Weavers Needle

5-Apr-97

By: Patty Kline, Dennis Richards

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This was a great private climb of Weavers Needle led by Dennis Richards.

Three of us, Steve Nardi, Patty Kline and Delores Holladay, started at 4:23am (all times given in California Time) on Saturday April 5th to get an early start. We took route B from the Peak Guide. The Peralta Trail was hiked about 2.5 miles through Peralta Canyon to Fremont Saddle at 3766 feet. Then we dropped down into scenic Boulder Canyon about 2 miles and 500 feet and turned right on a well ducted trail to the cleavage between the 2 lobes of the peak. We reached the base of the climb at 7:45am. The bulk of the group met us at 8:15 am, ready to go. The main group left at 6:00am, doing a much faster pace They were Dennis Richards. Shelly Rogers, Mark Adrian, Carol Snyder. Rich Gnagy and Fred Bright. Our group totaled nine. It was very cold and threatening rain, with temperatures well below average. Phoenix didn't get into the 70's that day.

After a 3rd class pitch that 1/2 the group took a belay, we did the crux pitch. It was 165 feet of 5th class right above the 3rd class pitch. The 5th class pitch was a mixed bag with 3rd/4th class moves and a lot of 5.3/5.4 moves. The chalk stone at the top was difficult so we all stepped around to the right for the 10 or so feet of 5.6.

Above the chalk stone the other route in the Peak Guide, listed as route A, joined ours. We had taken route B, which is considered safer because of much less danger of rock fall. No one brought a helmet, but helmets would have been nice for a large group like ours because of greater potential for rock fall, ever so small the rocks that were.

The top was Delores Holiday's second DPS list finish! To my knowledge only a few others have finished 2 times or more. Delores did number 96 on the list 2 years ago, so this was a moment long waited for. We all congratulated her and finished off our lunches, most of which we had eaten at the flat areas near the belay stations while coming up.

We then rappelled off the top in a pitch involving 30 feet of free rappel. A total of 4 pitches were rappelled. The longest was the 165 foot 5th class pitch we had climbed up. Some people took a 5th rappel on the 3rd class pitch where we started our climb.

7:00pm found us back at the cars. A nice happy hour by a campfire was made even happier with Delores's second list finish celebration. Again, Delores, congratulations from the group and everyone in the DPS!


Detailed information for visiting one or more peaks mentioned in this article can be found in the
Desert Peak Section Road and Peak Guides

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