Assorted Small Moab Towers.

Matt and I were lucky enough to get out a few times this winter and climb some little towers around Moab that we've missed for whatever reason over the years.  Some of them are older routes that aren't described in guide books or online, while others are new towers.

Matt on 'The Phurba'

 'The Phurba' is a small tower right off Kane Creek that we've looked at for years as we drove by on our way to other objectives.  Thinking that it wasn't described anywhere we finally walked over to check it out and found a route that was fairly casual.  Later we discovered that the route had been posted on Mountain Project for that last 6 years...

Unknown Tower

This unknown tower was a fun outing that seems to get called 'Arnold Ziffle' frequently.  I have a hard time calling it that because the info for 'A.Z.' in Desert Rock 3 doesn't match the route in any way.  Matt and I walked out to the tower in the rain on one trip to scope the approach and the route and then returned to climbed it in better weather the next trip.  

Matt on 'Frightened Pickle'

We checked out Hunter Canyon which has 3 towers we'd never climbed and discovered that the middle tower(Frightened Pickle) had had the bolts chopped.  We climbed the other 2 and returned on the next trip to put up a new route on the 'Frightened Pickle'.  Matt topped out in 6" of snow and crawled up the gradual slope to the summit.  Luckily he was able to locate the old anchor studs by sweeping his arms and legs around in the snow.  We had some hangers and nuts so he was able to reuse the bolts. 

Ben on 'Misplaced Lunate'

On the same snowy trip Matt and I drove north of Moab a bit to check out a couple little towers that we thought hadn't been climbed.  My wrist had been hurting for months and his hips are jacked up some we named the towers accordingly.

Matt leading 'Hip Displasia'

Matt and I around this time noticed that we were starting to lose stuff.  Matt lost two aiders and I lost my watch.  We are usually pretty good at doing idiot sweeps before we leave an area so this generally doesn't happen.  We decided to retrace our steps and hike back to a couple of the towers.  At the 'Phurba' we found one of Matt's aiders and the other at the base of the 'Frightened Pickle'.  My watch I found a couple weeks later hiding in a pocket. 

Ben on 'Hissing Cobra'

The 'Hissing Cobra' is an amazing little tower that was undocumented and just hidden enough that it is easily overlooked.  We hiked up to it assuming it had been climbed but came prepared for an FA.  As  we approached the West face we started seeing bolts.  Assuming that was the only route on this little tower we started up without walking around to the East side.  As it turns out there is a route on both sides of the tower and we chose the harder of the two.  Luckily we had the stick clip with us as we were not prepared for the hooking and/or hard free climbing the route was probably actually put up for. 

Ben on 'Crying Python'

On the hike back to the car we paused and scoped out a towery feature just west of the 'Hissing Cobra'.  I was able to sneak up a chimney and ledge system to its west.   I got about 60' up with only the coiled tag line I'd brought.  From there I threw down an end of the tag line and hauled up my harness, rope, cams, drill, etc. Matt put me on belay and I continued to the summit.

New England Ice Climbing

Matt and I both had lost some of our enthusiasm for ice climbing over the years.  Personally repeating routes isn't that interesting and after a while we'd both climbed most of what SW Colorado had to offer multiple times.  The last couple years I've been going to Cody, WY for an ice trip to get on new routes and check out a different area.  This year however the Cody trip fell through, so Matt and I decided to check out New England.  We mostly had our eyes on 'Repentance' and 'Remission' but quickly learned that there was a ton of ice in the North East.  Matt grew up just south of Boston.  He'd spent a lot of time in the mountains out there when he was a kid, and knew the area. Matt flew out a couple days early to visit his dad before I showed up.  I flew into Boston and he picked me up in a Ford Fiesta rental car.  Maybe not the best winter vehicle but we'd make it work.  

Matt belaying P2 on The Black Dike.

New Hampshire: First up was 'The Black Dike' which I learned is on the same cliff where the old man in the mountain was before it fell down.  We walked up to the climb to find another party ahead of us.  The route was maybe a touch thin but still good fun.  We topped out in a light rain and quickly headed for the car.  

Hackett Trembley P1

Maine: The next day we decided to check out a route called the 'Hackett Trembley'.  There isn't a ton of info that we could find on it but luckily it's visible from the road and we found an old boot pack.  At the base we noticed that about 40-50' up there was a section that looked especially thin and delaminated.  I headed up to assess from a closer vantage.  Turned out that the lower bit was also delaminated and I came down after realizing that there was no good gear to protect the really thin bit.  We decided since we were there we might as well bush whack to the top to top rope the route instead of leaving completely empty handed. 

Hackett Trembley P2 on a mega TR.

At about 200' tall the 'Hackett Trembley' is a giant TR!  After tip toeing past the thin bit we were both glad I didn't continue up and risk getting hurt on our second day in the middle of now where.

Called on Account of Rain

Vermont: We next headed to Lake Willoughby which has a whole cliff band of amazing ice climbs right next to each other.  We had heard that 'Called on Account of Rain' was in so we started there.  Things went smoothly because it was picked out from all the recent traffic.  The route apparently doesn't always come in.  We were back at the base at 11am and started looking for another route.  We walked the cliff band until we saw 'Reign of Terror'.  We'd walked under a bunch of ice to get there, but when you are the only one at Lake Willoughby you can be picky.

Reign on Terror

Quebec: A storm was scheduled to hit so we made the logical decision to go to Canada.  Living in Colorado neither of us own a Goretex coat because it's generally dry or so cold when it's snowing that we get away with softshells. All we have are thin rain coats that we almost left at home.  We did both have some old Goretex bibs that we had sprayed some waterpoofing on before the trip.  The storm lasted the entire day and just while we were on the route it accumulated 6".  There was constant spindrift which at first added to the fun of climbing but as we got wetter just made it solid type 2 fun. 

Le Gringalet

The highlight of Canada other than the great experience of climbing in the snow storm was getting back to the vehicle and realizing that there was poutine next door.  What a way to warm up!  The roads had gotten much worse since we'd left the car and the drive to Burlington ended up being pretty epic with lots of pushing the vehicle up hills.

Ragnarock Direct at Elephants Head

Vermont: After sleeping in Burlington we headed for Smugglers Notch and parked with all the skiers  heading for the resort.  We shouldered our packs and started walking up the snowy road to Elephants Head.  Unfortunately the storm that we had driven through the day before had dumped a bunch of snow at Smugglers Notch and we were the first ice climbers up there so we were breaking trail up to Elephants Head. 

Positive Thinking

New York: The last day of ice climbing had us heading on the ferry across Lake Champlain to Poke-O-Moonshine.  We climbed a great route called 'Positive Thinking' and then decided to give 'Discord' a go.  The first pitch of 'Discord' was thinner and more delaminated than I expected but luckily I brought some rock gear which made it doable.  Matt lead the last pitch and we called it a trip.

Discord

Unfortunately 'Remission' and 'Repentance' were not in while we were in New England.  Next time in addition to 'Remission' and 'Repentance' we have our eye on 'Maine Line' and some stuff further north in Quebec.

Park Avenue

I've always neglected towers in Park Avenue for whatever reason but in the last few months we climbed a hand full of them.  Last fall after topping out the Citadel in the morning Matt and I climbed The Corn Dog in arches in the afternoon.  We'd tried to climb The Corn Dog a few years ago but it had snowed and was dark and we couldn't figure out how to get by the snowy slabs to access the tower.  This time things went smoothly.  We got to the base and we were able to stick clip bolt to bolt past all the empty pin holes.

The Corn Dog

A month or two later, the day after Matt and Justin climbed Bridal Veil Falls and The Titan in a day we went back to Park Avenue.  Justin was halfway up the first pitch of the Candelabrum when I showed up.  I'd gotten off work that morning and driven straight from Farmington to Arches National Park.  I led the second pitch to the shoulder because the old Desert Rock topo didn't show anchors on the summit.  Luckily Sam had already climbed the tower and had replaced the undocumented crappy anchors with fatty bolts.  

Igor on the left and Nefertiti on the right.

We rappelled off the back side of the Candelabrum and headed for Nefertiti.  I didn't know that there was a route on Nefertiti until I saw a photo on Instagram with people on it.  Luckily they gave me some info that pointed us in the right direction.  When we had climbed The Corn Dog we'd noticed lead bolts on Igor (the tower between Nefertiti and The Corn Dog) so we weren't surprised to to see and anchor on the summit block of Igor.  After we summited Nefertiti Matt was able to throw a rope with a big knot in it over Igor and get the knot stuck in the crack that splits the summit.  I then rappelled off Nefertiti to the notch between the towers and batmaned up the fixed line while Matt gave me a TR from the top of Nefertiti.  Luckily the jammed knot didn't move or it would have been one nasty swing.  The anchor webbing on Igor was so rotten that the quick link was sitting on the dirt below the anchor.  

Jammed knot.

The last tower for the day was Jello Tower.  The last pitch of this route is supposed to be scary aid climbing past big blown out pin scars.  Luckily when we got there we found one fixed pin and two lead bolts protecting the climbing.  Unfortunately after summiting in the dark and rappelling back to the ground we forgot to make sure there were no knots in the end of the rope when we were pulling the ropes.  Just when we thought our day was over a knot got stuck in the anchor.  I ascended the stuck rope while on belay from below, placing gear in the first pitch as I went.  Turned out the jammed rope just had a few twists and hitches!

The Citadel

The Citadel is a huge tower that has been on my list for years.  Last November Matt and I hiked out there and gave it a go.  I had just hurt my wrist and Matt's hip wasn't feeling great so we were a good team. 

Matt on Pitch 1.

 I left Farmington after getting off of work and met up with Matt in Cortez.  We drove out Onion Creek and hiked up the super cool canyon to the Mysteries.  I wasn't sure how hammering would feel on my wrist so Matt took the first pitch which was a line of beaks right off the ground.  As scary as it was to watch him lead the pitch while belaying, I'm sure it was even more scary to actually lead it!  Matt topped out P1 and I led the long second pitch to the shoulder.  The sun was starting to go down and as much as we wanted to push it to the summit we opted to rap and hike out.

Pitch 2 muddy crack.

 On the second day we hiked back in and jugged the fixed line back up to the top of pitch 2.  Matt was leading pitch 3 when he pulled off a microwave sized block 40' up.  It was nice that it was light for that and because pitch 3 wandered a bit and required some route finding.

Typical bolt.

 On the 4th pitch I wished we had another big cam but was able to make it to the short bolt ladder and the better rock making up the summit.

Summit!

 I was never really interested in climbing the Atlas in the Mysteries because it looks more like a big fin than a tower.  However after climbing the three obvious towers in the mysteries(Doric, Gothic Nightmare and Citadel), Atlas and the Hydra are looking more appealing...

Gothic Nightmare on the left and the Citadel on the right.

Sierras 2019

This summer when Matt and I were driving across Arizona we weren’t driving through smoke and didn’t turn north and go to Wyoming instead of California as we had in 2018. This summer Matt and I drove straight to Lone Pine, CA and got permits for the next day. We hoped to climb at the Whitney Portal that afternoon but it was so hot we just napped in the shade instead. Matt had hiked up Whitney when he was younger but hadn’t technically rock climbed in the eastern Sierra before.  I’d climbed in the eastern Sierra but had never been in the Whitney zone.

Making some coffee while we wait for the Ranger Station to open.

We woke early, shouldered our heavy packs, and headed for Iceberg Lake. We set up our tent, where we’d sleep for the next 3 nights and started toward the Keeler Needle.  Already at 8am we were down to t-shirts and sweating.  We expected cool temps/wind/weather since we were in the high country so we brought our puffy coats. Puffy coat that would never get put on because the temps would never drop, the winds would never come in, the clouds would never come, we cooked all day.

Matt following a pitch on Fishhook Arete.

The next day we headed over to Mt. Russell and climbed the ‘Fishhook Arete’ in the morning.  In the afternoon we climbed ‘Western Front’. In addition to both routes being awesome there was a slight wind that kept the heat down and made for a great day. The plan initially was to do a route on Whitney our last day up there before hiking out.  We decided because of the temps and mediocre rock on Keelers Needle to head out early and go check out another area.

Matt following a pitch on Western Front.

We hiked out and ironically headed to Temple Crag which is lower elevation and generally worse rock. We decided to do something car to car in a day so we didn’t have to deal with permitting.  The plan was to climb ‘Dark Star’ then continue to Mt. Gayley and Mt. Sill but after topping out Temple Crag and looking at the loose ridge that separated us from Gayley we decided to head back to the car.  And to be honest I probably didn’t bring enough food with me to actually be able to continue onto Sill without bonking and probably dying.  Although ‘Dark Star’ doesn’t seem to have the best reputation in terms of loose rock, we found the rock climbing to be fun and all the 4th and easy 5th class to be solid enough. All in all it was a great day.

Matt leading the crux of Dark Star in approach shoes.

After Temple Crag we figured we head to Toulumne for a bit. After a morning ascent of the awesome ‘Aqua Knobby’ the high temps made climbing out of the question so we just chilled at Tenya Lake for the afternoon.  Since long days in Tuolumne were out of the question we figured we’d try out Mt. Conness.

Our home on the side of the road for multiple nights.

The SW Face offered pretty fun climbing with amazing views of Tuolumne.  Unfortunately on the hike out my ankle started hurting which was weird since I didn’t twist it and don’t remember any trauma.

Approaching the SW Face on Mt. Conness

Either way the next day I taped it for a morning climb of ‘Crying Time Again’.  We’d planned on going to the Hulk but decided to bust over to Maple Canyon instead since hiking with another heavy pack sounded less than ideal.

Aqua Knobby

The next morning we were blown away with how fun the climbing was in Maple. We went from crag to crag only climbing the 4 star routes.  Turns out having a couple knee pads in the vehicle would have been more beneficial than the crampons we had in the trunk.

Pipe Dream Cave in Maple Canyon

The Open

Matt's full of ideas.  For awhile now he's been saying we need to do an 18 pitch day at Golf Wall.  18 obviously like 18 holes of golf.  The only rules were that they had to be 18 different routes and they all had to be lead clean.  A few days before we discussed the order that we thought would work and wrote it down on a piece of paper that we conveniently forgot to bring to the crag.  We both warmed up on a couple easier routes before hopping on the hardest pitch of the day, Pink Taco.  I had the route wired but Matt hadn't been on the route in a while and messed up his foot beta near the top and fell on his first go, then crushed it second go.  We both had a big sigh of relief having completed the crux of the day for our 5th route.  We hoped it would be an easy coast to the finish for the next 13 routes.

The next 6 routes went smoothly until I fell on Putt Putt.  I'd done the route a hundred times over the years but just couldn't hold on.  I decided I needed to start taking longer rests between routes, eat more food, and stop trying to do doubles(2 routes back to back).  Matt motored up Bert and Ernie's even though it had some wet holds and I moved onto Cinderella.  I got 3/4 of the way up and melted off the holds.  This isn't good.  Matt proceeded to try Cinderella and fell on two attempts.  It seemed like we had both hit a wall.  More rest and more food is what we needed, I hit Cinderella on my second go by skipping a clip and Matt hit it on his 3rd.  Ok, back on track!

The second attempt on Mail Slot...

I went back to Putt Putt and it felt casual.  I thought I'd caught a second wind until I fell off the top of Mail Slot.  Matt ticked a few hold up top for me after he'd sent Greenskeeper and I sent next go.  We'd thought we'd coast to the finish after Pink Taco but as we got more and more tired there were no gimme pitches.  My last route was Hole in One and to be expected I almost came off right before the no hands rest.  We're surely not the first to climb 18 different pitches in a day at Golf Wall but that's not what it's about.

My order with approximate grades...
1:Greenskeeper .10+
2:Eagle .12b
3:Bushwood .12a
4:Par Six .11b
5:Pink Taco .12d
6:Divitator .12c
7:Masters .12a
8:Bogey Man .12a
9:Birdie(aka Pumpy ten) .10+
10:Shooter McGavin .10+
11:Gator Pond .12a
Putt Putt (fail)
Cinderella (fail)
12:Cinderella .12a
13:Putt Putt .11d
14:Three Roofs .12a
15:Pebble Beach .11
Mail Slot (fail)
16:Ping .11b
17:Mail Slot .11c
18:Hole in One .11a

Harts Draw

Had a great 4 days discovering Harts Draw and Bobbys Hole Canyon in late March.  I accessed Harts Draw from 211 on the first day and walked 4 miles up the canyon to get to Bobbys Hole.  

Hartworm Tower

I got two towers done that day but then had to head back home to go to work.  I knew I'd be back in a couple days so I left my climbing gear hidden behind a boulder so I wouldn't have to carry it back and forth. While at work I looked some more at Google maps and discovered what looked like an easier way into the towers.  

The Infarction

So a few days later when I returned, I accessed the area from 133.  The short section of dirt road was rough in a few spots but was a much shorter drive.  I parked next to two cairns on the side of the road and was pleasantly surprised to find a trail leading down into the canyon.   Luckily no one at taken my pack of gear and I climbed one more tower and hiked out with everything.  The plan was to meet Trevor and Cam to climb some other towers but back on the rim with good service I learned that the area was inaccessible because of the snow melt.  Cam bailed completely because he was sick but Trevor decided to come meet me.  Trevor arrived later that night and we looked at photos and made plans for the next two days.

Harts and Minds Tower

In the morning we carried the climbing gear back into the canyon and set our sights on the proudest looking tower in the area, The Infarction.  Things went smoothly and we were soon back on the ground planning the next day.  We walked over to Harts Draw Rincon Butte with no plans of  climbing it but found a easy route up.  We soloed up and down, happy to get another summit. 

Trevor leading the last pitch on The Infarction

On the last day we woke up to some flurries and weren't sure if we were going to get any climbing in.  However, our packs of climbing gear were in the canyon so we had to do the hike either way.   Luckily the weather cleared up and we were able to put up 3 more short routes.

Trevor and I on the summit of The Infarction