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DEVILS LAKE "QUESTS"!!

Leo Hski · · Basalt CO · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 220
al grahn wrote:Some years ago Dave Groth ... was pretty sure he could do 100 routes with careful planning and enough friendly top ropes available.
In the 80's Ron Fawcett soloed 100 extreme routes (XS)on England's Peak District gritstone- on Froggatt and Curbar Edges if I remember. The bottom end of the extreme range is about 5.10 and I'll guess the average route on Froggatt is 50 feet so that's a big day!
Remo · · Madison, WI · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 13,727

Yesterday we did 24 towers on the west bluff in 14 hours. Awesome, ass-kicking day with lots of climbing and scrambling! I would recommend this to anyone looking for a real Devils Lake alpine-like quest.
My only advice is this: pick a full moon, bivy up there and start real early, cache lots of food and water, and of coarse be quick with your anchors. Have fun.

EB · · Winona · Joined Jan 2002 · Points: 1,207

Remo, hell yes! Wow, seriously 24? When we did 15 I knew there were a few more especially on th enorth end, but do tell us about the sequence and towers you did! I agree that the tower circuit is one of the best objectives at the lake; lots of hiking, need for speed and efficiency, etc all make for an alpine feel. Lets get together for some climbing this fall. I think a midwest bouldering weekend should happen in Nov.(20th?) keep it up bro!

Remo · · Madison, WI · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 13,727

Hey Eric, yeah man epic for sure! My buddy and I were able to find a lot of towers in the guide book for the West bluff, over 30. We also had criteria of our own, such as the route had to have a summit pinnacle of some kind.

We bivyed up at the Twin Ridge area, and knocked out all the Hangman towers and a few others up there. Then we moves over to Cave rocks and up to Reclining Tower. From there up and over to Prospect Point Pinnacle for a couple more. Then we went down to Prospect Point Towers. After that we went over to the Frigate and Split tower, then up Turks P1 and Turks Tooth and head. After that we finished up with Cleo's and Tilted tower, with some others tossed in. We ended up soloing 6 routes and roping up for the rest. So much fun!

I'm down for a big bouldering day too. I thought about hitting all the areas in a day. Keep in touch man,
Cheers.

Peter Arndt · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2006 · Points: 790

WOW
Was very happy to see this thread come up again since I was the one that started it. Glad to hear of the creativity out there. D-Lake needs to see more of this.

fuzzy in wisco · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 25

in response to peter's original post.

just to clarify a little bit the dude ran from lake mendota to devil's lake, approx 44 miles, as he took a slight wrong turn. which was sort of my fault as i gave him the directions and forgot a minor detail near the end. but yeah he hadn't ran in about 6 months and then busted out a big one. and he did about 35 laps on baker street. i participated in the canoe part and then biked up to rejoin, not being much of a runner. we also ate a lot of bratwurst, it being wisconsin and all. we started at around 11pm canoeing across the lake mendota and ian was at the ferry by 6:30 or so and to the lake by 7:30, fun day good memories.

Doug Hemken · · Madison, WI · Joined Oct 2004 · Points: 13,668

Remo, you should post the complete list. I'd like to try your circuit sometime.

Remo · · Madison, WI · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 13,727

Sure Doug, I think it went like this:

1. North Twin Ridge P1
2. N. Twin Ridge P2
3. S. Twin Ridge Summit Pitch(Sunrise pitch)
4. Knobby Pillar
5. Bird Bath Tower
6. The Porpoise
7. Sharks Tooth
8. Bonus Tower(tower just right of Go-Go)
9. Go-Go Tower
10. The Beast
11. Clamshell
12. Reclining Tower
13. Prospect Point Pinnacle
14. Prospect Point Pinnacle Bonus(small tower just north of PPP)
15. First Tower
16. Sun-top Tower
17. Great Tower
18. The Frigate
19. Split Tower
20. Turks P1
21. Turks Tooth(Sunset pitch)
22. Cleo's Needle
23. Tilted Tower
24. Queens Throne with the 6ft rock spike(full packs)

We started climbing just after 6:00am and got back to the car around 9:00pm. We estimated that we covered over 900ft. of vertical rock and a couple thousand of hiking and scrambling. Caching food and water was key, and the full moon was incredible. Funnest day of the season!
Cheers!

EB · · Winona · Joined Jan 2002 · Points: 1,207

Can't belive you guys missed tree tower- one of the best on the circuit! And my favorite of our circuit of a measily 15 towers, smoke stack- great 5.9 trad routs and the small unnamed tower nest to it with pins pounded in the 1930's I guess tere's 27 now! Good work fellas.

pwags · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2008 · Points: 0

Lead 100 DIFFERENT routs at the Lake. Took me almost 20 years (geeze that's only 5 a year). And on my list they had to be 5.6 and up. One of the hardest parts is keeping track.

Kevin Fons · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2002 · Points: 335

Mike Geitner and I did "Lake in a Day". We lead a route in every major area of the lake.
Parked a car at south shore and got a ride to east bluffs.
Lead routes
Guillitine, campus wall, Brintons, rainy wednesday, foreplay, leaning tower, hawks nest, red rocks, doorway, balanced rock, rogers roof, birthday rocks, railroad
drove to west shore
stetners, misery, cleo's, weisner, lost face area.
Then walked off the back to Heroin Grove and got a ride back to our car.

It was a long day.

David Groth · · lacosse · Joined Sep 2004 · Points: 233

Just for the record I soloed 28 routes on my 30th birthday(not sure why I did not do 30)....I think the hardest was 11A. about 10 years ago Jon Erans soled 500 routes at Stanage edge in the UK...If you want to talk numbers is a tough club boys!

David Groth · · lacosse · Joined Sep 2004 · Points: 233

Remo.....pretty impressive list of tower.

Mark Wenzel · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 0

Swam across the lake after consuming an incredibly cheap whisky brunch, soloed cantilever crack, then ended the day by rear ending someone in the south shore lot... either Rich or maybe MikeBill... I don't recall.

bill mcchesney · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 0

I swam across the lake and got to the other side and got stuck in the seaweed type stuff and almost drowned, i was pumped trying to get intangled. Mark you must have rear ended Rich, he never told me he went that way but you learn something new everyday!

Leo Hski · · Basalt CO · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 220
bill mcchesney wrote:... he never told me he went that way but you learn something new everyday!
What happens at DL stays at DL unless it's posted on Mountain Project.
Remo · · Madison, WI · Joined Mar 2007 · Points: 13,727

On Friday May 11th we sent our "Ridge Run" project of linking up listed "ridges" in the guide and other multi-pitch link-ups. We started around 6:00am and got done around 8:00pm, finishing with 30 pitches(my 30th birthday)and a lot of scrambling and hiking.
The list of areas include:
The Twin Ridges
Turks Ridge and Cleo's Amp.
Lumby Ridge
Lothar's Ledges
Balanced Rock Ridge
Major and Minor Mass areas

This was another amazing alpine-like epic at the lake, and if your training for a big climb, this is a great way to do it.

The next day I climbed 30 boulder problems on the east bluff. It was a long weekend. I wish I could add the fact that I drank 30 beers, but I didn't come close.
Cheers,
Remo

Burton Lindquist · · Madison, WI · Joined Jan 2002 · Points: 4,215

Nice job Remo! Sounds like it was alot of fast movement and keeping track of route? Wish I could have made the camping get together afterwards but it was my 50th B-day this weekend past and I decided to spend it with my twin brother up in Eau Claire. I still want to do a challenge for this 50th as well but not sure I am up to 50 pitches at DL... Ha!

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Midwest
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