Emery Peak

Route: East Ridge, South Slopes
Posted On: 8/4/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: CR 25 is closed 1.1 miles from the bottom but the construction crew farther up didn't seem to mind me hiking through, thanks guys. The east ridge is Class 3 in one 30-foot spot ascending the second ridge bump, the one with a closed contour on topo maps. Everything else is Class 2 but often steep and/or loose. I descended southeast into McCarty Basin for fun and the entire route is Class 2, again steep/loose. There are quite good game trails that begin near the small pond marked on maps and they take you to the mid/lower east ridge, saving navigation of the cliffs into the lower basin. 

Route: From Bonita Peak
Posted On: 8/3/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: Emery is the one peak I didn't get on this outing, as the upper summit block from Bonita is vertical, very exposed, and looks rather chossy. Bonita's south ridge is Class 2 to the saddle with Emery, and the ascent up to Emery's summit block is mostly Class 2 with a little Class 3 thrown in right at the top. However, the scramble tops out on a false summit and from the false summit things look grim, with a short, extremely rotten down climb to a small dirt saddle between the true and false summits, and then extremely loose traverses to get to what appears to be the only viable route up the summit block, a minimum Class 4, vertical, rotting chimney that gave me the heebie jeebies looking at it. I bailed instead of committing to climbing any of that, since I didn't know if I'd be able to down climb it nor what was on the other side of Emery; as it turns out I think it might be Class 2 from McCarty Basin, so it's probably best to avoid linking Bonita and Emery.