Hike Fig Peak (Peak 4140) Mount Nutt Wilderness BLM, AZ

Jan 22, 2023 — Fig Peak is a minor summit just below Mount Nutt in the Mount Nutt Wilderness, though it's a peak that's sort of on its own and easily overlooked, though I guess most of the peaks out here in the Black Mountains are generally overlooked. We named it Fig Peak based on its proximity to Fig Spring nearby. You'll notice on my attached map that we formed a loop, the eastern portion following a "road" for some time. You can possible drive out on the adjacent road grid and do this hike as a shorter out and back from that direction, but those are possibly pretty poor roads and also you'll be missing a lot of the gorgeous scenery when coming in using the western portion of our loop. Assuming you do the hike as we did, I recommend starting from Dawson Drive, passable by any vehicle. A legal road continues for a while into BLM-managed land, but it's quite rough and I recommend just parking on Dawson Drive to save your tires.

On a topo map Fig Peak looks like a real puzzle, the most likely ascent option likely on its north side. We planned to wrap around the peak's circumference until locating a weakness. Our group set out on the road for a couple of miles. Along the way it entered what seems to be private land based on a map, though there's only one "no trespassing" sign that we could see and it was for a spur road leading out to Fig Spring. We heard gunshots, likely less legal an activity here than our hike, so we took a minute to go confirm with them we weren't in their line of fire. They seemed spooked, quickly assuring us they were finishing up and apologized for being so close. It's nice to encounter courteous gun owners in remote places.

Soon we were within the Mount Nutt Wilderness and we entered a major drainage complete with running water and plenty of foliage. A burro trail kept the bushwhacking to a minimum as we enjoyed the cliffs formed by this unnamed creek. There was even a short section of box canyon that felt particularly cozy. The canyon opened up into a gorgeous desert setting, the eroded faces of the Black Mountains always a glorious sight. We stuck more or less to the drainage, boulder-hopping at times as we inspected the western cliffs of Fig Peak. No weaknesses yet. We were still hopeful for a route to emerge.

A brushy slope popped in on the right, finally a chance to make some upward progress. An animal trail wrapped around the brush and brought us up to a wide, steep slope leading up the north side of Fig Peak. A low-angle gully appeared on the right, a severe break in an otherwise formidable cliff face. It seemed like the most viable option we had, so we begrudingly decided to wrestle with some brush to get to its start and headed up. Ultimately this gully went at Class 3 due to a couple of short sections on solid rock, but its majority was Class 2. Somehow we were able to just keep making vertical progress, a seemingly miraculous feat considering the otherwise impenetrable faces surrounding Fig Peak. There was certainly some loose rock, but it was actually a pretty fun scramble. Toward the top of the gully was a small headwall, so we climbed out (Class 3) on the right and continued up some more scrambling and ultimately to a grassy slope. The summit was still not visible, and we didn't let go of the idea that we could still be cliffed out.

The grassy slope brought us to a rocky spine, which we crossed over and then the summit came into view. On our ascent we followed the rocky spine crest (Class 2/3), an extracurricular activity I recommend doing if only to get a view of an incredibly sheer drop. I left our descent on my attached map, which parallels the rocky spine by traversing an easy slope rather than sticks to the crest. The summit block looked serious from afar, but Matt and Chris found a loose Class 3/4 chute to reach the summit. Alternatively, we wrapped around the block's eastern side, spiraling nearly all the way around the summit block in order to keep the ascent fun Class 2/3.

On the way back we decided to attempt a loop, so at the base of the extended miraculous gully, we hung right and ascended a hundred vertical feet to a minor saddle. From here we descended to the east down a grassy and often rocky slope. It was definitely less pretty than the ascent, but there was a nice short section with running water and some of the monoliths on this side of Fig Peak were pretty cool to look at. I think we were all a bit curious to see if the eastern cliffs had any possible ascent options, but we wre pretty confident the gully we found was the only non-technical option. We reached what's marked on maps as Quartzsite Road, but it's really not much of a road. We followed it, then took another unmarked road leading south and then continued through the open desert back to the BLM road we hiked in on initially.