In October of 2008 some friends and I were training for the Phoenix Summit Challenge. We were on top of Lookout Mtn. and we could see: Camelback Mtn., Piestiwa Peak, North Mtn., Shaw Butte, and Lookout was beneath our feet. These five plus South Mtn. and Papago comprise the Summit Challenge; in which you drive to each mountain hike it and the drive to the next. It is 22 miles long and 6000 ft. in elevation gain.
Wanting to eliminate driving we proposed starting on the east side of Camelback at the Cholla Trail head and weaving our way through mostly mountain preserves and a few streets, and eventually arrive at Lookout and my house.
After much training and planning on February 7th we finally accomplished our goal. We started hiking at 5:48am, and after 11hrs 9mins we had covered: 5 mountains, a grand total of 25.2 miles, somewhere close to 6000th ft. up. Six of us started and we all finished. We had one guy hike the first section with us, and we used his car for food and water refilling. Here are some pics, oh and Funfundzwanzig means 25 in German:)
Camelback Mountain
Piestiwa Peak
North Mountain
Shaw Butte
Lookout Mountain
