dberdinka Posted May 8, 2009 Posted May 8, 2009 Trip: Utah - Desert Towers Date: 4/24/2009 Trip Report: I was fortunate to recently spend four days climbing a handful of desert towers in the general vicinity of Moab, Utah. We managed a fair bit of climbing, a whole lot of driving and even a little bit of sleeping. By the time we were headed home it felt like four weeks had passed. It couldn't have been better. Hanging out on the White Rim, Canyonlands NP I use to go to the desert a lot. For a little while there is was the center of my universe and then..suddenly more than five years went by without a single trip. That sure as hell wasn't the plan! WTF happened!? Well I'm pretty sure these two little snowflakes have something to do with it...... Northwest Forest Monkeys Ah! But regardless, no regrets, apparently I'm not dead yet as it turns out I can still hoist my flabby ass up some pretty inspiring piles of rock. Leaving from work on a Thursday afternoon I enjoyed the somewhat luxurious perk of flying directly out of Bellingham arriving in Denver late that night. My buddy Owen, who has ropegunned me up many an adventure, picked me up and after a few hours sleep we hit the road. Day 1 After cruising along I-70 for five or six hours we made the wise choice of driving straight by the Fisher Towers and instead climbed Lighthouse Tower by a 3 pitch 5.10- called Lonely Vigil. The first two pitches (both 10-) offer fun well protected climbing. The real excitment occurs on the final 20' pitch of 5.8. The summit block overhangs on all sides. From the last set of anchors you crank up the overhang on nice jugs with no protection then reach up onto the flat, rotten summit grabbing whatever lump of loose, broken crap you can and mantel up! No problems, no summit anchors! Time to blindly downclimb the committing mantle. Good times! Dolomite & Lighthouse Towers Trying to unmantel on Lighthouse Tower Day 2 The next day we climbed Standing Rock in Canyonlands National Park. We did this as daytrip from outside the park which was really not a very good idea. Getting there requires driving about 35 miles along the White Rim Road. This takes a very, very long time. Something like four hours from Moab. It's good to drive slow for obvious reasons. Though if your going to spend most of your day driving I couldn't think of a better place to do it. Driving the White Rim Road Block Tower & Islet in the Sky in the background Monument Basin is a special place. It is remote and the silence that exists there is beautiful. From the rim you fix a rope and rap into the basin. There are literally hundreds of towers forming the walls of the basin each one top heavy with a cap of the white rim rock. They seem like massive sentinels quietly watching over you. In the center of the basin is Standing Rock, the most perfect tower I have ever seen. The amazing Standing Rock This thing sees lots of ascents by the Kor Route, a three or four pitch 5.10+ C0 (or 5.11+). The rock is surprising clean and solid and the protection is always excellent. I led the first pitch, Owen led the second, the second absolutely crushed me, Owen led the third. Thanks Owen. Pitch one of the Kor Route Starting the Pitch two traverse Owen about to be crushed by Standing Rock Day 3 After driving all the way out of the park to get more gas we turned around and drove to the other side of the White Rim Road (it's a loop) to climb the famous Primrose Dihedrals Route on Moses Tower. One guidebook calls it the best route in the desert, another calls it the best route in North America. So maybe thats a stretch but it certainly must be one of the best routes. Go do it! The incomparable Moses Tower If you are of strong constitution the climb goes free at 5.11+. If your like me you can climb it at mid 5.10 by doing a variation start that avoids the first short crux pitch and by aiding a short bolt ladder along an overhanging OW called The Ear. This route is just amazing. Longer than most tower routes with sustained 5.10 crack climbing on perfect rock. Bring lots of #0.75 and #3 Camalots as the cracks seem to be off fingers or wide hands. Starting up Pitch four of Primrose Dihedrals Finishing up Pitch four of Primrose Dihedrals Day 4 Being somewhat whipped, on the last day we decided to climb Ottos Route on Independance Tower in Colorado National Monument. This is a popular (very popular!) 5 pitch 5.9 route originally climbed in 1911 by a crazy german guy who carved steps and pounded iron pipes into huge drilled holes to build a via-ferrata to the summit. Arriving at the base on a Monday morning there were already two parties racking up. So instead we rambled off across the desert where I stepped on a cactus (OUCH!) on our way to Fastdraw Tower. After climbing a perfect handcrack we bailed at the base of a 5.8 chimney due to a lack of wide gear or possibly bigger balls (the fact someone had removed several drilled angles from the pitch didn't help) Fastdraw Tower Returning to Ottos Route we found it slightly less crowded and managed to tag the summit. This was a bit anticlimatic as this might possibly be the worst trade route in the desert with sandy rock and completely uninspiring climbing, interesting that it appears to be the most popular route as well. Independance Tower Quote
mountainmatt Posted May 8, 2009 Posted May 8, 2009 Awesome photos and TR! Nice trip for sure You didn't like Otto's route though? I thought it was pretty fun (especially the top out). Quote
CollinWoods Posted May 8, 2009 Posted May 8, 2009 Good job. The spires look like a lot of fun to climb. Quote
Sol Posted May 8, 2009 Posted May 8, 2009 Nice. That's too bad someone removed those drilled angles from the last pitch of fast draw, it was scary even with them. Quote
Matt_Alford Posted May 8, 2009 Posted May 8, 2009 Any alien abductions? Suspicious bivy behavior? Come on D, give me something! Quote
dberdinka Posted May 8, 2009 Author Posted May 8, 2009 Sorry Matt, Owen seems to be having a fulfilling marriage these days and I haven't suffered thruogh an abduction experience in about 10 years. Whom or whatever was taking me seems to have moved on...... Quote
genepires Posted May 8, 2009 Posted May 8, 2009 the aliens were watching from other spires, waiting and planning their next abduction. nice job D! damn cool. stellar pictures as usual. Quote
Rad Posted May 9, 2009 Posted May 9, 2009 Great to see you getting out Daddy-Dinka. Mmmm - Primrose dihedrals look fabulous. thanks for the pics Quote
layton Posted May 13, 2009 Posted May 13, 2009 be sure and hit up the washer woman arch (aka Mrs Butterworth Tower) - it's really good. you can get a bivy permit and not have to deal with the full campgrounds on the white rim. Nice work, those are really fun towers. Did you do the fixed rope or the hike down for standing rock? Quote
Pete_H Posted May 13, 2009 Posted May 13, 2009 Nice Daryn! Some classic shiz. Looks like a lot of fun. Quote
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