The first ascent . . . rapped off from the first b...
Description
The route on Trisstin's Tower ascends the perpetually shady backside. There is a description in Bjornstad's Desert Rock IV. As promised, it is superb, on absolute perfect Wingate. However, it goes mostly clean, and will certainlygo fully clean after just a handful more nailing ascents. I used just four pin placements; two Toucans on pitch one and the same two on pitch two, in both cases where the crack was too damn thin for #1 RPs to fit. I tried hand-placing Toucans, but they did not go in, and Birdbeaks just pulled right through. It's pretty parallel-sided. The four pins I placed, despite being skinny, were totally bomber. The crack must taper just like the Toucans. Or maybe they just seemed bomber compared to the RPs?Start in the chimney, below the obvious beautiful seam. Yes, that one. Despite its anorexic appearance, it eats good wires almost all the way up. The first two pitches are pretty similar, following this seam as it arches up the face. 1. The crux of the first pitch is only about 20 or 25 feet up, promising a potential groundfall if a piece pulls (this is where I wimped out and hammered the first two pins). The first belay is carefully located, next to some bomber wire placements, where it does not affect the climbing. I like that kind of care. 2. After more bomber wires, the crack gets progressively thinner, till it almost dies out altogether (here's the second two pins). Just as it does so, you can reach out left into a splitter easy crack. This eats Green Aliens, then Yellow, before finally widening up to beyond 1". I tried and tried (having brought several), but only managed to fit a single #1 Friend in this crack. The second belay is at a ledge, where you could place a #5 Camalot, or else any number of bomber hand/fist-size cams just above. 3. The crack continues, easy aiding on hand/fist-size cams, to the summit, where an awkward stem maneuver gains the rap anchor. I ran the second and third pitches together. This worked fine, as I was soloing, but otherwise bring a bunch of extra quickdraws/slings to avoid too much ropedrag. I'm guessing this has had about two previous ascents. There's no register. There is just a single faded back-up sling and the bleached, crispy original webbing. I cutoff a chunk of my haul line to back up this stuff. Two ropes are needed for the raps.All in all, a fine desert adventure. Not a single bolt for aid, in three pitches and 250-odd feet. Sweet. Doubtful it can ever go free. It is admittedly not too steep (lots of top-stepping) and there are various edges for holds, but some sections seem pretty featureless. No-one's gonna be squeezing any more than fingernails into most of the crack.
Protection
Gear: Lots of wires, several sets of the smaller sizes of RPs are crucial. Offset RPs work nicely. Slider Nuts. Cams: A couple each purple and blue Aliens. Three Green Aliens. Maybe four sets from Yellow Alien up to 1.5". Two or three each 1.5" to 4" or so. One #5 Camalot is optional. Pins: a handful of knifeblades or (better) Toucans (the offset, hooked knifeblades).
By Bill Duncan From: Jamestown, CO Mar 31, 2005 rating: 5.9 A1
If one begins free climbing at the first good ledge, the climbing might be 5.9 for a bit.
If you're reading this, then you've found one of those obscure, high-quality places that I like to seek. As a connoisseur of the obscure (remote = obscure in many cases) you might also like these: Arch Tower in Mee Canyon in Colorado, Tabeguache Tower in Rough Canyon, CO, and a number of remote pinnacles in Utah. Then there is Angel Arch, Druid Arch, and Castle Arch (better known, of course, but beautiful climbs). If you're into this stuff, drop me a line for some beta.
Thanks go out to Crusher for such a nice review.
Happy climbing . . .
By Bill Bones From: Somwheres in ooohtaaa Feb 7, 2007
When we climbed it there had not been to many accents I don't think. The first pitch was almost unscared. If I remember right the I used 6 KBs and then the rest were wires. Wonderful climb. A gem you have to work for.
solid tower. climbed it in Oct '02 with A. Burr. enjoyed p.2 the most. nailed on it a bit more than we should have. didnt have much beta to begin with. loitered around the tower till alpin-glow (photo-ops) and ended up lost on our return. recommend hiking out with daylight, more than one shitty headlamp, and/or remember where you park. navigating the washes can be tricky.
Goes clean on all the usual thin stuff - super fun. No need to haul anything bigger than a #2camalot up there. I did place a #3 but could get by without. Also the road into the basin is passable for 1 mile with a 2wd - after that you'd need a 4wd to get through a wash and maybe one other spot...damn! Probably just as well the road reclaims itself even though the whole basin has been totally ravaged by livestock. Nice find FA party! About as hard to get clean as Islet but more fiddly, definitely thinner.
This route is brilliant! I would call it the Fine Jade of clean desert aid climbs. Kudos to Bill, John, and Steve for finding this classic.
We climbed it without a hammer but I hand placed three peckers at the crux. I would not have wanted to climb that section on offsets. What did you use there Miles?
We also approached from the rim which is relatively casual. It's an easy but loose 5th class scramble to get down from the rim to where you will want to fix your ropes so be careful. The rappel is over 250 feet so you will need to tie two ropes together. We built a gear anchor that consisted of 6 pieces on two different levels. I think the gear was in the #1 to #4 Camalot size so you will want to bring some extra gear for this. Also, we padded the edges for this rap so plan accordingly.
I also want to thank Bill G. and Amanda K. who saved our trip!!! We hit a deer outside of Cortez going 55mph and totaled my Explorer. (both airbags deployed) Bill and Amanda drove out separately to bring us another vehicle and rode home together. We got to camp at 2am, slept for three hours and proceeded to climb on the best tower routes I've done. THANKS GUYS!!!!!
RSS Feed
Slideshow
