Phoenix Mountain Preserve • Tiered Summit Challenge • The Summit
Tier 4 of 4Four Peaks • Four Summits Each • 5am to 11pm • The Full Four
▼ Challenge Details Below
What It Is
El Cuatro is the final tier of the Phoenix Phearsome Phour Challenge. Four summits per peak. Sixteen total summit hits, all completed on the same calendar day. The number is not a coincidence. The challenge is called the Phearsome Phour. Four peaks. Four tiers. The fourth tier requires four summits of each one. That is the whole structure. El Cuatro is where it closes.
If you have worked through the tier system, you know Camelback four times in one day is not an escalation from three times. It is a different conversation. Same for Piestewa, North Mountain, and Shaw Butte. At sixteen summits, you are not just climbing mountains. You are in a sustained negotiation with the Phoenix desert from before sunrise to near midnight, and the desert is negotiating in full sun with no shade and complete indifference to your goal.
El Cuatro has been completed by five known individuals. The first recorded completion was by Jamil Coury and Brett Dubois in March 2018, documented on YouTube. That video is part of what inspired the formation of the Phoenix Phearsome Phour Challenge as an organized community effort. Three additional completions were recorded by members of the 48th State Running group. All five completions predate the official route definition. This page and the official challenge documentation at phoenixphearsomephour.com are the authoritative definition of what an official completion now requires.
First recorded completion: Jamil Coury and Brett Dubois, March 2018. Watch on YouTube →
The Peaks
Each peak must be summited four times, all on the same calendar day. At El Cuatro, route planning is not optional. Managing Camelback's sunrise-to-sunset window across four summits, Piestewa's heat advisory constraints, and the gated access hours at North Mountain and Shaw Butte requires a detailed schedule before the attempt begins. Every peak, every lap, every transition has to fit.
Four summits required, completed as two full yo-yos. A yo-yo is a complete traverse: up and over the summit, down the far side, back up and over the summit, and down to the start. Each yo-yo hits the summit twice. Two yo-yos equal four total summit hits. Participants may start from either Echo Canyon or Cholla Trailhead. Echo Canyon allows staging before sunrise with movement at first light. Cholla opens at sunrise. The entire mountain closes at sunset with no exceptions. All four summit hits must fall within that window.
Four summits required, completed as two full loops. Each loop follows an upside-down Y pattern: up from the main east-side trailhead to the summit, down the 302 switchbacks on the west side, back up to the summit via the east side, and back down to the trailhead. Each loop hits the summit twice. Two full loops equal four total summit hits. The route must follow this structure on both loops. Closes during heat advisories from 8am to 5pm.
Four summits required, completed as two full yo-yos. A yo-yo is a complete traverse: up and over the summit, down the far side, back up and over the summit, and down to the start. Each yo-yo hits the summit twice. Two yo-yos equal four total summit hits. Participants may start from either the north road end or the Quechan Area 7 ramada side. Choose your starting side, complete the first yo-yo, then complete the second.
Four summits required. Shaw Butte does not get easier with repetition. The trail is consistent and the approach is direct, which means you know exactly what is coming on every lap. Confirm the actual summit on each pass, not the saddle below the communication tower. Four laps of Shaw Butte in a single day will clarify your relationship with the desert in ways that are difficult to describe before you have done it.
Summit Sequence
El Cuatro requires a pre-planned schedule. The table below documents the summit hit requirements per peak. No prescribed peak order. Plan your sequence around the access constraints for each peak, particularly Camelback's sunrise-to-sunset window and Piestewa's 11pm closing time.
| Peak | Summit Elevation | Summits Required | Access Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camelback Mountain x4 | 2,706 ft | 4 summits as 2 full yo-yos. Start from either Echo Canyon or Cholla. Each yo-yo traverses the summit twice. All four hits within the sunrise-to-sunset window. | Open sunrise to sunset only. Hard close at sunset. No exceptions. Heat advisory closure 8am to 5pm. |
| Piestewa Peak x4 | 2,610 ft | 4 summits as 2 full loops. Each loop: east-side trailhead up to summit, down 302 switchbacks west side, back up to summit east side, back down to trailhead. | Heat advisory closure 8am to 5pm. Gated trailhead: evening hours apply to all four laps. |
| North Mountain x4 | 1,919 ft | 4 summits completed as 2 full yo-yos. Each yo-yo traverses the summit twice. Start from either the north road end or the Quechan Area 7 ramada side. | Gated trailhead. All four laps must fall within posted access hours. |
| Shaw Butte x4 | 2,149 ft | 4 summits. Direct out-and-back executed four times. Summit confirmed, not saddle. | Gated trailhead. All four laps within posted access hours. |
Before You Go
There is no softening available for El Cuatro. This section is a briefing, not an asterisk. If you are reading it as part of your preparation for an actual attempt, read it completely and read it seriously.
Official Stance of the Phoenix Phearsome Phour Challenge
We strongly encourage you not to attempt this challenge.
El Cuatro is sixteen summits in a single day. This is the top of the tier system. The gold tier. The one named "The Four" because that is exactly what it is and there was nothing left to add to make it sound more serious. The name is the whole description.
We built this tier because it already existed in practice. Jamil Coury and Brett Dubois completed it in March 2018 before anyone had organized it, named it, or written a single rule about it. Three members of the 48th State Running group did it too. That video, and those efforts, are why this challenge exists as a formal community endeavor. El Cuatro is not a theoretical tier. It is a documented, achievable thing that five people have done. The official route now gives it a canonical definition.
The Phoenix Phearsome Phour Challenge, its organizer, and anyone associated with it accept zero responsibility for what happens during your El Cuatro attempt. That includes every category of outdoor misadventure the desert is capable of delivering across a sixteen-summit day, plus any spiritual or philosophical developments that occur somewhere around summit twelve when you are on your fourth lap of Piestewa and the question of why you are doing this stops being rhetorical.
You have been warned. With full seriousness. Once, because we ran out of clever ways to say it and started respecting the attempt.
Pre-dawn. Double nutrition. Full schedule on paper. The record is open. Go get it.
Route Rules
The Reward
Sixteen summit hits, all completed on the same calendar day. To claim your El Cuatro badge and be added to the Wall of Fame, complete all three steps: submit your attempt using the official form at phoenixphearsomephour.com, provide a link to your public Strava activity, and post it to the Phoenix Phearsome Phour Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/phoenixphearsomephour. All three are required. The El Cuatro badge is the highest tier recognition in the Phoenix Phearsome Phour Challenge. Five individuals are known to have completed the quad-summit concept before the official challenge existed. The badge is waiting for the first person to complete the officially documented route and submit their record.
The El Cuatro badge runs in near black and gold. The darkest tier badge in the system, with the gold of the challenge crest at its base. Five people are known to have done this before the official challenge existed. The badge is waiting for the first official completion under the documented route definition.
Wall of Fame
If you are reading this after completing El Cuatro under the official challenge definition, this section is for you. Sixteen summits. Same calendar day. All four peaks. You did what five people before you did, and you did it on the record.
Claim Your Spot
Three steps to make it official and earn your place on the El Cuatro Wall of Fame.
All three steps required. Complete them all and your name goes on the wall.
The Full Picture
Above El Cuatro is the Phoenix Phearsome Phour 70K. The ultra route. Forty-four miles, eight summit hits across all four peaks in a continuous out-and-back. It is a different category of challenge entirely. It is not a tier. It is the route that exists for people who finished the tier system and asked what else the desert had.
The 70K Ultra route documentation, the official GPX file, and the full challenge record are at phoenixphearsomephour.com. If you are standing here, at the end of the El Cuatro page, reading this sentence, you probably already know that.