Devil's tower rappels

My friend and I were flying in and thinking of climbing Devil's tower on 7/15.  My understanding is all the descents are 2 rope rappels, but we will only have a single 70m.  Is it common to be able to buddy up with another party on the spot to use their rope for the 2 rope rappel?  (Also: if any party is looking for the same then let me know!!)

See the comments at https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105714267/devils-tower for a discussion about using a 70m to rap the meadows/bowling alley. I've done it twice with no problems. The downside to only having one 70 is that you do have to downclimb 10 to 20 feet of 4th class to get to the bottom. I thought it was fine, girlfriend said never again so you should evaluate how comfortable you are with downclimbing a section like that.

You might be able to find another party to rap with but I would arrange it ahead of time. Your chances of running into another party on the top of the tower are not that good and it is a terrible place to wait around if it is hot or stormy.

You could also contact the climbing rangers, they seemed to have good information when I stopped in their office a couple of years ago.

Regardless of what ropes you use, rap carefully to keep the rope out from getting stuck in a crack.

In my time at the Tower, I ran into multiple parties in trouble after planning to meet another party on the summit to join ropes together. Usually, one group ended up having to bail for whatever reason, nearly stranding the other half of their team.

As mentioned above, it is possible to descend with a single 70m, but not recommended unless familiar with the line. The raps are very close to the ends, the potential for getting your one rope stuck is high, the retrieval routes are all wide, poorly protected cracks (with rope-snaring chockstones), and there is some 4th class downclimbing required, although it is near the ground.

You can rap down to the meadows and then walk over to El Cracko Diablo and rap to the ground (I think I remember 3 raps from here??) with a single 70 with no down climbing. Only problem is you are rapping down a pretty popular route so it could cause some traffic jams if el cracko is busy. We did this on a week day and the tower was pretty deserted so that was not an issue for us, but if it's a busy day it might not be the best idea.

Andrew Peterson wrote: You can rap down to the meadows and then walk over to El Cracko Diablo and rap to the ground (I think I remember 3 raps from here??) with a single 70 with no down climbing. Only problem is you are rapping down a pretty popular route so it could cause some traffic jams if el cracko is busy. We did this on a week day and the tower was pretty deserted so that was not an issue for us, but if it's a busy day it might not be the best idea.

That’s what we did, on a Sunday. No issues.

I was pretty bummed when I dragged two 70m ropes all the way to the top a few weeks ago to then realize that only the final rappel was slightly longer than 35m. If I were to do it again I’d tap the bowling alley with one 70m and do the down climb.