 First day we went to the Muggins Wilderness in AZ, east of Yuma. CP had just been to Muggins, so we picked Klothos Temple for our hike. |
 I was able to get my vehice all the way down ino the wash, but decided it would be far more practial to stay at the 2wd TH. The shade of the BLM sign fell on my cab and made the evening quite comfortable. CP & DB pulled in about 7PM and were so quiet I never really woke up. |
 Next morn we tried the ridge... |
 ...we got to the top of this lump, but saw 2 more nasty lumps on the ridgeline... |
 ...so we descended back 300' to pick up the "normal" route |
 That's the summit, beyond the ocotillo. |
 |
 |
 On top! Lots on agriculture in the valley to W. |
 View SSE to Muggins. You can see the 2 lumps we avoided on Klothos ridge. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Muggins in back |
 |
 Next day we went back for Picacho N of Yuma. We had a pleasant eve in the shade of a cliff. |
 Rose glow on E face of Picacho. Well, the exact DPS wording is: "somewhat exposed 15 foot face of Class 3 rock." The place indicated on N side of false summit, is where I'm belaying Dagmar in the later part of this TR. |
 We knew it would be a warm day, but we were in shade on the W side of the peak. |
 View S from below notch between E and W summits. |
 View N through notch to true USGS "Little Picacho." Dagmar and Craig went to Little Picacho that afternoon, CP, DB & I waited till next day. |
 |
 |
 The step-across, photo courtesy Kathy W. I hopped over. set up a rope from the far side, and CP set up a belay from the near side. |
 The belay may have been unneeded, but plus bien sauf que chagrin. |
 CP hops across after belays. |
 |
 I've been up 3x, and consider this climb (N side of false summit) the creepiest place. Next time I will have at least a catastrophic belay from below. Once the leader is up to belay folks below, it doesn't seem that bad; but the rock is very steep and the exposure is awful. Photo courtesy Kathy W. |
 Photo courtesy CP. DPS calls this: "somewhat exposed 15 foot face of Class 3 rock." The exposure is shown above -- over 500. When I saw this pic later, I was mortified to realize Dagmar's belay was hooked over a rock. |
 Now CP belays with a dynamic rope; DB clowns. |
 |
 CP belays DB. The family that belays together stays together. |
 Now we rap off the S side of the false summit. I tied a 9mm static line with a figure 8 on a bight. and attached it to a quicklink on a hanger, so we would have 2 stable lines for reascent. |
 |
 |
 Dagmar is on top! |
 |
 |
 Photo courtesy Kathy W. |
 Photo courtesy CP. I look like an Ewok, Dagmar looks like a fashion model. |
 I'm passing down the ascenders for the next person. |
 View back over false summit, as CP takes over belaying. |
 Craig pops over the lip. |
 I rapped back down to give more instruction... |
 Then later did my 5th ascent! Photo courtesy Kathy W. |
 CP raps down on N side false summit. |
 |
 DB comes back across the gap. |
 Vulture on W summit, doing a thermoregulation pose. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Next day CP, DB & I went up Little Picacho |
 |
 |
 I climbed an unnecessarily hard section; DB and CP found a class 2-3 way! (Picture of route choices below) |
 There was one committing move, actually easier on the way down. CP belays DB. |
 True Picacho to S. |
 View NE |
 |
 |
 Photo courtesy CP. |
 |
 |
 about 20-30' below the one tough move. |
 route choices to shelf; the harder move is out of sight, at top of wall in back. |
 |
 |
 we got back when it was still cool. |
||