
Heading toward the central Coxcomb Mountains. Our summits are too hard to make out from here.

Nearing the base of the initial sub-range we needed to get around.

Dropping into a major drainage.

Coming down into the drainage.

Ascending this major drainage.

Lots of fun scrambling obstacles, Class 4/5 moves mixed in for fun. You can likely get around all of the most serious stuff, but on a massive day like this it's likely you'll get at least a few tough pulls in.

Gorgeous canyon, with far fewer boulders than we anticipated.

The canyon cuts through the first sub-range.


A short section of pretty narrows.

Tyler seen going through one of many rabbit holes.

The canyon cuts southwest and the boulders fade away.

Some tamer hiking as the canyon exits the sub-range.

Opening up into a nice "hidden valley".

Our peaks seen center. Some pleasant desert walking though the hidden valley brought us to their base.

Approaching the base of the peaks we planned for today. Peak 4035 seen center poking out.

Within a progressively more trying drainage. We kept right (see map) at a junction on the way up, coming back from the left.

Continuing toward the boulder-strewn gully in the center.

View back as we start up the gully.

Class 3/4 on steep boulders.

There are ways to keep it less gnarly, but overall it's a lot of significant obstacles up this gully.

View back as we near the top of the bouldery gully.

At the top of the gully, a view toward Peak 4035.

Approaching the base of Peak 4035. We'd decided to bypass for now and snag a farther peak first.

Headed west beneath Peak 4035 on our way to Peak 3937.

Peak 3937 comes into view on the right.

Ascending a brushy drainage on Peak 3937's east side.

Lots of boulder-hopping up a major gully southeast of Peak 3937.

View back down the brushy/bouldery gully. Peak 4035 seen center.

Nearing a false summit.

False summit, view toward the true summit (right of center). The left cliffs look taller, but the high point is on the right. We ascended via the slope seen center and made it to the ridge.

Along the ridge, some Class 2/3 slabs and whatnot. High point seen ahead.

Tyler approaching the Class 4 move to gain Peak 3937's summit.

Relatively tame Class 4.

Some navigating along the final ridge, Class 2/3.

Peak 3937 summit, view east toward Peak 4035 (center) and Peak 3842 (left, our third summit of the day later)

Peak 3937 summit, view north.

Peak 3937 summit, view west toward Spectre Peak.

We backtracked to the base of Peak 4035 and started up its wildly convoluted northern slope.

Lots of crawl-through spaces and route-finding.

Fun talus cave.

We are headed to the saddle above. The high point is on the right.

Finally within the main gully, nearing the saddle above.

View back as we reach the saddle.

At the saddle, view toward the high point (right of center). Ignore the large chute left of center. We headed up the slabs on the right and continued into the small chute right of center.

Some Class 3 up a crack.

View back down toward the saddle about halfway up 50 feet of fun stemming in a protected-feeling chimney/chute.

Tyler continuing up the stemming. Note the diagonal crack above his head. That's the crucial crack for reaching the summit.

Tyler finishing the stemming. He decided to freesolo the crack.

Tyler pulling the crux move on the crack, low Class 5. I would have been comfortable soloing it with climbing shoes, but I would not have wanted to down-climb.

Tyler set up a line for me. It's a short section, but the exposure on the left feels quite real.

Summit of Peak 4035, view toward Peak 3937 (left) and Spectre Peak (distant top right).

Summit of Peak 4035, view east toward the twin (lower) summit (left). Our next peak, Peak 3842 seen left of center.

Heading back down to the saddle.

We backtracked into the drainage on the north side of Peak 4035 and followed it northeast.

I can't imagine someone will come back for this bighorn sheep tracker.

Within the drainage heading toward Peak 3842.

We left the drainage and headed east through tricky terrain toward Peak 3842, seen ahead. The cliffs seemed too substantial from this side, so we wrapped around it using the drainage seen center.

You guessed it, this drainage was bouldery, too.

Wrapping around the summit, two slightly lower sub-peaks of Peak 3842 come into view. We hugged the peak's base on the left.

Ascending Class 2/3 fun boulders and slabs.

Enjoyable scrambling up the southeast ridge of Peak 3842.

View back down as we near the summit.

Class 3 move near the top.

Tyler on the Class 3 move. We came from the saddle seen left of center.

Summit of Peak 3842, view north. Our cars are distant top right. The hidden valley we walked through seen center. The sub-range we avoided also on the right. Spectre Peak seen top left.

Summit of Peak 3842, view northwest. Spectre Peak seen left.

Close-up toward the drainage we will head to in order to get back into the hidden valley.

Summit of Peak 3842, view toward Peak 4035 (center) and Peak 3937 (right). Excellent day of peakbagging.

Summit of Peak 3842, view east toward Granite, Palen, Little Maria.

We backtracked and started descending a more direct, but more bouldery drainage.

Lots of big obstacles.

But also a lot of cool features and talus caves.

The drainage opened up and we soon entered the hidden valley. We backtracked to the cars.
Hire me or show me some love!
Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!