I’m publishing this piece, hot off the presses, because a couple of friends of mine have just accomplished something important. Before you read it, I want to tell you a little bit about these two climbers who pulled this off, both of whom I am glad to call my friends. Mark Adrian, the author, is one determined and experienced peak-bagger, who won’t take no for an answer. Climbing this peak was an important step in a very big project he’s been working on for years. He had given it his best shot, but finally called in the heavy weaponry, another peakbagger friend we rely on to clean up tricky climbing problems, Andy Bates. It’s not common these days that a first ascent is done on a range highpoint, so congratulations to these guys. Mark wanted you to know that Andy, the climb leader, was the first to set foot on the summit. The piece pretty much explains itself, so without further ado, I hope you enjoy reading it.
This was my third visit to this small, remote and obscure California mountain range. The BGN assigned (entry date) the range’s name in January 1981 and the meaning of Arica is “forever or alone, ruler”. Arica is also a woman’s name but I found no historical reason how or why that name was chosen for the range or by whom. Nonetheless, the range has a colorful gold mining history dating back to the late 1800s and explains many of the decaying structures around Priest Mine (apparently named after Mr. James V. Priest, an era gold miner/investor) we saw on the approach hike. In fact, much of Riverside County and many of its mountain ranges were mined for, to name a few, gold, copper, iron and uranium (see link below for more history), the early miners sometimes giving their names to the ranges, such as Matt Palen and William McCoy.
My first climb in the Arica (back in 1995), was based on the USGS map when many of us thought we had accurately identified and climbed to the range’s highpoint. Then over the years, several folks became suspicious of a nearby pinnacle as being higher. Brazenly questioning the integrity of the US Government’s (USGS) accuracy and reputation.
So, my second visit with Richard and Shelley and with his high-end survey gear, revealed, despite the USGS’s lower rating, that indeed, that nearby pinnacle was a higher point, none other in contention and, by perhaps as much as 4’ or more! Clearly, it looked technical, or at least had some exposure to offer from all sides. The most probable route seemed to be from the northwest. It was until last Saturday, best we can tell, an unclimbed summit.
So, a few weeks ago, I proposed to well-known “desert-crud” rock climber Andy Bates (from Phoenix) if he’d be interested in leading the climb. He was compelled and agreed to meet me out there. Andy drove out late Friday night and arrived early (1AM) morning where we met at my roadside camp.
Saturday morning after breakfast, we drove up the dirt road as far as we could with 2WDs, then loaded up and carried many pounds of climbing rope and technical gear up to the summit’s ridgeline. You just never know what to expect and we had way more gear than required. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it! In retrospect, a 50’-75’ length of static rope would have worked for my body belay.
Andy’s abilities are superior and he scouted the route in perhaps 10 minutes from where it turned class 3/4 and found a clear route to the summit, despite some admirable exposure, “it’s doable”! A good climber like Andy, doesn’t necessarily require a belay. So, he returned to belay me down a 20’ section of 4th class rock, after which the route eased up some to a very sturdy class 3 arete climb up to the summit, where no further belays were needed, nor was there a place to adequately protect the route. This actually went much better (simpler) than either of us had anticipated. It took us a casual 2.5 hours to summit on a very clear, cool and calm winter’s day.
This is certainly one of the more perplexing range highpoints I’ve climbed. The map is clearly wrong and the true highpoint/summit is compelling for such a small and obscure range. After we summited the true highpoint, we hiked over to the 2nd highest point and then back to the cars. The entire climb took about 6.5 hours and we took our time, enjoying the great day and dealing with the heavy load of technical gear. Afterwards, Andy headed home while I headed to camp, doing an easier climb in the nearby Chuckwalla Mountains (BM Sharp w/Prom 2994) the following day.
Pix : http://flic.kr/s/aHsjRJAJhV
Video : http://youtu.be/Hxgh4Uk9Frs
Further information and historical notes may be found at :
http://www.peakbagging.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.
http://vredenburgh.org/desert_
http://www.scribd.com/doc/