Spire Two

July, 2003

After climbing Spire Four three times, it was time to move on to another Spire.  While the International Chimney on Spire Three was definitely alluring, we thought we should probably do something a little easier before scaring ourselves on that one.  So, over the July 4th weekend in 2003, Angela and I headed up to the hills and hiked into the Spire Two/Three gully.

Even though we hadn't been in the Two/Three gully before, we found Spire Two without any trouble.  The route we intended to do was also easy to find, identifiable by a trampled spot at the base of the rock.

Angela took the first lead up a long gully that starts just behind the tree in the photo to the left.  While the climbing was mostly easy, there were a couple steeper parts that make you think.  This pitch ended next to a cool notch between Spire Two and Balcony Point.

The second and final pitch was my lead.  Nowadays, most people climb straight up from the belay anchor and head up to the summit via a face which is now protected by a bolt.  But, of course, I've got to be different.  When the Conns climbed this route in 1949, they found a very sneaky way up the summit block via a hidden groove to the right.  This groove can only be reached by a tricky traverse move, but I was game to try it out.  As it turned out, this particular move was quite exciting and really the highlight of the route.  I really feel sorry for all those people that climb up that generic face instead--they are definitely missing out! 

So after swinging blindly around the corner I found myself in an awkward chimney barely able to cling to the rock!  Only 5.3, huh?!  I kept my wits about me and squirmed up a little at a time and soon got past the difficulties.  From there it was a real cruise to the summit.

After lingering on the summit for a while, we headed down to find the Two/Three gully rather crowded with people.  We were considering going for it on International Chimney after all, but in the time that we took to eat some food and organize our gear, a party of three got on that route in front of us.  We waited around a while thinking we could just go up after them, but one of them was very inexperienced and we could tell it was going to take her a long time to make it to the top.  So, instead of hanging around doing nothing, we decided to check out Spire One which was nearby.  You can read about Spire One here.

May, 2004

As is quite common for us, over Memorial Day weekend we headed to the Black Hills to rendezvous with our good friends Will and Alison.  As we are always eager to share our Black Hills adventures with them, we decided that they needed to climb Spire Two as well. 

And, a good time was had by all (except for maybe Tufa who had to hang out with her doggy dish at the base of the route).  Afterwards we headed for (you guessed it) Spire One.