Black Tower Climbing

Black Tower is a secluded 130’ spire of featured rhyolite rock that stands high on the slope of Kimball Canyon, deep on the West side of Mt. St. Helena in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. Its first known ascent was in 1995 when Jared Chaney, Kurt Jensen and I (Jerry Dodrill) bushwhacked to the base and made a ground up traditional ascent up the middle of the main South face. The cracks were scary, hollow and dirty so we named the route “Never Again” and didn’t return for a couple decades. At that point Eric Berghorn and I had already realized that the steep faces of Kimball Canyon Crag made for fun sport climbing and decided to give Black Tower another look. We were surprised to find that its highly featured faces offered fun moderate climbing on grippy solid rock. Darren Wiemeyer and I came back for further reconnaissance and established several new bolt-protected routes. Wingman and Sky Raider ascend the tallest part of the face, starting on the right side of the tower and ending on a true summit spire. Corkscrew and Barrel Roll climb the steeper, shorter West face.

Gear: Bring a 60M or 70M rope and 12 draws/slings. A 70M rope will let you rappel back to the base of Wingman, but a 60 will come up short. It is possible to rappel farther to the right and reach the ground, or scramble off the top to the right.