Hike Courthouse Rock Eagletail Mountains Wilderness, AZ

Mar 21, 2022 — Courthouse Rock became a backburner objective after first discovering and gawking at it on our outing to Eagletail Peak last year, but the easiest route was reportedly 4-6 pitches (depending on anchor stations chosen and rope length), up to a rating of 5.5 technical climbing, all trad (I think the crux was a bit harder though, maybe 5.7). I mostly wrote it off because technical rock climbs aren't exactly my cup of tea anymore at this point in my life, but Chris and Matt seemed pretty excited to go for it. After days of ambivalence for climbing the peak, I finally acquiesced. This would likely be the only chance to go for this prominent and impressive monolith in the middle of nowhere, and my friends were really pushing for it. I wasn't thrilled about the fact that it would ultimately take 9 hours to move less than a mile, but one day of minimal physical activity with significant mental fortitude wouldn't hurt to change up my somewhat complancent recent peakbagging habits. Plus, YOLO, I guess...?

To reach the trailhead, we exited the I-10 and navigated here (33.53462, -113.16193), taking Harquahala Valley Road south, then turning right here (33.4645, -113.16191) onto Centennial Road. Turn left here (33.48049, -113.32305) on a much less good road to access the closest parking spot to Courthouse Rock. Decent clearance is required, but a Crossover vehicle could likely get there. We used beta from Christopher Czaplicki's site in order to do the "standard" and easiest route up the peak.

From our parking spot, we headed west toward the protruding southeastern-reaching point of Courthouse Butte. A significant crack was visible for the less than a mile approach through the relatively flat desert. Once at the base, we geared up and Chris led the first pitch. Overall the rock on all the pitches was very good, quite contrary to our recent technical desert peaks over the last few months.

I was only following for the day, Chris playing the part of chaperone, Matt still new to trad and taking on the easier pitches. I'll describe the pitches as we did them, but to keep continuity with Christoper C's TR, I combined the pitches where applicable. However, there were at least two other anchor stations (bolted) that the leader decided to skip, or just couldn't find the bolts. Also note that my pitch lengths are only estimates. I recommend bringing two 70m ropes.

Pitch 1/2: 5.2, 60 feet
There are two chutes at the base of the climb. Chris started up the solid rock rib on the right side of both chutes before gaining a narrower portion of the rib. Some nice ledges led into a short, narrow gully higher up where a bolt station was located. Only about 40 feet up, Chris decided to just continue to the next bolt station, which required a short Class 4 scramble to another set of bolts.

Pitch 3: 5.4, 240 feet
Matt led Pitch 3, which started up a few Class 3 ledges and into a short dihedral, the crux of the pitch. There may have been bolts past this crux, but Matt didn't find any (and might not have been looking for them). A short section of Class 2 continued above the crux up to another low-angle headwall. Here, Matt chose to keep to the right, but the water-carved gully on the left seemed like it also would work. On the ascent, a 70m rope was not long enough, resulting in 15 feet of simul-climbing. For the rappel, the rope did reach due to rope stretch.

Pitch 4: 5.7, 50 feet
Easy climbing starts the first half of the pitch, but the headwall begins to slant until it becomes near-vertical. There were a few bolts placed along this section, but Chris (the leader) decided to not use any of them, deciding they felt poorly placed for the route. A little bit of zig-zagging up the face kept the route easier until the crux of the day, located most of the way up this pitch. At the crux, Chris decided to keep left, traversing slowly for five feet on small and crumbly holds before reaching easier climbing and pulling a lip to get to the next anchor station. I was upset to learn this is what he did while on trad lead, opting to instead find my own way, safely on top rope. I stepped to the right and away from this near-vertical face (rather than traversing left like Chris had) and used a small side-pull on the right in order to wrap around onto an exposed, darkly-colored, high-angled slab with small, solid ledges. I was able to use these fun ledges to ascend, and despite this possibly being a little more difficult than going to the left, I was thrilled to be using solid rock.

Pitch 5: 5.3, 60 feet
From a ledge, Matt started directly up from the bolts up a crack. The rock looked more loose here than the rest of the route, and when it was my turn to climb I decided to keep just left of the crack on Class 2/3, rejoining the route just after. Past here was very fun climbing on solid rock, using small ledges to zig-zag around avoidable small bulges in the face.

Once above Pitch 5, Courthouse Rock's incredible summit became visible ahead. To reach it, we would have to hike for a bit. We kept our gear on (sans climbing shoes) since it was a relatively short walk and scrambled up a short Class 2/3 section to gain flat terrain above. A social trail headed north and descended slightly to the right of a major rock outcrop along the ridge. Class 2 on nice, steep slabs continued up to a small saddle separating this outcrop from the summit pinnacle. The terrain is complex on the right, so it may feel overwhelming to locate the final pitch. Rather than try looking for it on the way up, a good way to find it without too much hassle is to ascend all the way to the saddle and then look east along the base of the cliffs. A Class 2/3 series of ledges becomes obvious from the saddle, leading up to Pitch 6.

Pitch 6: 5.4, 50 feet
A short and crumbly crack leads to the base of a small headwall with a narrow ridge above it. Once on this narrow ridge, large boulders with surprisingly flaky rock continues. Matt chose to keep to the right, following a narrow sidewalk with questionable handholds. I didn't like it one bit. Once we gained the anchor station (bolted), we realized Matt may have gone off-route. Instead of following the narrow sidewalk, likely more difficult climbing would have led more directly up on more solid boulders to the station.

We packed our gear and continued east along the narrow ridgeline on fun Class 3 scrambling to gain the summit of Courthouse Rock.