Early in the morning of March 19 I met Eric Kassan and Rich Hensley in Wilcox, AZ. They had driven down from Las Vegas the previous evening and we hoped to get an early start this day climbing Dos Cabezas Peaks, a double peak with over 3000 feet of prominence.
We drove to nearby Dos Cabezas and tried to get access to Dos Cabezas Peaks via the Mascot Mine Road. Eric had repeatedly called the landowner to request permission to use the road, but he did not get any callback from the owner. We hoped that perhaps the gate was open but we found it was locked with the same phone numbers posted that Eric had repeatedly called. We attempted another, longer, access road but found it also gated and locked. So we switched our attention to Swisshelm Mountain further south.
Swisshelm Mountain has 2025 feet of prominence, the 69th most prominent peak in Arizona. We first attempted to get access to it from the east which would have provided us an easier ascent. We spoke to the landowner near the start of his private road, but he refused us entry. So we drove to the west side of the mountain near Elfrida and successfully gained access to the western slopes of Swisshelm Mountain.
[Read more…] about Swisshelm Mountain, Arizona, March 2016