On October 29, 2020, “Big Willi” Blair Nicodemus and I made the long, bumpy 4WD drive north from the historic Cerro Gordo townsite to the road’s end at 9,800’ along the Inyo Crest. A decent trail led to the top of New York Butte in less than one mile. From there, a long spine of brown granodiorite drops over 1,000’ eastward into the headwaters of Hunter Canyon. This interesting feature can only be seen from the top of the peak or from down in Saline Valley over 8,000’ below.

We descended a loose, steep talus gully on the north side of this arête to a point where we could scramble onto its toe. Eight pitches of moderate (5.5 to 5.8) climbing led upward along the twisting narrow northeast arête. A short rappel off the final gendarme (Lady Liberty) and some unroped scrambling brought us back to the summit where we’d started. The climb was like a poor man’s version of the easier routes on Temple Crag in the High Sierra, with good exposure and solid incut face holds: 1,300’, III 5.8.

— Richard Shore