Pinnacle Peak 3173′
McDowell Mountains
Distance: 1.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 700′
Crux: Class 5.5
Trailhead: Pinnacle Peak Park, full services
Companions: Holly, Alex Wallace, Emily Elkins
Pinnacle Peak is a prominent granite summit in northern Scottsdale. Geologically part of the McDowells, the well named summit is a bit northwest of the main range in it’s own 150 acre park managed by the City of Scottsdale. A trail switches around the base of the mountain but goes no where near the summit, which requires technical climbing by its’ easiest route. Needless to say, it had been on my short list for some time. The classic beginner’s route to the top is the ‘South Crack’. Originally rated 5.3, it is notoriously sandbagged and consensus rating is at least a 5.5, with some arguing up to a 5.7. Despite some objective difficulties on the route, it is considered a fine beginner’s lead thanks to the ample opportunities for protection, following a deep crack/ chimney system all the way to the summit. With the dog days of Phoenix summer looming all too near, I wanted to squeeze it in this season before Arizona climbing shifted to higher altitudes. Holly and I met Alex and Emily for breakfast, the same couple that we had climbed Praying Monk on New Years Day, and we headed into Pinnacle Peak Park. After packing up way too much trad gear, we started up the switchbacks of the fairly busy park, Pinnacle Peak looming directly overhead. About 1/3 of a mile from the trailhead, we reached the signed climbers path and started up the steep use trail to the base. The trail was actually fairly well maintained with rusted markers stamped into the rocks to guide the way. The climbers trail traversed beneath Loafer’s Choice Slab and AMC Boulder, two other crags in the park, before we reached the base of the approach pitch, a class 4 chimneying exercise. I was given the honor to lead the main glory pitch up the South Crack while Alex lead the approach pitch, and he started up the tight chimney over loose rockfall. The pitch was made more difficult by the excessive gear racked on his harness, but he squirmed up the lower half of the pitch to a more spacious chimney in the upper reaches. The first pitch was longer than it looked from below, and after finding an excellent two eye-bolt anchor, he belayed up Holly, myself and Emily to the ‘Sundeck Boulder’.
The sundeck, also well named, was a spacious boulder at the base of the summit pitch. Once everyone was on the Sundeck, I racked up my harness and flaked out the ropes- a set of twin ropes I led on attached to Holly and Emily respectively, with a third rope towed by Emily and attached to Alex. The start of the route was the most exposed portion, with a short crack up a triangular flake before you could bury yourself into the chimney. But it took gear beautifully as advertised and I reached the first tough chimney section of the pitch, about 8′ of stemming well protected by a bolt to the climbers left. This was probably the crux for me not because of the actual stemming, but because of all the cams pulling me back down as they caught on the rock. It took a few minutes to ungracefully kick and squirm up the chimney to the next series of ledges where I could finally take a short breather.
The crack eased a bit to a series of short ledges, a welcome break from the more vertical chimney. I reached another very short chimney around a large boulder and worked up to a fairly spacious ledge and intermediate belay with a bolted anchor. Knowing it would probably take to much time to bring everyone up to this intermediate belay and split it into two pitches, I continued up along the crack to the final chimney, formed by the summit pinnacle and a smaller subsidiary southeastern pinnacle.
The chimney had a number of options to climb it with a fist sized crack running on the climbers right side of the chimney to a chokestone above. I started to jam my way up, yelling a bit too loudly when a lizard ran out over my hand mid move. I worked up to a small roof formed by a chockstone between the summit and sub pinnacle to the east. I placed an iffy piece under the chockstone then swung left onto the face to clear the small roof and bring me to the final summit crack. The last 10′ was basically exposed class 3-4, and I reached the huge summit eye-bolts and anchored in. As much as I wanted to soak in the moment of having the lofty summit to myself, the three others were patiently waiting to come up, and I built a quick Magic-X anchor from the eye bolts and brought Holly up first. I could only see the others when they reached the upper chimney section, but Holly did quite well thoughout, despite refusing to try any jamming techniques in the upper crack. Emily came up next and similarly had the most difficulty on the upper section of the chimney, the crack leaning ever so awkwardly the wrong way. Last up was Alex, who graciously climbed up with a pack filled with summit beers, the perfect way to celebrate the Phoenix classic.
We spent a while on top enjoying the brews and the scenery, with the best views to the south looking into the main bulk of the McDowells, Troon Mountain blocking much of the view to the east (sadly, completely socked in by developement), Tonto National Forest and Mazatzal Peak to the far east, and Cave Creek to the Northwest.
There was a small sense of urgency for Emily to get down to feed dogs she was watching and she wasn’t up for the rappel on this climb. Alex rapped down first to spot the next set of anchors and I lowered her down to the deep notch between the main summit and much lower north summit. Unfortunately the rope got snagged in a crack after she untied, and Holly wound up rappelling down a single strand (after I tied it off to the anchors). I then rapped last down both strands, untangling the side that somehow managed to wrap itself around some boulders.
The notch between the two summits was surprisingly deep, and Emily had already been lowered to the base with Alex following down after I pulled our upper rope. Holly and I rapped down shortly thereafter and we packed up our gear at the base, Emily and Alex jetting ahead to feed their dogs.
The hike out was short but tedious heading down the loose rock loaded down with gear, but we were soon back to the parking lot. From there, we headed directly to Desert Ridge for dinner and more celebratory drinks, topped off with a healthy dose of ibuprofen.
