Page Type:
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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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41.20100°N / 118.555°W |
Route Type:
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Scramble |
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Time Required:
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Most of a day |
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Difficulty:
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3rd Class |
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Approach
This route is approached from the Buckbrush Springs Trailhead, and a rather detailed and extensive description on how to reach the trailhead is found on the King Lear Peak main page. Once you reach the springs, park in the turnaround circle, and follow the quad tracks that head toward the base of the peak. Eventually this path begins to veer to the south, and when this happens, leave the path and navigate cross-country to the toe of the rounded ridge that extends toward you. If there is any question, peruse the route photos, and all will become clear.
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Route Description
Continue up the rounded ridge, and stay on or near the crest as it zigs uphill, first to the left, and then a bit back toward the right. Look for an inobvious saddle on the ridge, breaking left, and approach this to get your first close-up view of the the summit blocks. There is a man-made trail that sidehills from here to the bottom of the drainage, crosses the creek, and continues on the other side, eventually leading to the slabs. This trail may be hard to find, it is not on the map, and we stumbled across it on accident, but it is there, and it takes a lot of the work out of sidehilling down into the bottom of the drainage. The trail is not well maintained, and is overgrown in places, but is still better than cross-country on this section of the ascent. Following this trail gets you to the base of the slab section, and this section is more interesting with occasional 3rd class moves. Climb the slabs diagonally to the left to gain the chute that leads to the notch just south of the summit. Follow this chute, usually staying on the left side of the chute near the cliffs. This chute is very loose in places, but it is not very steep, so rockfall is not much of a problem, but traction is. This chute ends at the notch south of the summit, and when you arrive here, turn northward and climb to the crest of the summit ridge. You can make this section as sporty as you want. If you climb direct to the ridge, you will get good solid 3rd class on broken, friable rock. For a tamer ascent, contour around northwest until the summit may be obtained via gentler terrain. Once the ridge is attained, traverse north to the highest point, where you will find a short cairn with a summit register. Along the way you will pass the USGS marker, placed in 1965. The descent is the reverse.
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Essential Gear
For most ascents of this peak, the only essentials are comfortable shoes and lots of water. Although rated class 3, with circuitous route-finding you could easily bring the difficulty down to class 2. In the spring, there is running water in the drainage being ascended, but do not count on this in the summer. Once the snow is gone, the flowing water is gone. For winter ascents, it is not necessary to carry crampons and axe, the wind and sun keep the rock bare nearly all the time. You could construct a route that might require this gear, but it would likely be from the north. It's a desert peak, so bring sun protection and lots of water.
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.