Desert Towers Chapters
EARLY YEARS: The original desert climbers were the Anasazi, who, in a tradition followed to this day by some leading desert climbers, left little record of their ascents. The first modern desert climber was John Otto. His amazing 1911 ascent of the 400-foot-tall monolith Independence Monument set a precedent for boldness and innovation.
SHIPROCK: In the 1930s the climbing world became obsessed by 1,800-foot Shiprock. Colorado climber Robert Ormes made several brave attempts, but it was the "rock engineers" from California (David Brower, Raffi Bedayn, Bestor Robinson and John Dyer) who climbed this "Last Great Problem" in 1939.
SPIDER ROCK. In 1956 came the next big breakthrough. Mark Powell, Jerry Gallwas and Don Wilson, three of the top Yosemite climbers of the day, ascended 800-foot Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, a climb dispatched in magnificent style.
TOTEM POLE: Emboldened by success on Spider Rock, a year later the same threesome, plus Bill Feuerer, tackled the "thinnest spire in the desert"--the Totem Pole. They battled ferocious winds, frighteningly steep rock, cracks too wide for their pitons, and competition from Colorado climbers for the first ascent of this coveted summit.
THE THREE BEST TOWERS. Spider Rock, Cleopatra's Needle and the Totem Pole were so classic, why venture any further? In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, climbers, usually from California, came to the desert, happily repeating these same three, iconic climbs.
THE CUTTING EDGE OF LIFE: This had to change. In the early 1960s, the first wave of Colorado climbers, Harvey Carter, Layton Kor, Huntley Ingalls, Maurice Horn, George Hurley, and more, roamed the same desert, intent on finding new towers. Castleton Tower, North Six-shooter, Sentinel Spire: there was an explosion of new climbs.
FISHER TOWERS: The most sensational of the early 1960s climbs was the first ascent of the Titan. This was a huge breakthrough. If such a monstrously rotten, enormous, terrifying formation could be scaled, anything was possible. This chapter describes the first ascents of the big five Fisher Towers: Titan, Kingfisher, Echo Tower, Cottontail and Oracle.
HARVEY CARTER: Harvey is a Colorado original; bull-strong, mule-stubborn, combative, fearless, yet with a gentle touch on soft rock, a dedicated climber for sixty years. Among the thousands of first ascents he has done are some of the finest routes in the desert. This chapter celebrates his life and achievements.
BARELY STANDING ROCKS: The first ascent of Standing Rock. This tower, absurdly skinny and rotten, set a new standard for just what could safely be climbed. And high standards for photography and writing, courtesy Huntley Ingalls and Steve Komito.
THE GO-GO YEARS: Through the late 1960s and into the 1970s, a small handful of climbers, Kor, Carter, Fred Beckey, Eric Bjornstad, George Hurley, and few others, had the Colorado Plateau almost to themselves. The climbing world elsewhere focused on ever-harder free-climbing standards and the desert became a half-forgotten backwater. For those who relished desert first ascents, there was near-unlimited scope for new climbs.
DINÉ AND DASH: In 1971, all climbing was banned on the Navajo Nation. Most climbers looked elsewhere, but ever since, the magnificent towers of the reservation have been a potent attraction for climbers. An examination of the issues involved in climbing on the Navajo Nation, from the early days until the present.
MYSTERIOUS TOWERS: Beyond the Fisher Towers are the Mystery Towers, inaccessible, daunting, rotten, invisible from just about anywhere. The summits of these formations are seldom visited, tiny and reserved for the true desert-tower aficionado. In 1969, Bill Forrest and George Hurley took on this challenge. This chapter celebrates the first ascents of these towers, and some of the other wild desert summits reached by these two visionary climbers.
THE FISHERS—BIG WALLS OF MUD: In the Fisher Towers, once the great summits had been summited by the easiest routes, the next big push, as in Yosemite, was to develop “Big Wall” style aid climbs on ever more blank faces. Harvey Carter was in the forefront of this push. The Sundevil Chimney, Scheherezade, Brer Rabbit all come from this era.
MOSES. In 1972, Eric Bjornstad and Fred Beckey climbed Moses, an epic tale from the tail end of the Go-Go years, involving multiple visits, fixed ropes, extensive aid, pitons by the score. Just a few years later Ed Webster and Steve Hong climbed Moses free in a few hours, producing an enduring classic desert climb, Primrose Dihedrals, and showing a new direction for desert climbers.
WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? The late 1970s invention of camming units coincided with a growing awareness that that the desert held myriad excellent free climbs in the form of incredibly parallel cracks. Wingate sandstone, particularly around Castleton Tower and Indian Creek, became a huge draw, at first for a few climbers, like Jimmie Dunn, Earl Wiggins, Ed Webster, Jeff Achey, Chip Chace, then later for ever-increasing numbers.
THAT ONE’S NEXT! With the popularity of the Wingate came a neglect of the traditional multi-pitch and multi-day aid climbs of the Fisher Towers and Mystery Towers. Which eventually made them even more appealing to a few 1990s climbers, among them Rob Slater, Mike O'Donnell and John Sherman.
THE BLANKNESS BECKONS: Jim Beyer was the first to bring hard modern aid climbing standards to the Fisher Towers, with a wild collection of dangerous new routes. The challenge was later taken up by other aid climbers.
BEHIND THE ROCKS. In the late 1980s, Moab became a focus of development. Kyle Copeland, Charlie Fowler and Ron Olevsky unearthed many classic new towers. Meanwhile, even more remote areas were explored by adventurers such as Paul Horton, Tim Toula, Brett Ruckman, James Garrett, and Paul Ross.
CANYONLANDS: Canyonlands National Park is the heart of the Colorado Plateau, "the best part by far" of Utah, according to Edward Abbey. Climbing in the vast wilderness of Canyonlands has progressed (if that's the right word) in interesting directions. NOTE: Since publication, UK climbers Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall have taken Canyonlands climbing in yet another direction, developing brutally arduous horizontal roof cracks that continue for 100 feet or more, some of the hardest trad climbs in the world today.
ANCHORS AWAY: Leaving No Trace on new routes: Climbing and ascending new towers and leaving nothing behind.
FREE RADICALS: Free Climbing on the biggest, steepest towers in the desert.
LOOSE CANNONVILLE: In our modern world of gym climbing, Google maps and Lady Gaga, it's still possible to find desert adventures. An account of a new climb ascended with equipment and methods little changed from 1939.