PRINT: Rock Climb I Love You in my Outside Voice, Red River Gorge

I Love You in my Outside Voice

5.7, Trad, 240 ft (73 m), 4 pitches,

Avg: 2.6 from 13 votes
FA: ? Submitted by Heather Parks, Christopher Smith
Kentucky > Red River Gorge > Northern Gorge > Tower Rock

Access Issue: New route development is prohibited in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Details

fs.usda.gov/activity/dbnf/r…

Follow existing trails and climb using removable protection or in climbing areas with existing approved fixed anchors or bolts. Development of any new rock climbing, bouldering or rappelling areas and development of any climbing routes involving the permanent installation of new fixed anchors or new trail construction requires prior Forest Service authorization.

Description

If she didn't hear you the first time at Seneca, try again on the comfortable ledges of this one. Just remember to speak up!

First pitch runs up a flake with delicate feet up top and several slings around a block for your anchor(~40').

From here, the second pitch starts left up the detached block to fun stemming up a pile of petrified wood then up a right facing flake to a great place for an anchor under the roof(~45').

Third pitch(we broke it into 3 short sections) begins the traverse. Make your way right using great horizontal and ledges you could have a picnic on(~120'). When you reach the end of the rock, round the corner and look for the bulgy off width roof.

This is your fourth pitch and starts off with a decent pull to gain feet about 4' up. Finish to a tree for your anchor(~35').

Descend via the standard tower rock descent (rappel 20 feet off bolted anchors to a ledge, then rappel off a large tree wrapped with cable and rap rings for a long rappel back to the ground)

Location

Walk ~100' climbers left of Arachnid. You'll see webbing about 40' up a left facing flake that starts at the base of a large tree (I could not find anything in the guide books that called out this route)

Protection

Takes everything great. Use caution on the soft bits!

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Start of the route

Working across the traverse

Setting off on the second pitch

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Jarek Voyles
Beattyville, KY

Whoa! Quite the surprise to see this one! Sounds like a trad-venture to the fullest and well worth the romp. Great find! Hopefully I’ll have my own opinion of it to share soon. To the FA: how big of gear would you recommend? Multiple raps or just one? Jun 23, 2021

Christopher P. Smith
Pittsburgh

5.7

2 raps definitely, first one is 20' to the actual rap. One from the chains and one from the tree. A 70 won't reach if you try for an awkward single rap. As far as gear, I used a lot of #.5-3 with several nut placements. A 4 was helpful during the final roof/chimney section but pushing the last couple feet to top out wouldn't be tragic. Looking forward to hearing your experience! It was a fun adventure for sure! Jun 23, 2021

Dan Chandler
Kentucky

FYI, new route development is illegal on Forest Service land in the DBNF. This includes trad. The goal of this 20 year old ban is to protect archeological resources, and threatened habitat along the cliff line, especially for the White Haired Goldenrod. That said, I know the base of Tower Rock has been hiked/belayed for decades, and is as impacted as it is going to get, so I see no new damage from this particular route. I do ask climbers be judicious when publishing new routes on Forest Service land. We local climbers have been building a relationship with the FS for years and want to maintain good relations. Thanks Jun 24, 2021

Olek Chmura
Yosemite

If you're a budding trad leader, DEFINITELY take a #4 for the last pitch. It's definitely the crux of this climb. I was scared out my wits doing this pitch without it. Oct 16, 2021

James Fulton
Red River Gorge

Make sure your follower is very confident at the grade (and the leader). I think this route is more like 5.5 PG13/R. Awful rock quality, and P3 is a massive traverse with little protection, and where you can protect is on questionable rock quality. This a very fun route! Mar 20, 2024

Grant Stephens
Red River Gorge

I don’t want to burst any bubbles, but I’m sure the first and second pitches of this route were done in the early 80’s. It was never included in a guide book because it was not quality enough to merit that. Tower Rock was somewhat of an epicenter of climbing in the late 70’s/early 80’s and thousands of people walked right by the first pitch without doubt. I just can’t remember who did it first. Could have been Martin Hackworth, Ed Piersall, or Larry Day. Could have been any of a dozen other people clamoring for first ascents during that time.

I did this route last week to check it out since it has been presented as a “new” route on Tower. The description indicates it will take most any pro, which is inaccurate. If you don’t know what you are doing on the first pitch with trad gear you could climb yourself into a bad situation on sandy, ball bearing, poor quality rock. In short, the placements were tricky, few, and not particularly good. If all you can lead is 5.7 and you are not confident in your ability to find sketchy pro you might want to wait a while on this one.

I don’t want to denigrate these recent ascentionists, but this is not what I would consider a well protected romp. Aug 14, 2024