Golden Gate Mountain, Arizona, January 2016

On Tuesday, January 12, I made a short off-trail climb of Golden Gate Mountain, just west of Gates Pass in the Tucson Mountains. I climbed the Northeast slope from the David Yetman West Trailhead. The weather was ideal and the views were excellent. The upper slope was a bit steep but the footing was firm with some fun rock scrambling. Most of the brush was avoidable. I had the summit to myself and met only one party on my descent.

The Northeast slope of Golden Gate Mountain is a fan-like slope descending from rock bands below the north summit between two drainage channels towards Golden Gate Pass above the David Yetman Trail. It is just right of center in the above photo.

The rock bands above the slope were firm and fun to scramble over. Above them the slope eased back and I traversed left (south) below the summit ridge cliffs and up easy scrambling to the summit ridge. In the above photo the summit ridge cliffs are above on the right. The Golden Gate Mountain south summit is the ridge left of center.

I scrambled up the south summit over some firm rock above the steep west face of the mountain. Golden Gate Mountain lies in the Tucson Mountain Park and has excellent views of the Tucson Mountains and the many surrounding ranges in all directions. The south summit had a registry and appeared to be higher than the north summit. After taking many photos I scrambled over to the north summit and got some better views north from there.

The recent mountain snowfall in the higher mountains highlighted those peaks in the distance, especially the Santa Catalina Mountains to the east.

The descent went well. It was helpful to have thick gloves and long pants and shirtsleeves for the occasional brush and cactus. I enjoyed the short climb and after several hikes am gaining confidence in traveling off-trail in the Southern Arizona desert peaks. As the weather warms up in the coming months I will need to carry more water and take extra care watching for rattlesnakes.