Twin Peaks (New Water Mountains) 2796'

    There is very little known about this chossy desert feature. There is an abundance of mining roads and appears to be a popular area for 4-wheelers to recreate. Clearly, thousands of people have seen this peak, but the climbing scene seemed to take no interest. I noticed this peak when driving to meet my buddy Dan to climb Weavers Needle near Phoenix but not much thought went into it then. I was primarily seeking out prominent peaks when visiting the area and still figuring out my climbing style, so I just shrugged it off. After multiple visits down in the desert, I learned the exposed rock leads to some of the best scramble routes in the country. I found this peak again on Adams's list that contain towers located in the desert. 

Slab/Approach Pitch

     This tower has two summits with the south summit being the higher of the two with 695ft of prom. The North Peak has an elevation of 2684ft and is not very prominent but was a worthy objective when trying to figure out a route up the main summit. 

 

     During my first attempt at this peak, it was made clear the contour lines did not match the terrain. From the map, it appears you can just walk up the north summit between the two peaks but a featureless vertical wall that would be unprotectable. So, I searched for another route on the North face of the North summit. I climbed up a rotten 5.4 chimney and came to a loose wall with holds blowing out, so I opted to call it and rappel off a small creosote bush. Which really was me down climbing and minimizing the weight on the bush and having the rappel as a backup because I didn't fully trust the bush. After bailing I ran over and scrambled up Peak 2595 located to the West. 

South summit from the top of slab pitch

     I told myself I was done with the peak, and I didn't care about trying it again. After getting back to Alaska I went through my photos from the trip and it looked like I could see another potential route to reach the col between the two peaks. I reluctantly decided to make it a point to climb this peak. On my second go around I fully traversed the peak formation to really scope out the best option. After most of my hope was lost I tried my last option to climb from the South side. After some scrambling I found a moderate angle slab and decided I should throw my rock shoes on and tag the rope behind me. I plucked off lots of loose rock on the way up climbing was around 5.4yds. After about 10m the climbing became class 3 to a giant boulder just heavy enough to belay/rappel from. I then scrambled up the North summit and I was startled when I encountered bighorn sheep. They proceeded to disappear on the backside... No idea where they went it's all cliffs. 

Adam topping out on false summit.

    At this point, I was stoked and I felt a momentary satisfaction in the formation and was okay with not getting the high point. Well at least not for today. I decided that I made it to the col to see how far I could get up the south summit. I scrambled up and things were going again till things got too loose and exposed for me to solo. I happily bailed and decided I would climb this peak with a partner. 

     Round three came along and I was fresh off a red-eye flight, feeling under the weather and ready to lead up this thing. The approach was dialed in, and the first two pitches were all engrained in the back of my mind. I led up the slab pitch and belayed Adam up. We scrambled up to the start of pitch 2. Pitch 2 was class 4 but we placed protection to keep the rope from grabbing onto chollas. Pitch 3 was short-lived because it created too much rope drag to obtain the chimney. The rock on this section was incredibly loose. I placed a nut before the chimney and went inside. This was the crux of the climb. Climbing never exceeded 5.6 but the looseness of the nature, rope drag and exposure increased the pucker factor. 

Summit Looking towards N summit

    In the chimney, I built another anchor, and Adam joined me for the final bit of climbing. Pitch 4 was the longest. Started off as low class 5 to get out of the chimney they became class 4 on very exposed terrain. This pitch was 40m. I was able to place a good amount of protection and another solid boulder to belay Adam up the final pitch. We were now on top of the false summit and were relieved that it was just a nice stroll to the summit from here.

       On the climb and summit, we saw no traces of anyone climbing this peak. I have circled it and tried various routes and saw nothing on those attempts either. We placed a register and built a cairn on the summit. We quickly retreated and started the rappels. We did 3 rappels. First being weird down the ridge then down the chimney. We got the rope stuck on this rappel, so I had to reclimb the route and adjust the rappel. The next rappel the rope got stuck, but I was able to free it but pulling the ends back and forth. We downclimbed and quickly reached the final rappel. I weighed less than Adam, so I sat on the boulder while he rappelled. I wasn't worried about the boulder moving for me as I rappeled off this previously. 

Adam rappelling down the crux pitch some serious exposure left