Trip report
Jan 11, 2020 — After the first time I checked out the Arrow Canyon Range High Point, I kept getting a strange draw to come back to the area. After more research, Broken Arrow appeared to be the highlight, so Adam and I set out with high hopes. It didn't disappoint! Our route heads up to Hidden Benchmark, over to Broken Arrow, back to Hidden Benchmark, and then over to Question Mark Peak. Just a note that I would actually recommend combining my Arrow Canyon Range High Point route and this route for a full ridge traverse. It would be a long day, but in hindsight I think would have been a good time.
From the side of NV 93, we headed east through the desert for a couple of miles, Broken Arrow's sheer and gorgeous banded cliffs visible above. Our first landmark was a major wash drainging northwest. We headed up this Class 2 boulder-hop. At the fork, we kept left and ascended to the ridge just north of Arrow Peak. We could see Hidden Benchmark to the north, our first goal, and Question Mark Peak to the east, our last goal. It seemed a little silly to get it since it was a bit out of the way and would require losing quite a bit of gain to get back, but we decided later it was worth it. We ascended the ridge to Hidden Benchmark, some Class 2 and Class 2+ cliff bands along the way, and then continued past the peak north to Broken Arrow. It looked completely impenetrable on the way over, but as we got closer, we noticed a weakness along the south side of the peak.
Just below the base of Broken Arrow, a small bright cliff band served as a fun Class 3 obstacle which we tackled from the west side, and then we were at the base of Broken Arrow. Surprisingly, the scramble up the black cliff band that looked so daunting earlier went at Class 3, with a single Class 3+ move toward the end. I really enjoyed this section of scrambling. It was just thoughtful enough and the rock was solid, so it ended up being a lot of fun. We continued on Class 2 to the summit, took in the views, and returned the way we came back to Hidden Benchmark.
We saw the inviting ridge leading south to Question Mark Peak and strolled over to it on easy terrain, except for the last few rocky hundred or so feet to the summit. Adam and I both thought Question Mark Peak should have a better name that stuck with the Arrow theme of the other peaks, so he suggested "Quiver Peak". Noting someone else had called it "Bueno Vista Peak" (note the poor Spanish misspelling) in the register, we thought giving it a third name would be irresponsible. From the summit, we noted the jagged ridge leading from Arrow Canyon Range High Point to Arrow Peak to the west, and the saddle to the right of the ridge where we came up earlier in the day that we'd have to return to in order to get back down. With a small sigh, we realized we'd have to drop down well below the saddle, and then regain about 600 feet because of how set off from the ridgeline Question Mark Peak is. We headed back down the north ridge from Question Mark Peak to a low point and dropped into a drainage leading west. We followed it for a while and then ascended a slope back to the saddle, where we dropped back down into our drainage we ascended that morning.