| Although Picacho del Diablo has been
climbed a number of times in the past, this mountain has thwarted more attempts
to scale its summit than successes scored against it. This almost appears to
infer that a "battle" is waged by the mountain and its protagonists, and in a
sense this may well be true, because this Desert Peak, more than any other on
our list, is guarded by a most difficult approach, difficult class 3 pitches in
the canyons leading to its summit, confusion in finding the correct routes, and
at times rough stretches of brush, cats claw and cactus. The long four-day Thanksgiving holiday saw thirty-three humans near the mouth of Canyon del Diablo. Six made a false start up Canyon del Diablito before realizing their mistake. On the evening of Thanksgiving Day was staged a dramatic breech in the defense of the mouth of the Canyon with its poet and waterfall. Three men, Gordon Duce, Vernon Stiles, and Herbert Sargent, performed a feat that earned the warm thanks of the rest of the party following the next day. Gordon waded into the pool to his neck in the cold water, and after several attempts, successfully landed the end of an 18-foot plank on the lip of the falls. To the upper end of this plank had been tied a 550-lb. test nylon string. While Gordon stood shivering in the pool with only his head showing and holding the plank steady, Vern balanced his way up the slippery board holding on to the string while carrying a 120-foot climbing rope. The nylon string was tied to a bush upstream to prevent the plank from slipping from the lip of the falls. Then Vern tied the climbing rope to a sturdy bush 40 feet upstream and threw the other end to Gordon and Herb who tightly secured the rope to a stout bush below the pool on the left. This rope therefore angled against the shoulder of the cliff forming the left wall of the falls (see Sketch #l). |
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| The main party spent
about an hour climbing hand over hand with packs up the hold-less granite into
the trough above the falls. The rope was left in place to aid in the return
over the falls. Again many thanks to Gordon, Vern and Herbert. Since the fire years ago, considerable brush had grown in the canyon making the going pretty slow and rough up-canyon. The brush obliterated landmarks, so that Vern Jones, Gordon Dues, and I, who had previously been up the canyon, found accurate route finding difficult. About 4 pm a fairly level spot near the stream was located and the advisability of making camp here was apparent, as there were several people 15-20 minutes behind the main party with darkness approaching. Since Canyon del Diablo is completely trail-less, the large party had experienced a 1ong day of brush-wacking, boulder-hopping, and class 2-3 scrambling with peaks. The |
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