After a day climbing Courthouse Rock and a couple smaller peaks, I was excited for another fun day in the Eagletail Range. The route we took involved lots of fun scrambling, several natural arches, and a neat little rock climb onto the highest peak in the Eagletails.
Routes climbed:
| Name | Grade | # Pitches | Quality (1-5) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Feather Spire (aka. Eagletail Peak) | 5.8 | 1 | 2.5 | trad |
Peaks/Towers climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Eaglefoot Peak" | 2,676 ft | 816 ft | 33.38366, -113.29213 |
| Labyrinth Peak | 2,310 ft | 269 ft | 33.38697, -113.28186 |
| "Eaglebeak Peak" | 2,314 ft | 311 ft | 33.39646, -113.29519 |
| Eagletail Peak | 3,301 ft | 1,882 ft | 33.40345, -113.30455 |
Gear
- 60m rope
- cams: singles .3-2
- 6 alpine draws
Total Stats
12 miles
5,000 ft gain/loss
Jack, Rob, and I started out shortly after 6am, walking northwest on a faint dirt road for just under half a mile before veering north, aiming for a saddle on the southeast ridge of Eaglefoot Peak. I kept us in sync with the alluvial fan, and we didn't have to cross too many annoying washes as a result. From the saddle, we side-hilled north on loose rock to intersect the main east gully of Eaglefoot Peak, which was also full of loose rock. This brought us directly up to the summit where we enjoyed an orange sunrise which lit up the prominent Eagletail Peak further north.
sunrise from Eaglefoot Peak
Back down the east gully, this time all the way down until it became a large wash, we headed east and then north up a smaller steep gully on the west side of Labyrinth Peak's southeast ridge. Here we came across a magnificent natural arch system, consisting of three separate arches hollowed out in the same formation, the entirety of which was around 50-60 ft tall.
looking up the steep gully towards the massive arch system
moonset
arches
After a food break at the arch, we continued up north for a short distance to an obvious notch, then downclimbed the class 3 gully on the other side and traversed a slope around the north side of the peak until we were on the northwest side.
looking down the initial class 3 gully
Looking south from the northwest side were a series of gullies. We made sure to take the class 3 gully left (east) of the one heading towards the lowest notch. The start of this gully was marked by a chockstone.
Shortly before this gully reached its own notch, I looked left (northeast) and spotted another steeper class 4 gully branching off. There was a large white surfboard-shaped rock about 3/4 the way up this gully. We climbed up, being careful not to break bad holds.
At the top of this gully, we went through a notch, and from there on the terrain eased. We once again wrapped around to the north side of the peak on a cool slab, then south on easy ground to the summit. This had been a standout fun (albeit loose) peak, and its name made lots of sense.
north side slab
Labyrinth Peak summit views
After reversing the route back to the northwest side, we descended a prominent gully northwards onto the desert floor, then hiked northwest for a mile, crossing several washes.
We wrapped around to the north side of Eaglebeak Peak,, then started a diagonaling class 3 traverse southeast up a rocky ramp, staying below the main ridge above until we were right below the summit.
summit of Eaglebeak Peak
We reversed the ramp back down, then swung clockwise around to the south side of Eaglebeak Peak before heading west up the main wash to a saddle just north of spot elevation 2405. There was plenty of upill to go, and we descended northwest before arcing north across desert floor and then east up an unpleasant gully to intersect Eagletail Peak's northwest ridge. The terrain got more pleasant here, and we made short work of it and were standing at the base of the imposing summit block moments later.
The standard route for the summit block was situated on its east side, and we gratefully basked in shade, as the ascent to get there had been hot and sweaty. This was Jack's first time with technical climbing, and I spent a few moments giving him the rundown on lead belaying. The 5.8 route was straightforward, heading up cracks for a few bodylengths before turning left onto a face, where a few easy face and crack moves led onto a short class 3 arete and then some rap anchors. I belayed Jack up at the rap anchors, and then we fixed ourselves and scrambled the remaining 10 ft of class 3 to the summit. This was a cool, airy summit with great views of the range. Our 60m rope easily got us down in one rap.
summit views
All in all we had spent about an hour at the summit area, and felt very accomplished, both with Jack for completing his first technical climb and me for being able to teach it smoothly. We headed back down Eagletail's northwest ridge and headed south, passing through a prominent pass between spot elevations 2333 and 2405. A couple miles of wandering across washes in a southeast direction brought us to a faint dirt road which we followed for another 1.5 miles to the cars.
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