Mike Cronin starting up the stellar first pitch of...
Description
Another fine route at Devil's Tower, and with more balanced difficulty- fun for everyone and in a variety of sizes!Like Carol's crack, this remains open when the rest of the West Face is closed for Falcons!
Appraoch this route via the West Face trail and skirt the left-hand edge of the trial towards the north-most edge of the West Face. You will see a double hanging roof where two pillars are broken off from below. This route ascends the system that goes up between them after a few hundred feet. Until a picture is directly associated with this decsription, owning the guidebook may be necessary to find the climb.
P1: 150' 5.10c From the face below this system, rravers out and up right to a near-splitter finger crack. About 90' up or so a long crux sequence begins. This is more technical than physical and is not terribly pumpy. The crux protects on TCU's and stoppers. Climb to fixed anchors on a sloping ledge below a small roof. A 3-star pitch by its own merit.
P2: 130' 5.9 Jam up on hands and thin hands through the bulge above and get into the splitter which gets wider in some spots- this is where the bigger cams will go. You will arrive at a ledge with a good fixed anchor after over 1/2 rope length of sustained good climbing. From here you can get great photos of teams on Carol's Crack. This is a two or three-star pitch as well. Most people rap from here, as the rock does not improve. if you've taken enough gear though, and a 70M rope, you can run this right into the next pitch!
P3: 70' 5.9You can continue up through 5.9 crack territory (70') to reach another ledge with another fixed anchor. If this pitch was done independantly, you can run it into P4, if you like.
P4: 80' 5.8. Worm up the overhanging chimney above. It doesn't look to appitizing, and we decided not to do this pitch and rap off instead. If you do P4, you can once again hit the summit, however, via P5...
P5: 70' easyReportedly a traverse left un up various cracks deposits the climber atop the rock. This makes descent complex, however, and the climbing doesn't look spectacular.
Protection
A good sized rack of stoppers two sets of cams from .5-3.5" should do the trick.2ropes to rap off the 160+ foot first pitch. 50M ropes looked OK.
4th pitch "oneway sunset"If your in the mood, the fourth 5.8 pitch is great. No doubt there is a price to pay, some poor rock, bird shit and some strugle. Most of the steep stuff (wich is most of the pitch) though is good rock and really neat to climb on. Good spot on the tower, and one really nice belay. The Rap off that side alone is worth doing. So if your up to adventure dont stop short, keep going, it is one of the few routes on the west face to go to the top on. USER BEWARE
By Frances Fierst Administrator From: Denver, CO Jul 8, 2004
Be warned, the first and second pitch require totally different gear. The first pitch takes nuts and small cams (think yellow alien). The first half of the second pitch takes red #1 camalots, and the upper section of pitch two is yellow camalot size.
Has anyone other than me done the route Astro Glide that climbs the arete right of One Way Sunset? Dennis Horning let me snag the FA of this line years ago and I was wondering if anyone ever does it? How hard did you thin it was. Post your thoughts under the route.
Superb. Just like many tower pitches, P2 is a rope eater. While thouroughly enjoying jamming my way up i saw remnants of 3 various cords that had seen some unfortunate events. Our line was almost a victim as well. That said, be gentle lowering your rope if rapping from P2.
Both pitch 1 & p2 are excellent ... just in very different ways.
I'd take 2 pieces to 4 inches for p2, they'll be more secure than 3.5 inchers. You could probably take hexes instead of cams, if anyone still climbs with the old cowbells!
If your gonna climb the one-way sunset, i'd highly suggest climbing the complete route, alittle loose towards the top, but excellent none the less. toms brother patrick
You can rap off of pitch one with a single 70m line (just barely). And to avoid the rope eating crack on pitch two, do a short rap under the roof to the anchors on top of California Dreaming, then rap to the One Way Sunset Anchor (all raps can be safely made with a single 70m line). This makes it possible to TR Cali Dreaming.
The first pitch gets my vote for best 5.10 on this amazing Tower!
West Face
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