This is Gary Sax's account of what happened to his group (Andrei, John, Mike and himself) on the first climbing day. Gary is now a resident of Tucson, and has for several months told us of the terrific climbing that surrounds him here, now we know his stories were true!

OK, the excitement has been building for several weeks. First, I got an e-missive from John Peterson saying that he was trying to put together a trip to Tucson. Then it became more real and specific dates were picked and climbers were coming in from around the world. This was no simple trip, it became an expedition with members representing four nations and living as far as 8,000 miles apart. No, John’s trips are never simple!

Back in Connecticut John was a climbing friend who served as a mentor; he put me on my first lead and he caught my first (and so far only) lead fall. As a climber I trust John 100%.

As a tour operator, well...

The plan was for the climbers to rendezvous at my place in Tucson on Thursday, and then we would all head out to Cochise Stronghold. The Stronghold is the home of many fabulous granite domes and some of the best and least crowded climbing anywhere. There were seven of us and we divided into two groups. Keith, James, and Leon would head off to do the ultra classic “What’s My Line?” That climb has three pitches of relatively mellow (but highly exposed) climbing sandwiched in between a brutal approach and descent. I had done that for the first time just a few weeks ago. The rest of us: John, Mike, Andrei, and I would do a climb not found in any of the guidebooks; “Greedy Little Varmint” has 8 pitches and climbs almost 1,000 feet up Sheepshead Dome. Its attractions? Several pitches of excellent climbing in a beautiful setting as well as an easy approach and descent.

Like most folks long past undergraduate days I have adjusted my life to the sun. I arise in the morning, am active all day and sleep at night. Turns out this was a bad pattern for this expedition. The crew coming in from the east coast was not scheduled to arrive until well after midnight. Luckily (and most pleasantly) Leon arrived early from Seattle to visit relatives in the area and was at my house early in the evening. As we had never before met we spent a nice few hours getting to know each other as we awaited the rest of the group. But arrive they did, on time and without event.

John, as “Supreme Expedition Leader” claimed the one spare bed and the rest flaked out sleeping bags on any bit of carpet they could find.

We arose early on Friday and were off to the Stronghold! The weather was perfect and it boded well for a great day of climbing. After about 90 minutes we regrouped in the Stronghold and split into our two climbing groups. Keith, James, and Andrei took off to find “What’s My Line” and I parked under a nice shade tree with our Sheepshead Dome in plain view.

Our plan was to climb in two rope parties. John & I would go first; John has climbed the route before and since it wandered a bit this would allow for him to be the expert route finder. Mike & Andrei would follow us up.

We climbed under (John went over-ouch!) a barbed wire fence and headed across the meadow to the climb. It was a mellow walk, not much altitude to gain and relatively little in terms of dangerous vegetation. In a short forty minutes we were at the base of the climb. My internal computer was running—40 minutes o, three hours to climb, 40 minutes out---we would be back at the car by three o’clock! The climb itself was only 5.7 and John had done it before. No problem!

As is his style John was up about 25 feet before he started looking around for his first piece of pro. What was unusual was that he started to whine about how slick the granite was. The climb started up a low angle dihedral that looked easy; but the dihedral served as a trough for rain run off for lots of rock and was polished quite smooth. Well that was his problem, he was leading.

In fact John polished off the pitch in good form and had quickly climbed a full rope length and established our first belay. I followed up the route and immediately saw just how slick the granite had become. I was quite happy to be following. As I got about 20 feet off the deck Mike started to lead out for the second rope party. We were going to make great time!

The topo clearly shows that there is a small down climb to get to the first belay ledge. But hey this is only 5.7, how bad can it be. Well, I got to that last section and it looked pretty bad. The scary part was that it was actually worse for the second than for the leader. John had placed a piece directly above the start of the down climbing section. So, he was pretty well protected for the climb down to the ledge. As the second my “job” was to clean the piece. But if I did that it would mean that my down climb would be completely unprotected. I did not like that one little bit! But as usual John had a wonderful solution. “Just leave the piece in, Mike can use it and then it will be Andrei’s problem.” Sounded like a great plan to me and I down climbed with the bomber piece protecting the section. Amazing how confidant I can be on a top rope! Any way I was safely at the first belay; Mike was only 50 feet behind me and doing well. John was already heading up P2.

The second pitch is also a full rope length. The crux is at the beginning where you have to pull over a steep corner to the left face. It’s not that hard but it is very close to the anchor so any fall will probably put you on the ground. Above is pretty mellow 5.6 face and crack climbing. As John worked upward Mike joined me at the belay and Andrei ran up the pitch at a fast pace. He made it to the down climb before I started up. He cleaned the piece and climbed down without a hitch. Thanks again Andrei!

I started up P2, pulled the crux without a problem and enjoyed the full 160 feet to the second anchor. This was a pine tree on a giant ledge. Even I was comfortable walking around without being tied in—that means it was a really big ledge.

P3 follows a chossy corner, crack labeled “easy” on the topo. Maybe easy but it was pretty loose and not fun climbing. John polished it off in no time and set up a directional at the top so that I could enjoy the 5.7 ish but unprotected slab just to left. And enjoy it I did. This section reminded of the slabs on Whitehorse and I got to work on my pure friction climbing. Thanks John, that was much better than squirming up that grungy corner.

Mike and Andrei were still right behind, the weather remained perfect; a wonderful day of climbing was in progress.

The next pitch included a section of the Stronghold’s famous chicken heads. These granite features make climbing on steep faces relatively easy and makes protection very interesting. You just have to believe that looping a sling over a piece of rock is bomber. (When first climbing in the Stronghold and upon arriving at a belay my partner remarked “try not to look at the anchor”) In fact a chicken head anchor can be very bomber—but it does take some getting used to. In any case we polished off the pitch and once again Mike was close behind, arriving at the belay before I set off.

The reason I was still there was that this was the first time I ever saw John climb slowly. The next pitch was seriously run out in sections. Run out like in 25 feet since your last pro and that was a sling around a lip less chicken head. This is bold climbing. We were now some 600 or 700 feet off the deck and the leader could take a fall of over 50 feet. Not a trivial situation. But John got through the run out section without event (and only a bit of whining). As I followed the pitch I left in several pieces so that Mike wouldn’t have to struggle quite so much. But he was still going to face some serious run out. Leading in the Stronghold is not for the faint of heart.

John had run P5 & P6 together for a full rope length and we were now on another huge ledge with what the topo showed as a short 4th class section and an easy chimney to finish the route. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see that it was now 4 o’clock; I thought we would be back at the car by now. I was wearing my prescription sunglasses and had no others until getting back to my climbing pack at the base of the climb. Well, we another 90 minutes of light.

However, things started slowing a bit. Mike was no longer just behind me. This was a long run out pitch and he was (wisely) taking his time. It was another 40 minutes before he joined us on the ledge. John and I started up the 4th class section and chimney while Mike set up his anchor and brought up Andrei.

The 4th class was in fact easy and short, literally two minutes and no rope required. But as I looked at the chimney I was a bit worried. I’ve climbed small chimneys and have never had a problem. But this was pretty big (wide) and protection wasn’t going to be too good. John started up and stretched his 6’6” body across the chimney and made short work of it. He set up an anchor and I tried to follow his route. I managed to get myself in an amazing situation; I had one hand and one foot on each side of the chimney. Each limb was fully extended and all the holds were mostly friction. I had no idea what to do next. Luckily John had me tight on belay. Finally I just released, and lunged for a hold on the near wall. I have no idea if I weighted the rope or not, but I did catch the hold and pulled over the top.

I was on top!

We had just a few minutes of light remaining. So, to save time John kept the anchor, dropped the rope and Mike and Andrei top roped the chimney. We changed shoes and started hiking down to our packs. It was now a race against the setting sun. We reached our packs just as the sun disappeared. I started rummaging to find my clear eyeglasses and headlamp. John and Andrei were super quick, put on their packs and headed down. Mike and I spent a couple extra minutes packing up and followed.

Both Mike and I had headlamps … and that was a good thing as it was soon completely dark. We still had several hundred feet of hiking down a steep trail before we hit the meadow. A few minor slips and we lost the trail a couple of times, but make it down we did. John and Andrei were waiting for us. We found them by voice as neither of them had lights with them.

So now we had to walk another 20 minutes across the meadow and we’d be back at the car. But it was very dark. 20 minutes later we were still somewhere in the meadow. There were four of us and every time we discussed which way to go we changed our minds. So, we hiked around for another hour or so until we found a road we recognized and followed that back to the car. It was now after 8 p.m. and we were all pretty tired. We cruised back to Tucson. John and I chatted. Mike and Andrei were completely wasted and snoring in the back seat. John wanted to stop for fast food burgers. I said no, the other four would be at the house with no key and we should get back ASAP.

Of course, when we arrived home we were the first. Read Keith’s report to learn of their adventure, but suffice it to say that they didn’t arrive until after midnight.

We decided that we wouldn’t set an alarm for the morning and I was very happy that I wasn’t climbing the next day.