THIS view from THIS side of THIS mountain at THIS time is one seen by few, if any. And that is why the alpine climb is such an insatiable desire. It is the testing ground of the mountaineer.
I had been staring at the 4 Peaks mountain for weeks. John and I had just moved to Payson, Arizona and during our first week we drove through the Tonto Basin. From the basin, this beautiful, rocky, intimidating mountain jutted up in the distance and called to me; "Come and stand on my summit." I knew I had to fulfill that call, so I started to plan. Our friend, Jonathan, was planning to come out for a visit in February and he had mentioned he wanted content for his YouTube channel. I knew exactly what kind of weekend it would be as soon as he said that. It was time to attempt 4 Peaks.
During further research, we found that most people climb Brown's Peak (the tallest of the 4) and never attempt the entire traverse. The 4 Peaks Motherlode sounded like a challenge we were up for, so we started to plan a route that included all 4 Peaks instead of just one. We knew that Brown's would be easy route finding and manageable climbing, but the rest of the mountains were more of a question mark. I always say that the mountains kick your butt and you can rarely have a perfect outcome, so we brought ropes, harnesses, helmets, headlamps, slings, and a small amount of trad gear to be as safe as possible.
The parking lot was cold and windy when we arrived, but temps climbed and the wind died as we approached the peak early on a Saturday morning. The roughly 2 mile approach trail is easy and sports amazing views of the jagged mountain.
The Brown's Peak summit involves a well-travelled scree chute that had quite a bit of class 4 and a little class 5 climbing. Some spots near the top were risky and would mean a long fall if any holds came loose or someone got off balance. Were we to come down this way, I would have opted for rappelling down the chute just to save time.
When we reached the summit of the first peak, we had done the easy part for the day. The temps, winds, and visibility were all perfect! The boys and I sat down to have a snack and get a visual of the next part of the climb. The area they had decided to descend off of the first peak at was a roughly 85 foot slab climb. I suggested roping up to save time because I knew that a fall here would be costly. However, the boys voted me down and we started a backwards descent on sketchy slab. Because I have been a climber for years, I know what people usually rope up on and this downclimb could have been a bolted route at any given crag.
At the bottom of the slab, we continued to SLOWLY pick our way through bushes, over rocks, and under trees to the second peak. The terrain was so rough, that taking a step meant stepping down off of a rock or over a branch. Simply going from the base of one peak to the base of the next ate up much of our precious time.
When we reached the second peak, Brother Peak, the guys started to look for a way to ascend. Nothing was obvious and the rocks of the peak shot straight up, offering no easy ways of summitting. The right side of the mountain had a sheer cliff face with hundreds of feet of drop off. The left side seemed more gradual, so I headed over there to route find. The route I chose was a class 5 climb, but it was protected by a chimney. The second portion of this climb, I decided that we should place gear and rope up because of the "no fall" zones. For those who aren't climbers, a no fall zone is somewhere on a climb that falling would result in severe injury or death. It could mean hitting a ledge or sharp piece of rock, or even falling hundreds of feet down a cliff face.
John is great at making anchors and leading heady climbs, so he lead our pitches on the vertical areas of this mountain. After several false summits, we finally summited Brother Peak....at 3 in the afternoon!
At this point in our climb, we all had to put our mountain experience together and decide what the best option was. This is where alpine climbing becomes less straight-forward and the group has to rely on years of skills to safely descend. We had not reached the other two peaks and we knew that with the daylight running out, we would have to change our plans. We also had not reached our ideal spot to descend off the mountain, but we knew we needed to pick a route and do it quickly. Just for a little context, when climbing on peaks as jagged as 4 Peaks, one cannot just walk down the trail to get off of the peak. Descending takes hours of hard work. Because of that, we knew that we had only a few hours to be in a spot with more level ground before it became dark.
The gully we decided to descend at required 5 rappels. The terrain was either too steep to down climb, or it was just more fun and
simple to set up a quick rap and go down. At every point, there was at least a stick to rappel off of which was a little blessing from God. Even though we were using safe processes, there is still always a keen awareness that something could go wrong if we mess up. I think the biggest thing above physical strength that a mountaineer must have is mental grit. John and Jonathan are always better at it than me, but no matter what is going on, a calm head is vital. I always think, "You got yourself up here. Now, get yourself down!"
As the terrain became less severe, the sun had officially gone down and we flicked on our headlamps. Eager to get back to the trail, we picked our way down the hillside full of brush, burned trees, and thorns.
12 and a half hours later, we celebrated our adventure together at the car! The challenge of physical effort, mental will, and teamwork that we had endured was worth it all!
If you are interested in seeing this adventure through a video I am putting the link here!
