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December 6, 2025
Courthouse Rock is a large volcanic monolith towering over 1,000 ft above the surrounding landscape in the Eagletail Mountains of western Arizona. The easiest way up it is a low 5th class gully (the standard route) on its southeast side. We climbed a more adventurous route ("The Groover") which ascended a corner system just left (south) of the standard route. Although the rock quality wasn't the best, the location and position made this route worth doing once.
Routes climbed:
| Name | Grade | # Pitches | Quality (1-5) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Groover | 5.10 | 5 | 2 | trad |
Peaks/Towers climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courthouse Rock | 2,873 ft | 1,154 ft | 33.46410, -113.36003 |
| "Sunset Lump" | 2,355 ft | 300 ft | 33.45254, -113.37404 |
| "Little House Peak" | 2,532 ft | 445 ft | 33.44600, -113.36361 |
Gear
- 60m rope
- tagline (for raps)
- cams: singles .3-4
- 10 alpine draws
Total Stats
6.5 miles
2,700 ft gain/loss
Rob and I arrived late the previous night, spending the last hour maneuvering dirt roads which crossed several washes. The road wasn't horrible, just time consuming, and could be done in any SUV. Courthouse Rock looked awesome and imposing in the moonlight.
We woke up just after sunrise, watching the waning gibbous moon setting over Courthouse. The start of the route was obvious, marked by the roof of a detached pillar on the left side. We made a beeline towards the start, taking all but 10 minutes to reach it.
sunrise and moonset on Courthouse Rock
start of The Groover
Pitch 1 (5.9) warmed us up for the day. Copious amounts of easy stemming led to more stemming on the right side of the detached pillar. There were two decent looking bolts on the pitch and a 2-bolt anchor. This pitch was quite short and could be easily linked into the next one, which I recommend doing.
Pitch 2 (5.7) was another short pitch of stemming to another 2-bolt anchor, following the same corner system.
Rob leading up pitch 2
Pitch 3 (5.10) continued up the corner system with...you guessed it, more stemming. There were two bolts to clip just before the crux, and a bomber #4 placement at the crux. This pitch ended at a 2 bolt anchor, which I clipped and linked into the following pitch.
Pitch 4 (5.4) continued up the corner as it widened and turned into a chimney. Only a few chimney moves were needed, as most of it could still be stemmed. I belayed with gear after running out of rope, due to linking the previous pitch.
Pitch 5 (5.4) continued up the chimney system on junky rock which ended at a large ledge, where we turned right up a short low 5th face. After that, we found ourselves on top of the southeast rib. We unroped here.
Looking up from the top of pitch 5
We cached our rope and gear on top of the southeast rib, not needing it anymore for the summit. It would only be up to class 3 from there. From our spot, there were two prominent highpoints up to the north, the rightmost of which was the true summit. We traversed to the gully between them and ascended to the prominent saddle it led to. From the prominent saddle, we turned right and located a short hidden gully which continued northwest at a steeper angle.
This gully ended abruptly on the main west ridge, and we turned right and pretty much stayed on its crest for a short distance up to the summit. There were great views to be had.
summit views from Courthouse Rock
We reversed our summit scramble and descended back to our cached gear, finding the raps for the Mountaineer's route which were located about 100 ft east down a gully from where The Groover topped out. Three 60m raps (rope + tag line) brought us down to the base of the mountaineers route. Rap 1 was off a large slung block (bring some webbing to back this up). Raps 2 and 3 were off good bolted anchors with rings. From the base of the last rap, we walked only a couple hundred feet south along the wall to reach our packs at the base of The Groover.
With a couple more hours of daylight to work with, we headed west to bag a couple peaks, starting with Sunset Lump, which wasn't much to write home about.
looking southeast from Sunset Lump
The ridge connecting Sunset Lump and Little House Peak was much more interesting, consisting of fun class 3 scrambling with exposure. We pretty much stayed on the ridge crest the entire time, reaching Little House Peak just before sunset.
ridge running
summit of Little House Peak
Getting off the south side of Little House Peak was more involved than I thought. We first headed in an ESE direction, but hit cliffs within minutes. After poking around a bit, we located a roundabout class 3-4 downclimb off the SW side. After this, we downclimbed to the next prominent saddle SE of the peak, trying to find a way off the east side of the saddle. Since there were plenty of sheep trails and poop, I ascertained there must be some way off, so I explored around a bit, coming up with more cliffs. After coming up empty handed, we continued south, wrapping around the west side of a hill and to the next saddle. This saddle worked, and we descended east and then north, bisecting many washes that made up an alluvial fan, then onto a dirt road that we followed a short distance east to the start.
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