I've had my eye on Grand Gulch Spire for years. This summer I actually planned the trip to Grand Gulch, but last minute decided to climb the Popes Nose instead, since it was 100+ degrees in the desert. Even though the first ascent was in June, I decided that it would be better to climb the tower in late fall when things were cooler. Especially since I wanted to approach the tower via a 10 mile hike from Collins Spring as opposed to the .5 mile walk from the San Juan River. Most people raft down the San Juan and pull over at Grand Gulch to climb the tower. Logistically rafting is more complicated for me since I don't own a raft.
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| Water falls in Grand Gulch |
Geoff did some research by calling the BLM office in the area to get current conditions on the road into Collins Spring. They told him that the road was basically impassible and that there was a giant rock slide so the river wasn't accessible from above. We decided that we would just hike farther and carry all of our water with us. Luckily we found the road to be dry and although a little rough here and there Geoff thought he could have gotten his Subaru to the TH. I left the TH with 7 liters of water and Geoff had 8. Funnily enough there was a ton of flowing water in Grand Gulch, pot holes full of water, and the rock slide was easily crossed.
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| Pitch 4 traverse |
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| Summit! Luckily no headlamps were needed. |
We got to the base of the the tower with enough light that we decided to do the route that evening. We started climbing at about 2pm and were back on the ground around 5pm. The route was wide, a little dirty, and chossy in spots but to be expected on a tower that doesn't get climbed that often. We slept right at the base of the route and in the morning went down to check out the river. We had walked 10 miles and could see the San Juan River from the tower, we figured we might as well go down to it. After that we started the long hike back to the truck. Our legs were feeling the miles from the day before and although our packs were lighter than the hike in, they were still heavy. It's hard to go light when the rack is a double set through #5 and one #6.
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| Grand Gulch Spire |
Once again, not surprisingly, Geoff and I had a great time adventuring in an amazing area!
Awesome
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