Mmmmm. Dinner.
In
the morning I drove into Tucson and met Jeff at his house. Jeff kindly offered me his guest room for a
few days, so I unloaded most of my gear, we sorted out some climbing gear and
headed for Cochise Stronghold, a great climbing area about 60 miles SE of Tucson.
We
drove into the West Stronghold and decided we would do some 2 pitch newer
routes on the SW face of Sheepshead. The
west side of Cochise has a really nice feel to it, with great free camping and
nice views. It was already kind of hot
by the time we started hiking and it was obvious the area had seen little
moisture this year – things were incredibly dry.
We
hiked way up the gully on the side of Sheepshead and did 3 two pitch 5.10
climbs that were good quality and new to both of us. It was pretty hot in the sun however, so
after the first two routes I was moving a little slooowwww. On the second pitch of the third route, Jeff
took off on the lead and about 20 feet above the belay surprised a Peregrine
Falcon that was nesting in a hueco like feature in the rock that we couldn’t
see from below. The Falcon flew out of
the recess just as Jeff started pulling up on the edge of the feature – quite a
surprise for Jeff! Jeff looked into the
recess quickly and saw 3 eggs, so he immediately backed off the pitch and we
quickly rapped to the ground to minimize any stress on the bird. The Falcon quickly returned to the nest while
we left a note at the bottom of the climb to warn people not to climb the
route.
After
that, we packed up, hiked out and drove back to Tucson for some dinner at a local
Italian restaurant – yum.
The next day Jeff and I drove up to about the 5500’ level on Mt. Lemmon and did about 8 pitches of climbing on the Chessman formation. These were all new routes for me and some were new for Jeff. Pretty cool stuff, no other climbers and good views made for a fun day out! I cooked up some pasta for dinner when we got back to Jeff’s, another fun day in Tucson. :)
My third day in Tucson I decided to go birding up on Mt. Lemmon for the day. Mt. Lemmon is an amazing feature, rising from 2500’ at the base in Tucson to 9100’ at the summit.
Along
the way you pass through about 4 different climate zones which makes for great
scenery and a variety of birds. I saw a
reasonable number of birds, but much fewer than I hoped for. I personally think the severely dry
conditions in southern Arizona this year are keeping the bird counts low… It was a fun day however, I saw a good number
of species including the very cool Red-faced Warbler. I also checked out camp sites at the Molino
basin campground where Callie and I would stay for a few days later in the
month.
The
next day Jeff and I headed up Mt. Lemmon again, this time our climbing
destination was Windy Point, just under 7000’.
There were some high clouds, so the temperature was pretty nice. We headed over to the fins area and did a
cool corner/roof climb, then a steep and strenuous arête, then a couple of fun
face routes. By now I am starting to get
some really tired climbing muscles from not enough rest days, but there was
more fun to be had J After we returned to Tucson, I packed up my
car and headed to Cochise Stronghold to meet my friend Mike for 2 more days of
climbing there.
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