took his young bride on a honeymoon flight over Babo. After
the new Mrs. Forbes took a look at her husband's idea of recreation, it's
rumored that she said. "Robert, I don't think I'll ever let you climb
Baboquivari again" "We'll see, We'll see" the good doctor replied.
In a domestic scene that's played out in climber's households throughout the
world, even to this day, Forbes never did get to make that seventh ascent.
Despite the historical significance of the Forbes/Montoya route, Karen and
I had our sights on a different objective.
Jerry Robertson, Don Morris, Rick Tidrick, Tom Hale and Dave Ganci first
climbed the Southeast Arete route on Babo on March 31, 1957. What
confirmed the quality of the route was the quick repeats by America's
leading climbers of the day. Folks such as Yvon Chouniard, T.M. Herbert,
John Harlin and his wife Mara as well as several others, visited and climbed
Babo.
We had been planning on climbing the route with our friends Don and Lisa
Eydenberg. We had several dates lined out, but when we just couldn't get
out schedules to match up, so Karen and I decided just to go ourselves
before the temperatures got too cold in November. Our plan was to head
down on a Friday, car camp, then hike in early the next day, climb the
route and hike out. A long day, which would involve some hiking in the
dark by headlamp, but still doable. Don and Lisa had just been to Babo the
weekend prior, and Don had scoped out the approach and descent for the
climb. So armed with Don's route information, as well as that from the Bob
Kerry book, "Backcountry Climbing in Southern Arizona" we headed out from
Phoenix Friday night.
The drive went quickly, and we soon found ourselves just past milepost 16 on
AZ hwy. 286. We turned off the pavement, opened the gate, and drove on in.
We followed this road for approx. 2.7 miles, then took the right fork in the
road. We continued, passing through more gates and then saw another faint,
right fork. Don's directions mentioned such, and said that all the roads
eventually joined back together. So, we veered off on this fork, which kept
going, getting worse, passing up and down through the various washes and
eventually away from the peak. Had we arrived during the daylight hours, we
would have been able to see our mistake right away, but as it was night, we
didn't realize this, until we saw the taillights of traffic on hwy. 286!
We had made a complete circle, coming back to the pavement just 2 miles
north of where we started. Oh well, we had only lost an hour, it was still
early, so we headed back in, this time being sure to stay on the main road.
Such is the nature of backcountry climbing in southern Arizona. After the
requisite 8 or so total miles from the pavement, we ended up at the fourth
and final gate where we camped for the night. There was only one other
vehicle in the parking area, good; hopefully the crowds would be minimal.
We planned on getting up at 6 am. It was only later that I realized that we
should have been hiking at least by 6am if not sooner. Don had mentioned in
his notes that it took ninety minutes at a "Tim and Greg" pace to reach the
north saddle of Babo proper. Translated, after leaving the truck around 7am
it took just over two hours at "Tim and Karen without working out for a
couple of months" pace before we arrived at the saddle. The trail up to
this point had been pretty good. It does make many wash crossings back and
forth, so you have to be careful to pick up the trail on the opposite sides
sometimes, but other than that, it's pretty straightforward.
At the saddle, we changed into our climbing gear, got something to eat,
rested a bit (the hike was steep!) then stashed our packs and headed up to
"Lion's Ledge". In hindsight, we took too much of a break here at the
saddle, not realizing how long it would take to get to the base of the
route. Lion's Ledge runs the entire length of the rock, and allows one to
gain access to the Southeast Arete, from the eastern side of the peak. The
guidebook description was right on here. There were also rock cairns
marking the way, although it seemed difficult to screw this up if you paid
attention to the guide. The ledge goes from wide to narrow, from open to
brushy. We passed under the start of some of Arizona's only Grade VI
climbs. Scary looking, extreme aid climbing for sure. The starts of all
these east fast routes in the midsection of Babo were overhanging. The
next significant feature on the ledge was the spring. There were two
buckets overflowing with water (dripping from the rocks above). With our
one quart of water apiece for the entire climb, I started wishing that we
had brought the potable aqua tabs. Further along the ledge, we came upon
the "cougar cave". Darn! The owners of the one other vehicle parked near
the gate were here, or more correctly were NOT here. They had hiked up the
night before and bivyed. Also, there was another spring dripping down from
the roof of this cave, although the climbers had brought their own milk jug
(top cut off) to collect the water. This is a cool place to bivy, but for
the standard descent, the saddle (where we had stashed our packs) is better.
Just past this cave, the brush got very thick. There were places where we
crawled on our hands and knees, as well as just clawing our way through the
thick foliage. This took time and slowed us down some, but we finally made
it around to the base of the Southeast Arete around 11am, after having
traversed the entire length of Babo, on Lion's Ledge.
The first pitch was easy to find, again the guidebook was right on. We
started climbing about 11:30am. I headed up a weakness, which turned into a
crack system. From here there was an awkward move around a block and into
another crack system (approx. 30 feet off the ground) The climbing eased up
here, and I probably should have belayed at this point, but continued up
over easy ground, into another corner system, where I eventually ran out of
rope at small, sloping ledge with a good tree. I think that I should have
gone left here, but there were trees and such in the gully, and the climbing
looked more interesting to the right. Karen came up, and then the next
pitch was short, back to the left, which put us on a better ledge, right at
the base of the 'vertical face' pitch. This pitch was cool, steep, but not
too hard, with lots of exposure to your left as you climb nearly on the
"arete" between the two faces. The climbing eased off again, and I ran the
rope again to its end, belaying from some gear in a crack. I brought Karen
up, and had her stop about 15 feet below me (better ledge) and anchor in.
From here I headed up and right, via another corner system that seemed to
me, to be the crux of the route. Left looked a little more aesthetic,
however without much protection. Once over this, I had a choice again to go
left or straight up. I headed up, through a bit of an awkward wide crack,
not too hard, past a tree finally reaching the "vegetated ledge" mentioned
in the guidebook. From here, almost out of rope again, I traversed to the
left, and found the bolted belay below the "open book" pitch. Classic
laybacking and good protection made this one of the better pitches of the
climb as well. At the top, I belayed on a good ledge and Karen came up.
With such long pitches, it was a bit hard to hear each other, then coupled
with lots of rope drag, it made things a bit difficult. I'd recommend
slinging things long when possible, and watch where the rope is running.
The next pitch took us to the top of the "gendarme" overlooking the last
hurdle to the summit. We short-roped this pitch, as well as the one down
into the notch. From here, the guidebook mentions a 5.6 move past a fixed
pin. Yeah right... the pin is long gone, and It may be 5.6++, but it's with
no reasonable protection at all. So, I traversed further around to the
left, and found a somewhat loose flake where I could put in some decent
protection. After placing several cams, I moved up, and was able to get
another piece overhead. This felt like about 5.8+ face climbing to me going
this way, but at least there was something to keep me off the ledge and
blocks below. This notch has great exposure to both the east and the west.
I belayed Karen up, and then we recoiled the ropes, with about 40 feet or
so between us, and simul-climbed/short-roped to the summit. It was probably
several hundred feet of scrambling from where the roped climbing ended to
where we actually stood on the summit of Babo proper.
We made it! 360 degree panoramic views, towards Kitt Peak on the north, and
Mexico to the south. We signed the summit register, took the obligatory
summit shots and the started reading Don's descent description. We had
climbed the SE arete, gone up and over the summit of Babo, and would head
down the opposite corner from where we had originally climbed up. The
guidebook is of no help in this case, as it tells you to find the "ladder
pitch" (the last roped climbing pitch on the Forbes route) This is not that
easy if you didn't come UP that way! We headed north from the summit
cairn, Don's directions said approx. 20 yards, then look for a trail going
to the left. We went what we though was 20 yards, and found no trail.
There were some obvious cairns pointing the way further down, but Don had
just been up here last weekend. In hindsight, had I been out climbing more
lately, I would have just followed my nose, but as it were, we spent about
forty-five minutes trying to find a trail going off the west side, where
none existed. We gave up and headed on down, then things started matching
up to the notes we had. The ladder pitch! The chains wrapped around the
tree marked the start of the first 120-foot rappel. The Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) had placed a series of ladders up these sections of
rock in the 1930's. This was to facilitate access to a fire lookout on the
summit of Babo proper. Now we were descending by rope, the ladders long
gone. With this rappel finished, it started to get dark. Following Don's
directions again, we had no problem locating the next long rappel. I backed
this single piece of nylon webbing up with another and descended into the
darkness. After about 130 feet, the rappel ended on another ledge. Karen
followed, and then we recoiled the ropes and headed down a steep gully.
Pretty soon, we came upon another drop-off. Unable to go any further, we
started searching for the last set of rappel anchors. These were visible
down, and on the left-hand side of the gully. Again, I backed the single
sling up, with a second, and we started the last 50 to 60 foot rappel.
Finding the rap stations in the dark proved to be easier than finding the
trail back to the saddle. He headed on down the gully, staying pretty close
to the rock wall on our right. Finally, it seemed that all trails led to
nowhere. We passed several side gullies to the left, but they just
"cliffed" out. Every trail that we tried, either seemed to end in thick
dense brush, or had a drop-off. After searching about, getting more tired,
dehydrated, we started contemplating just bivying there for the night.
Karen actually found more of the trail at that point, but again, she lost it
in the dark, and we were unable to pick it up again. There was plenty of
wood around for fuel, so we built a firepit, and cleared some places to rest
until morning. The fire kept us plenty warm, and we never really had to go
that far for firewood (there was so much of it around!) However, we didn't
get much sleep due to having to restoke the fire every half an hour to hour.
Also, we were still pretty much on a slope, so it was hard to really get
comfortable. We probably got a total of 2 hours of sleep between us.
Around 5:30am, we heard voices and saw headlamps coming up from below. A
group was heading up the trail towards the Forbes route. About 6am just as
it was starting to get light, another large party came up from below. About
6:30am it was light enough to see where the trail went, (still hard to
follow/see) so we headed down. Where we had spent the night was only about
15-20 minutes away from the saddle!
We packed up, got something to eat and drink, then headed back down the
trail towards the ranch. I don't know exactly why, but hiking out always
seems to take longer than hiking in? I counted over ten times that we
crisscrossed the wash/stream once we were down out of the switchback portion
of the trail, when the ranch finally came into view.
We arrived back at the truck to find a flat right front tire. We inflated
this with the compressor (cigarette lighter plug-in, don't go into the
desert without it!) then were able to get the truck back out onto flat
ground where I changed out for the spare. It was flat too! Out comes the
compressor again, and we were soon on our way to Tucson.
The celebratory beers at Breckenridge Brewery in Tucson sure were good as
well as that hour or so nap in the Albertson's parking lot before we made
the trek back to Phoenix.
Thanks I'itoi for watching out for us!
Keywords: Start Early, have fun!
timsATsynopsysDOTcom
(replace AT with @ and DOT with . to reply)
Synopsys, Inc. Phoenix, AZ
rick d
>July 13th, 1898
DAG NABBIT, stop following Bob Kerry's misprint, it's July 12th!, 1898.
rick