Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Tiki Part 2

Since climbing Tiki Tower a couple weeks ago I've talked to Jeff a bit about the first ascent.  In November 1991 Jeff Widen, Mitch Allen, Paul Frank and Fred Lifton all hiked up to Tiki Tower to climb it.  Paul and Fred stayed at the saddle on top of the first pitch while Mitch and Jeff pushed the route two more pitches to the summit.  The stance on top of pitch two isn't very large so Paul and Fred were likely waiting below until they could jug a line to the summit.  The last pitch however is a bolt ladder, so by the time Jeff topped out it was well past dark as he remembers.  Mitch cleaned the pitch and met Jeff on the summit.  Paul and Fred likely cold from sitting in the saddle for hours wanted nothing but to rappel to the ground and warm up.
The tower itself is named after a small tiki that Mitch brought all the way to the summit.  Jeff and I were looking through his slides from the trip and were disappointed that he didn't have any photos of the actual tiki.
Fast forward a week, to a phone call from Brad.  Every week Brad hosts a monday night bouldering session at his home wall in Three Rivers, CA.  A new climber recently moved to the area and came to the bouldering session last monday night, his name is Mitch.  Brad and Mitch ended up bullshitting about climbing and Mitch says that he climbed a desert tower years ago.  An obscure one named Tiki Tower!  Turns out the Mitch is Mitch Allen and he still has the tiki 24 years later.  What a small world.
Tiki Tower's namesake.
  

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