The BLM office in Monticello has asked the Friends of Indian Creek to remind climbers that there is a 14-day limit on camping on BLM Land. The F.O.I.C. understands that there is a bit of a history of staying in the Creek for far longer, but heavy climber-traffic in the area has made the BLM take notice of this tradition. Be aware that overstaying the 14-day limit makes climbers look as if we feel the rules don't apply to us and thus has an effect on long-term access. Moving your campsite throughout the season, or perhaps finding a site outside the main Indian Creek area, will not only help smooth relations with the BLM, but will also keep you from possibly getting hit with a fine.
William following P1 of Vision Quest, just past th...
Description
This long and sustained route is one of the longest, and perhaps finer hand-to-fist climbs in Indian Creek. The summit is awesome! The King Of Pain is a tower with a set of twin summits and is the tallest of all of the Bridger Jack towers, other than the Butte itself. It is easily twice the size of the Sparkling Touch, Thumbelina, or Sunflower towers, and almost 3 times the size of Easter Island.
Vision Quest climbs a majority of its length up or near the dihedral system that splits the two towers on the East side. Details are as follows:
P1: Around to the right of the base, on the north tower's east face side, you will see a .75-1.5" fingercrack in a right-facing dihedral. Climb this to its top, then move over to the left to the base of a big slot, and belay at the fixed station. (10c)
P2: From the previously mentioned belay, climb a pumpy hand-to-fist crack up for about 100' to another fixed anchor to belay. The overhanging section may be the physical crux of the route. (10d)
P3: From the fixed belay, start up again in another crack that is wide-hands to fists through a bulge for the technical crux of the route. (10d)
P4: Climb up through some big blocks to an area between where the two summits split, and up onto the face on the right (north summit). This pitch is the psychological crux of the route, and while it is 10a max, it is poorly protected with a few equalized cams in a sandy flare below your feet while summitting on sandy slopers. A fall would be ill-advised.
Descend by a set of fixed raps on double ropes on the east face north of the route- do not attempt to combine raps, and beware of stuck ropes as they are common on this route.
Protection
A good selection of cams, including at least one #4 camalot. Go heavy on the 1" and on the 2.5-3.5". A wide piece or two may be useful to provide peace of mind toward the top.
One of the best tower routes in the desert, on par with Primrose, Fine Jade, N. Face Castleton, etc... I would argue that the OW at the top of pitch 2 is the psychological (and possibly technical) crux of the route. The only pro is a stopper behind a chockstone which is below your feet at the start of the grovelling. After a few insecure grovelly moves (left side in OW, right foot smearing on sandy slopeyness) you do get pro when the OW opens enough to chimney. Pitch 4, though you wouldn't want to fall, is 5.8...maybe 5.9.
The slot on pitch two doesn't have to be left side in. It's a pretty old-fashioned grovel either way. We brought one helmet, for whoever was underneath. On the rap from the notch, you need to angle slightly left (climber's left) as you rap to gain the lower rap station in the dihedral.
A note about the "fixed anchors"...they're not very inspiring. The pitch one anchor consists of a drilled angle equalized with a knot tied in webbing used as a chock. The next anchor consists of one drilled angle. To supplement these anchors save some tcu's for the first anchor and some larger cams for the pitch two anchor (3.5 and 4 camalot). Great route. A little bit of everything.
!!!!!Caution!!!!!Vision Quest on King of Pain Spire:The 6x2x2 meter block just left of the belay at the top of the first pitch rocks at least 5 cm if you lean or stem against the top.You must use the block to reach the first belay. It is likely to kill someone if it comes off. It could possibly take out the blocks below it as well. A pity, nice route!
P1 was probably the crux, some laybacking in a .75 camalot crack. P2 wasn't too bad until the very end, the OW part. I put in a gold camalot and purple camalot below the chockstone, then laybacked up until I could get my right side in, ala the picture of Jeff Achey in the guidebook. This seemed to work pretty good. P3 had an awkward bulge, there are good hand jams but they are in the back of this flaring wide crack. P4 was exciting but as long as nothing breaks you'll be fine.
Keep in mind that the belay at the end of pitch two has only 1 angle... you need to have a #4 or #5 friend there to back it up. If you had a few extra 3.5 inch pieces you could skip this belay and go to the base of the face pitch, making it a 3 pitch climb and saving some time.
Bill and I climbed this a year or two ago and thought it was a stellar route. Bill lead pitch 2 and hucked a basket ball sized rock out of the bottom of the slot(I guess it was in his way?). I linked pitches 3 and 4, not to steal Bills lead but because I didn't see a fixed belay, and did not have gear for an anchor, oh who am i joking I wanted to steal Bills lead. This was an ok option, but the rope drag was not that great. When we did this route we expected a bunch of offwidth, but were pleasantly surprised to find a great route with minimal wide stuff.
Jerk! Stealing my lead! (I'm talking to Ben K.) The Basketball sized block was the one seen below Jeff Achey in the picture in the Indian Creek guide. I grabbed it and it fell into my lap. So, It's now gone making the move a little harder? Anyway, it was a great route, or at least as good as it can be when someone steals your lead! Just joking Ben.
Great route!!! As George Lowe mentions we also noticed the tower block on top of pitch one has some play. We combined the last 2 pitches in one also because no anchor showed when leading the 3rd pitch. We summited the south tower & found one crappy bolt at the top of the King of Pain South summit tower. Nothing you would want to rap from.
I would not recommend rapping down this route. It only has 1 fixed drilled angle at the top of pitch 1 & 2. Also I believe it has lots of potential for ropes getting stuck. A better way to descend is to cross over to the north summit of King of Pain. You will find nice anchors, 4 bolts, to rap from on the north end down to the notch between it & Bridger Jack Butte. Once in the notch move north again up to anchors at the base of BJ Butte. Once you are in the notch it is 2 more rappels to get you down without any danger of bad anchors or ropes getting stuck.
That is how we descended & I was very glad we found this option vs descending the route. Much better descent option.
By Pete Gallagher From: Manitou Springs, CO May 28, 2007
Sorry about the crappy bolt on the top of the south tower, but on the FA of King of Pain (via Rites of Passage - the analog crack of Vision Quest, on the west side of the tower), Ed and I got to the top of the south summit and the rock was so bad we couldn't drill a decent hole - pretty typical for the desert. I left a really bad drilled angle up there so that we could down-climb from the summit rather than trying to rap. Fortunately, the rock was much better on the north summit, and I drilled two angles at the station Bob references above. That one rap got us down to the existing anchors Leonard Coyne placed on the FA of Bridger Jack - kinda nice only having to drill one set of anchors for such a primo tower. I'll posting a pretty embarrassing photo of me in my "smokey" years drilling that anchor on the FA. I can't understand why anyone would want to descend the tower down Vision Quest...that would truely suck.
Oh yeah, The FA of Vision Quest was by Ed Webster and Jeff Achey in Sept 1984. I'm pretty certain it was the 2nd ascent of the tower.
Climbed this feb. '08. The block on top of p1 could/should be pushed off - it was a rockin'. There is also a really sketchy block about 40' up p2 that looks like it dropped recently (lots of fresh sand) and if it comes out all the way its likely to cut the rope and injure the belayer - some cleaning is needed. I thought p1 was 5.11 (by the way go lt of the first block and rt of the second), p2 was 5.10-, p3 5.11, and p4 5.8 r/x. spectacular moves at the end of p2 and p4.
Question about pitch 4: we climbed THROUGH a tight squeeze that separates the two summits, then climbed toward the north summit from the backside. The climbing seemed reasonable though ill-protected and worked out just fine, but I am still unsure if this is the actual route. Does this sound right or do you head up BEFORE squeezing between the two summits (I remember I had to take gear off my harness and hand it to my partner before I could fit through the squeeze)
By Drew Bedford From: Wasatch Back, UT Apr 2, 2009
As the IC guidebook says - BURLY
By J. Thompson From: denver, co Apr 26, 2009 rating: 5.11- PG13
Pitch 1 felt 5.11- to me....every other pitch the rating seemed right on. I didn't think the 4th pitch was all that runout. Also as stated above....you can link pitch 3 and 4 with a 60M. However you need a couple of cams in the .75 camalot range, at least. I ended up pulling up the tagg line and using it as a very long cordelette to the rap anchor. Also I went right side in on pitch 2...it worked well.
I reread the comments above and wanted to add another note about pitch 1. i didn't think the crux was in the section where the crack becomes .75 cam size. The first 20-25ft where considerably smaller....like yellow alien and then red....that's where I thought the crux was. josh
What a stellar route! Airy moves, wild position, incredible views, and cracks from fingers thru chimney. I struggled the most with the OW moves shortly before the end of P2.
We rapped the route with a single 72 meter rope, and just barely made it on the first rap.
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