
Stepladder Mountains way out there. The day begins with a long-ass walk through the desert.

Wrapping around the foothills and heading up a wash.

Stepladder Mountain comes into view.

Our choice of Class 3 ascent up the cliff bands. You can see the base of the conglomerate slab in the center. There is likely more than one way to get there from down here. Ours was fine, but it did have some brush.

Looking back from above the first bit of scrambling, just below the slabs. The drainage we came up is visible in the center, the foothills we wrapped around top right, and our car somewhere in the distance behind the darker hill in the center of the photo.

Starting up the Class 2/3 slabs within the "seam".

Fun stuff.

Looking down at our progress, Matt coming up on the right.

At the top of the slab, a series of nice switchbacks guided us up.


One of the switchbacks, naturally formed on the face of the mountain.

At the top of the switchbacks at a conglomerate notch - a shot looking down as Tyler heads up toward me.

Stepladder Mountain summit block. Tyler (left) is making it harder than necessary. It's a Class 2 summit block.

Stepladder Mountain summit, view south.

After coming down from the slab, we headed south to find another way to the wash visible in the center. Stepstool Peak visible top left, our last peak of the day.

Looking back up toward Stepladder Mountain as we descend.

A bit loose on the way down, but no crazy surprises. Stepstool Peak visible top center.

Heading through the wash, just before leaving it (since it deviates from the direction we need to go). Our route heads straight through the desert and enters another wash.

Within the next drainage as we head toward Misstep Peak.

View back down the drainage on our way to Misstep Peak.

Misstep Peak visible ahead (center).

Close-up of Misstep Peak. The chute we decided to ascend started on the right where the lightly-colored line of rocks is visible, above Matt's head.

Class 2 up the chute to start.

Looking back down the chute in Class 2/3 territory, toward the drainage we came from (top center).

A Class 3+ rock spine leads higher, but the gully on the left goes at Class 2.

Looking down the rock spine, the Class 2 gully visible on the right - the left side in this photo likely would have worked, too. Just behind me is the scary Class 4 move.

Matt sizing up the Class 4 move. See the head-sized boulder in his way? Yeah, it's too untrustworthy to hold, but it's definitely in the way.

View down the Class 4 move, without anyone in it. The ten-foot Class 5 headwall I chose to down-climb later is in the shadows on the left. The rock spine we came up is visible left center.

Class 4 move as Matt makes the step-around move. The exposure is pretty real, just behind him.

A shot of Matt at the top of the Class 4 section, a bit hard to see in this photo.

Misstep Peak summit, view toward Stepladder Mountain.

Back down from Misstep Peak, now headed to the drainage right of center. We came into this area from the saddle in the center.

View back toward Misstep Peak (left).

Minor side-hilling and overall pleasant terrain as we made our way to Conical Benchmark.

Conincal Benchmark ahead, above Matt.

Class 2/2+ up to Conical Benchmark.

Tyler along the Class 2+ summit ridge to Conical Benchmark.

View back from the summit of Conical Benchmark. Misstep Peak visible far left, Stepladder Mountain top right.

Summit of Conical Benchmark, view south toward the Turtle Mountains.

Class 2 down from Conical Benchmark.

Stepstool Peak ahead. Our route led to the lighter-colored blotch, then wrapped around to the right.

Wrapping around the southwest base of Stepstool Peak.

Coming up and around to the peak's northeast side.

View back toward Conical Benchmark (top center). You can see Matt coming up bottom center.

Still wrapping around the peak along the cliff band's base, headed to the chimney visible at the end of the cliff band.

Class 3+ chimney move.

Summit of Stepstool Peak, view toward the southern side of the Stepladder Mountains. We descended from Stepstool Peak's chimney and then via a Class 2 drainage behind me in this photo and headed through the desert back to the car.
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