Devil's Tower

Another great climbing trip! I've never climbed at Devil's Tower before but Fred and I did visit it a few years back. This place has a special place in my heart (I love Close Encounters of the Third Kind!!!) but as a climbing destination, it has always intimidated me. In particular are the famous photos of people climbing El Matador and the extreme stemming up the 'elevator shaft'. Hmmm...my legs are a lot shorter than that...yikes!!



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Day 1

We start on the northeast side of the tower, nice and shady (it was 90 the first two days). I lead the first pitches of New Wave and Broken Tree. Fairly easy leads but a big step for me who thought the most I'd do would be one lead on the last day after getting a feel for the place. The second pitches on both climbs are great. New Wave has a couple of tricky spots but nothing outrageous. Broken Tree is just a blast! I can actually see myself leading this...next year...I think.

Then we go further right to McCarthy's North Face. The longest single pitch I've ever led! It's nearly 70m (200'). It takes every bit of me to finish. Between all the other climbs of the day and the incredible rope drag forcing me to muscle through every simple move for the last 75 ft, I'm absolutely exhausted when I finally get to the anchors. Mentally, it felt more akin to a marathon than a climb. The crux is at the end and I think I'm powering through to a nice comfy ledge. I pop my head over and see another 10+ feet of a slabby dihedral crack climb before the anchors. Jerry speeds up the climb and it's an incredible work out belaying him and keeping pace. With the hour getting late and my exhaustion level, I do something I almost never do...opt out of a chance to even try the stellar 11A climb that follows. When Jerry gets to the "ledge", I rap down and watch Dave lead p2. It's a stout and strenuous lead for Dave and Jerry also takes a couple of falls on it. I have some regrets about not staying and giving it a run but it'll be another goal for next year.

We get to the camp site at dark...our camp mates are more than ready for dinner but we have all the ingredients! Dave and Jerry quickly whip up dinner - buffalo marinara pasta...delicious!! Later in the evening, we head over to the front of the KOA (the best one I've ever stayed at!) and watch the nightly showing of Close Encounters. I can practically recite the lines. Amazingly, I'm so tired that I'm dozing off near the end of it. I head back to my tent and sleep well.

Day 2

Beth, Jean, and I go to the northeast side of tower. The previous day, they had a miserable time climbing in the sun. Beth got sun stroke and had to call it. So today, it's all about what we can do to stay in the shade. Beth leads the first pitch of Broken Tree for a warm up. Then we head over to check out some climbs but settle on Mystic and the Mulchers which John and Bruce just climbed. This is suppose to be easier than McCarthy's North Face, but I find it very spicy with a heart stopping moment or two! It's a much thinner crack with narrow flaring spots - not gear friendly like all of yesterday's climbs! About mid way up, I place a RP, go for the move, my feet slip and I nearly fall. I manage to keep hold and scurry to a very secure stance. Looking down I see that my RP 's pulled out. I had run it out before that so if I had fallen without the RP, it would have been quite a whipper. I also didn't consider the length of this climb (about 140') when I started and took only about 11 or 12 draws. Do the math! Another stress factor is that I couldn't see the anchors for 99% of the climb and was very confused about how much further to go and how much more gear I needed to conserve or not. In any case, I finish the sucker with no draws left, only one medium sized nut, and a hand full of cams. Arg. Lesson learned on both fronts. Later I compare notes with Todd and he nicknamed the climb "Butt Muncher". Enough said?

After Jean and Beth run it, it's about 3 and no one is up for another lead. Dave and Jerry pop up and they say they're done for the day too so that cinches it...we head back to camp, get ice cream, take showers, and chug beers before dinner. Ahhh, dinner...nearly an epic of it's own! The short story is it takes us 4 tries to find a restaurant that's open and/or we want to eat at. We finally end up at the BBQ place just around the corner from the KOA, eat a very hearty meal, and wait nearly an hour for them to tally and add up our bill. It's about 10:45 before the dinner 'ordeal' is over and we're back at camp chuckling it up over wine.

Day 3

Not much to day 3 except the KOA's camp pony gets loose and 'wanders' into our campsite. Wander is an understatement since Bruce lured him over with bread and tried to get him to step into Todd and Kristen's tent while they're still asleep. Yeah - we laughed for a while about that! Dave R, Debbie, and Jean stay for more climbs. Poor Beth stays in camp due to a groin pull. The rest of us hit the road for the long drive back to town. I would have loved to climb some more...next year!