Southern Exposure

It seems that the majority of cliff faces in southern Arizona, especially those made of limestone, are south facing. Is this an accurate observation? Is there a geologic reason for this?

Mustang - Limestone; South facing
The Dry - Limestone; South facing
Mount Lemmon - Granite; Varied but south face has way more rock.
Cochise - Granite; Varied but there seems to more more sothern exposure.
Baboquivari - Granite; Varied but most of the routes are south face.

Where is my north facing limestone?!?

Farmhouse.

Jback: How do you get to the Farmhouse?

See Tucson Sport Select:

math.fullerton.edu/tmcmille…

Take pictures and share your thoughts if you head out there.

Lot of north facing limestone, most of it untapped, in central AZ around Dripping Springs, Homestead, Silver Creek, etc. I find more east-west facing walls myself.

Super-Homestead. 1/2 mile east of homestead. High level of motivation required. Huge walls facing NW to due N. Please, someone who likes developing more than I, go there. I want to climb your routes.

BenClimbing wrote:Super-Homestead. 1/2 mile east of homestead. High level of motivation required. Huge walls facing NW to due N. Please, someone who likes developing more than I, go there. I want to climb your routes.

Ben is talking about the Hinterland.
Yes, please, someone highly motivated get out there and put some routes up!!

Quite a bit of East facing rock on the Lemmon. More than S. facing I think. Get yourself an excavator. Wait, that is Jim and I at the Boneyard (N. facing). Homestead is in a canyon that runs roughly N. South. Farmhouse is N. Facing. Stronghold is East West mostly. Babo has most routes on the E. Face. Take your compass if you don't believe me.

Angel, the Farmhouse is the wall on the left as you head to the road to the Mustang. Bob Kerry and I did a route on the east face eons ago that was so loose we never went back despite thinking the Rap we did on the N. face would make a nice route with some cleaning. The dome above the houses West of the Mustang turn has possibilities as well.

Great post-up of the Hinterland, Red. I missed that. It looks awesome. Too bad the approach is so long.

Thanks, Hendrixson. I wish the approach was shorter too!

Horses. And pack mules.

Wish I had... That would be awesome! Even just the pack mules.

Regarding the OP, much to my chagrin I have never touched southern Arizona limestone.

However, with regard to other rock types, there is a huge swath of rock on the NW side of the Catalinas that faces almost exclusively north and west. Mendoza Canyon--mostly east and north. Elephant Head--north and west. Sabino--mostly west and north. And giant blobs of rock like Babo and the Rockfellows seem to face equally in all directions.

Alright, alright... my claim of south facing stone was incorrect. It must just feel like that after being blasted by the sun.

Didn't mean to pile on :) It was an interesting question (for a nerd such as myself) that got me pondering.