The Southeast Arete of Baboquivari
From the guidebooks and webpages, the route sounded spectacular with great exposure and incredible views. I hoped to capture some of the grandeur with my camera and document the route; but I failed miserably. I took a motley batch of photos. Normally, I wouldn't bother to show such a poor collection of photos, but I wanted to write down my impressions of the route and try to provide supplemental information that might make doing the route easier and safer.
Warning: If you are climbing the Southeast Arete of Baboquivari for the first time and you are unfamiliar with the descent, it is very likely that you will get stuck on the summit. The climb is bigger than one would expect and the experience is great - so the time tends to slip away very rapidly. I have received an e-mail since I did the initial write-up of people getting stuck on top - they even had the descent description below (note that they didn't see the map - which I have since highlighted with arrows). They arrived on top at 5:30 p.m. and planned to descend via the Forbes / Montoya route. Instead they spent a chilly night on the summit during Memorial Day weekend and rapped the Southeast Arete the following day. They never did find the Forbes / Montoya route.
I also received a recent e-mail from Bob Kerry, who wrote "Backcountry Rockclimbing in Southern Arizona". He was climbing the Southeast Arete in a group with Peter Noebels on October 1, 2005, doing a photo shoot for "Arizona Highways". They did the east approach up Thomas Canyon and he said that, "... our primary goal for the day was to get out before dark!" Bob Kerry and Peter Noebels are amongst the best backcountry climbers in southern Arizona.
The week before, we stashed two ropes, a harness and two pairs of shoes in the area of the great ramp. Likewise, when I was at the summit, I stashed a liter of water as well. It was a good thing that I had stashed the water, since we ended up only taking two pints of water with us on the climb - for almost eight hours of climbing in mid-May. We were very parched when we reached the top.
When we reached the great ramp at about 10:15 AM, we recovered the stashed gear, took a food break, and geared up for the climb. We headed east towards the arete. After a couple of false starts (one too high and one too low) we finally got onto a semi-path towards the arete. We continued east until we came to an enormous rock formation that was separated from the main wall. The rock formation was about as big as a five-story building and the choice was either to head upwards between the main wall and the enormous rock or downwards around the big rock formation. Based on Paul Doherty's report, we headed upwards towards the main wall. There were signs of traffic including sawn branches and slings around a tree near the top, indicating that this was the correct route. At the top, we reached a small saddle between the main wall and the enormous rock. The climb started about fifty feet to the west of the small saddle (see photos below).
It took a significant amount of time to get to the start of the climb from the great ramp. Although I didn't check the watch, I would guess that it was 11:30 to 12:00 before we started climbing - it took us at least an hour to get from the great ramp to the start of the climb. From the photo of the first pitch on Paul Doherty's report, we were able to get right onto the start of the climb without any false starts.
Normally, I have a great deal of respect for Bob Kerry's guidebook, but for the Southeast Arete, I thought he missed the mark in several places. For his description of the start, he says, "...work up and left to a rope up spot near a dead tree. The start is just left of a big gap formed between the main wall and a house-sized boulder." A dead tree is not a good landmark since it could be dead-and-gone (the guidebook was published in 1997) and we couldn't figure out which rock was house-sized.
For the climb, we only took along Bob Kerry's description. The first and second pitches are well described and easy to follow - once you get on the route. The "thirty feet of vertical climbing" seemed tougher than 5.6 but it was certainly a very fun pitch with a lot of exposure on the left side of the climb. During the second pitch, there were moments when large swarms of bees would pass by - usually poorly timed. They would buzz away for about five minutes and then they would finally pass. This happened repeatedly during the second pitch, and only during the second pitch.
During the third and fourth pitch, we might have gotten off route. The route was supposed to go up and to the right and Randy, who led the pitch, went up and to the left. He set up the belay on a ledge and Valerie and I followed him up. For the fourth pitch, according to Bob Kerry, "Begin climbing to the left of a small pine tree..." We never could find the small pine tree and the climbing seemed pretty stiff in this area. We weren't really sure where we were and it was common to hear, "Is that the pine tree over there?" There were a lot of small pine trees up there, but not where you expected them.
I climbed for about 120' per the description, hit a nice "vegetated ledge", and I figured we were back on track. The next two pitches went smoothly and according to Bob's description. We did the scramble to the notch, down-climbed into the notch, and then we checked out the "...5.6 move past an old pin..." In my opinion, this is more than a 5.6 move past an old pin. It is a thirty foot climb without protection, and the way I climbed it, it was about 5.8. Adding to the fun is the exposure on the left side of the climb - big exposure.
As a group, we climbed like we were in a three-legged race. Everything seemed slow and difficult in the early stages of the climb. I set up the first belay too low in the notch requiring an additional pitch before we got to the "thirty feet of vertical climbing." We had to stop and wait a couple of times for the bees to pass on pitch two. In the middle, we seemed to diverge from Bob Kerry's description. But by time we hit the "vegetated ledge," we started to get into sync. We quickly knocked out the climbs and belays. When we hit the top of the sixth and seventh pitches, as soon as Valerie got off the rope, she would head out and find the route. As soon as Randy got off the rope, he followed her. After I got the rope coiled, I would take out after them. We continued this pattern through the rappel on the Forbes / Montoya route.
Since we came in from the west, it made sense to leave our packs near the base of the great ramp and descend via the Forbes / Montoya route (see the description below). It is possible to rappel the route, and this might make sense if you approached from the east, but it wouldn't make sense if you approached from the west. It takes about an hour to descend to the great ramp via the Forbes / Montoya route. It took us an hour just to hike from the great ramp to the base of the climb.
Since we hit the great ramp about 7:00 PM, we had to hike for approximately two hours with headlamps and flashlights. Once we got to the packs at the base of the great ramp, we moved quickly down the trail, trying to get out of the trees before it got really dark (it is a little harder to find the trail when it is covered in Oak leaves). We were successful and the hike out was uneventful. It didn't take much longer to hike out in the dark versus hiking out in the light.
Just as it was getting really dark, we could hear a single bird calling. We hit it with the flashlights and we could see the glowing eyes of a Pygmy Owl. Once we knew the call, we heard at least three or four Pygmy Owls on the way out.
 | View of the start of the climb from the saddle between the enormous rock and the main wall. Note that the route is marked. |
 | Another view of the start of the climb from saddle between the enormous rock and the main wall. |
 | The same photo as above with the route marked. |
 | View of the south face from the belay at the base of the "thirty feet of vertical climbing." Up until this point, the climbing had been low angle with minimal exposure. |
 | Randy belaying below the "thirty feet of vertical climbing." |
 | The belay view from the top of the second pitch - towards the Southeast. While Valerie and I belayed Randy from here, we could hear the swarms of bees pass. We felt like we could hide behind the trees and bushes at the belay. Randy didn't have that luxury. |
 | Another view from the same belay |
 | Randy's foot somewhere in the middle of the climb. |
 | Valerie approaching the 'vegetated ledge' |
 | The layback pitch. |
 | Randy coming up the final pitch above the notch. |
 | Retrieving the cached water. |
 | There is a tradition of taking a gift for I'itoi when you summit Baboquivari. The night before the climb, I couldn't think of anything to take, but then it hit me during dinner - take some photos of Bob Kamps (who died the previous month). He climbed in Arizona in the 1950's and ascended Baboquivari via the SE Arete in 1958. I'itoi greatly appreciated the gift and not only gave us water but gave us light. |
 | Valerie is ready to head out. She had spent a year and a half as an adventure racer and she was very much at home navigating by headlamp. |
If you approach Baboquivari from the west and climb it via the SE arete, you most likely will want to desend via the Forbes / Montoya route and the great ramp. However, if you have not climbed Baboquivari via the Forbes / Montoya route, it could be a little perplexing finding the way off of the top of the mountain - especially if you are racing against daylight.
For an ascent via the SE arete and a descent via the Forbes / Montoya route, leave your packs near the base of the great ramp and gear-up there. Bushwhack to the start of the climb and climb the route. To descend via the Forbes / Montoya route, follow the map and instructions below. Note that photos below were compiled from the two previous ascents via the Forbes / Montoya route. In all the photos, the climbers are going up, not down.
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<<< Map
Map of the route for descent. Note that the thumbnails / photos below are noted on the map by number. |
 | 1. The trail starts towards the NNE. If you look for Kitt Peak, the trail starts about 20 degrees to the east (right) of Kitt Peak. It descends through bushes, rocks and slabs, and after about 100 yards, it abruptly heads to the west. The trail starts to solidify and there can be cairns marking the trail. |
 | 2. The trail heads west for about 100 to 150 yards and then it heads towards the south. The trail goes along a wall on the left and continues south for about 100 yards. From there, it turns towards the west. This photo was taken from where the trail turns to the west. |
 | 3. Continue westward and downward until you come to a place where you will have to downclimb (you will have to downclimb about 12 feet). Note that there is an old ladder bolt poking out of the rock near the downclimb. |
 | 4. From the 12 foot downclimb, continue to the right along the wall until you come to a small saddle. On the other side of the saddle, downclimb to a big ledge. Note that Mike, Valerie, and Vivian are heading upwards through this section. Do the opposite for descent. |
 | 5. The belay anchors are located on the other side of the overhanging tree. |
 | 6. Rappel the route and look for the trail. As you descend the great ramp, the easiest route is to the left along the wall. |
On April 4, 2009 I took my Garmin 60Cx GPS along used it to get tracks of the trip from Baboquivari Park to the summit and back via the Ladder Pitch. I have loaded the data in to Google Earth and labelled the numbered points from the above write-up. The Garmin GPX file of the trip is located here (to download, right click on the link and then use the "Save Link as..."):
Even though I had all the GPS features enabled (WAAS, SIRF...) there were still a lot of false points taken around the Great Ramp and the Ladder Pitch. I have edited the tracks and removed the points that I thought were bogus. The Garmin GPX file above can be loaded directly into Google Earth. To download Google Earth, go here.
To open the GPX in Google Earth, first start Google Earth. Next, click on "File" then "Open" and select "Baboquivari_4.4.gpx" from the directory where you have saved it.