High above Tucson sits one of her most recognizable and well-known landmarks, a rocky tower called “Finger Rock”, which can be seen from much of the city. Right next to it sits a huge, even-higher block to which nobody ever pays any attention; unless, that is, you’re a member of the local peakbagger contingent. That group of diehards has dropped the unofficial name “Prominent Point” on this brute.

Just before Thanksgiving in 2014, Jake and I decided to have a go at the Point. Every other climber we knew had made it to the top, everyone but us. It was a perfect day for it, clear and cool, so away we went. Starting in the dark up the Pima Canyon Trail by headlamp, we gained about 500 feet in two miles, then left the trail and headed south up a fainter one to the ridge just east of Rosewood Point. That put us 1,300 feet above the trailhead. By now, the sun was up – we were still moving well, and all we had to do was to follow the ridge, which soon would start to seem endless.

During one of our brief rests, I took this shot of Jake looking down thousands of feet to the city below.

We were taking this route because someone who had been there before, someone I’d never met, said it was, by far, the most straightforward way to the top. My friends who had climbed Prominent Point were skeptical, doubting it would work. Jake and I plodded on, finally arriving on top. But the top of what? It turned out that we were on the west summit, about six feet lower than the true east summit. That, in and of itself, wasn’t a problem, except for one thing – you can’t get there from here!! We tried, though. A nasty Class 3 thrash took us down to the notch between the west and east summits. From there, we tried everything, high and low, but there was nothing short of serious and exposed Class 5 to get up to the east summit. We finally gave up and clawed our way back up to the west summit.

Once there, we looked longingly over to the true summit. Here’s a photo Jake took that shows the gulf between.

After some lunch, we started the long descent, saving some time with a shortcut or two. Now we understood why none of our friends who’d summited had ever used this route – it doesn’t work. All it’ll do for you is lead you to the false summit. By the time we’d lost 3,200 vertical feet and reached Pima Canyon, it was dark and the headlamps were on once again. It took about 6 hours to work our way back down the ridge and to the parking lot. I was pretty bummed out, wondering if I’d get up the determination for another try. The thirteen hours of effort had kicked my ass.

In fact, I dreaded having to return. It wasn’t just the outrageous amount of effort involved, I was more afraid of not finding the correct route and wasting all that effort once again. After consulting with my climber friends who’d successfully climbed it, I felt more clear on the proper route, but I still didn’t want to go back alone. Nobody seemed to want to do a repeat ascent, so Jake and I put it on the back burner.

2015 rolled around. It was mid-March, and I got an e-mail from a Colorado climber named John Kirk. He and his wife Aly were coming to Tucson to do some climbing, and wanted to know if I were interested in climbing Prominent Point with them. I jumped at the chance. I’d never met them, but I knew John remotely through his web site, Lists of John. It is an amazing peakbagging resource which is invaluable for anyone climbing peaks in the U.S. They’d be in town for a few days, and we decided on Saturday the 21st for our attempt. They were accomplished peakbaggers, strong and fast, and I knew they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The appointed day arrived. We met in the dark at the trailhead at 3,080′ elevation, and devised a plan. So I wouldn’t hold them up, they’d head out ahead of me on the trail and climb to the top of Mt. Kimball, at 7,258′. We’d meet at 9:00 AM at a lower point, at 5,200′ on the trail. That’d give me plenty of time to plod up to meet them. We all set out at 5:20 AM by headlamp, but in moments they’d pulled ahead and were lost to the night.

By the time I’d reached Finger Rock Spring and crossed over to the east side of Finger Rock Canyon, it was broad daylight. Moving fairly steadily, I reached our agreed-upon meeting spot. It was now 7:40 AM – I’d made good time, and settled in to wait. I forced myself to eat something and stay hydrated. I’d brought 5 quarts to drink – I finished one and stashed another for later, leaving 3 to carry for the rest of the climb.

As I sat and relaxed, other people started coming by. The first were two guys, trail runners, wearing only shorts and sneakers. They’d been 45 minutes to that point, and were on their way to the top of Mt. Kimball. Those guys were lean and fit – they looked like they had zero percent body fat! Others passed by, all on their way to Mt. Kimball. The exception was two guys who were going higher to check out the climbing route on Finger Rock. At about the time they arrived, John and Aly showed up. It was 9:00 AM and we were set to go.

An obvious trail leaves the main one at this point. The only reason to take this climber’s trail would be if you were going to Finger Rock or Prominent Point. The first thing this trail does is drop 275 vertical feet to once again cross Finger Rock Canyon. That done, it snakes across fairly open but steep slopes, gaining almost 1,100 vertical feet in a horizontal distance of 3,600 feet. Complete that leg, and you’re standing in a saddle at 6,000′. This is where things start to get more complicated.

There, you are only 1,250 feet distant from the summit of Prominent Point, and 630 vertical feet below it. There are five major features up there, all of them steep rocky towers. From west to east, they are as follows: Prominent Point West; Prominent Point East; un-named tower; Finger Rock; Finger Rock Guard. Of these five, the only official name is Finger Rock, but the other names will serve as points of reference. These features need to be negotiated carefully, paying close attention to the route – so let’s begin.

From the 6,000′ saddle, you need to get yourself over to the notch between Finger Rock Guard and Finger Rock. That involves leaving the saddle and contouring across a steep, cliffy forested slope. losing a hundred feet in the process, then scrambling up to gain the notch at about 6,300′. Those elevation losses start to take their toll, especially when you realize they need to be done twice.

This next part of the climb is a drag. From the notch, you must drop down a steep slope which is a real bushwhack. It is thick with dangerous agave, shin-daggers and cacti of every persuasion. The slope is loose and slippery – much of your time is spent trying to avoid getting impaled on very sharp things. By staying close to the rock wall on the west side, you can avoid getting cliffed-out. I remember at one point trying to step around a particularly nasty agave at a steep spot. I felt a sharp something dig its way into my thigh and skid its way across my flesh. Once home, I discovered a raw 4-inch gash surrounded by an ugly purple bruise. I wasn’t alone – from time to time, oaths could be heard from one or another of us as we made our way down the slope. Finally, after losing 300 vertical feet, we were able to traverse west and enter an area where we would start to climb again.

We were now in a wide gully between the un-named tower and Prominent Point East – the home stretch. This slope is also steep and nasty, much like the one we had just descended. As we climbed, the walls closed in on us.

Near the top, we saw on our left a narrow chute that we recognized as being the one that our friend Teresa Gergen had used back in December 2013. She had climbed the peak by herself, in winter, and had to deal with a shorter day and with snow and ice on an unknown route. There are two separate chockstones in the chute which she had had to aid her way past in order to reach the summit. She is hardcore, and a great example of what a versatile, highly-talented peakbagger should be.

Once past the chute, we were quickly running out of mountain. We reached the top of the gully at around 6,550 feet where it narrowed to maybe twenty feet. That put us almost 600 feet above where we’d traversed into this final gully. A few feet beyond that, on the left John spotted a weakness in the cliffband.

It was our last chance, because beyond that, vertical cliffs dropped into the abyss. It was a face with some slanting footholds, about 20′ off the deck at the top. John went up it first and felt it went at 5.0.  Aly went next. When it was my turn, I took the aid of the hiking pole John held down to me from above. Once beyond this bit of climbing, things eased up. More scrambling took us up on to more level ground, where in short order we arrived at a summit cairn. Done! Prominent Point, 6,634′.

There was the west summit, only 150 feet away, upon which Jake and I had stood a mere four months earlier. We signed in to the register and took a few photos – by then it was noon. Once we had been there a few minutes, we headed back down to the face we had climbed. To the side of it was a chimney, which we descended – this offered a much safer descent option, since the face is exposed. The chimney itself would be more like 5.4 to ascend as it had a bit of a roof. Once down it, we walked over to the notch, then climbed down a bit and ate some lunch. That done, we slid our way back down the gully, crossed over and started up to the Finger Rock – Finger Rock Guard saddle.

It was hot and nasty, and by the time I had re-climbed the 300 feet, I found John and Aly patiently waiting for me at the top. We continued down, then negotiated some Class 3 rock on the way back up to the 6,000′ saddle. It was all over but the shouting.

We started down the climber’s trail, but it soon became apparent that I was holding John and Aly up. We said our goodbyes and I cut them loose at about 5,500′. They scampered down the mountainside and were soon lost to view. That climb back up to the junction with the main trail was a bit of a slog. Here is a photo that shows some of the route we used to climb the peak.

Starting in the upper right of the picture, the route goes behind Finger Rock Guard, then drops down in front of Finger Rock, loses 300′ below the cliffs of the un-named tower, then goes up behind it, and finally re-appears on the skyline of Prominent Point.

Once that was done, it was 3:00 PM. I ate and drank a bunch, tightened my boots and headed down. It’s an excellent trail, and even though there’s another 250′ of uphill bits to climb to reach the parking lot, at least it was all heading in the right direction.

Although it was late in the day, on my way out I met almost 30 people going either up or down – it’s a popular trail, known for its steepness. I had a good last look at the peak from down low in the canyon.

I reached my car just after 5:00 PM, glad to be done. The round trip involved just under 12 hours of total time, and about 9.2 miles round trip. Including all the downhill bits on the way up, you’ll end up doing about 5,550 vertical feet on the day. I can guarantee I won’t be climbing it a second time, thank you very much.