Initially we planned on doing a small river trip to climb the 'Green River Towers' between Spring Canyon and Hell Roaring Canyon. Unfortunately between the weather and the start of the Corona Virus people bailed until all that were left was Trevor, Neil and I. We decided to hold off on the Green River Towers for a bit but since we already had a canoe organized we decided to do some other towers down river a bit.
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| 'Vena Cava' |
First up was 'Vena Cava'. We paddled across to a sandbar just up from the tower and pushed through some brush to get to the base of the talus cone. Shortly, we were looking up at the only published route on the tower thinking it wasn't as inspiring as we were hoping. Luckily we spotted a route on the up hill side of the tower. The route appeared to have a crack running all the way to the summit but since we didn't have a bolt kit with us we just hoped for the best. Luckily I was able to get to the top with some pulling on cams and aiding. Trevor was able to free the route on TR at about 5.12-. Later we found out that the route had been climbed by Ralph in the past.
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| Ben on the beginning chimney. |
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| Trevor on 'The Tool' |
After 'Vena Cava' and getting back to the car we decided to check out a tower we noticed on the east side of the river in a little sub canyon between Hell Roaring and Mineral Bottom. Not knowing if it had been climbed before we hauled a bunch of gear up to the base. We found a very faded plaque under the obvious crack system on the West face. It appeared to read, 'The Tool' 5.10+. Trevor started up pitch 1 and built a belay in a little alcove about 3/4 of the way up the tower. The final pitch to the summit has some cool face climbing past bolts. Before we started up we noticed a stuck rope in the notch, and unfortunately after we rappelled the last 20' of my tag line suffered a similar fate.
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| Neil rappelling 'The Tool'. |
The next and last day out, we crossed the river again to climb a tower called 'Horse Thief'. Getting the canoe into the river on the east side required lowering it down a steep embankment and then carefully getting in. On the west side we just left the canoe tied up and floating in the river while we headed off to spend the next half hour thrashing through the thick brush on the rivers edge. Finally we broke out of the brush and found an old road though a cliff band and headed up the talus cone to the base.
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| Neil on top of P1 of 'Horse Thief' |
The original route's first pitch is a 5.8 chimney but Neil spotted a nice splitter to the left that appeared to lead to the same saddle as the chimney. Neil lead the fun first pitch, Trevor took the crux second pitch and I lead the last pitch to the summit. The route that goes at 5.10 was a great outing with minimal choss. We headed back to the vehicles and then back to service, where we discovered that the Corona Virus has exploding and that our future desert plans would have to be put on hold.
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| Trevor and Ben on top of 'Horse Thief' |
