Castleton Tower
Angela and I first saw the Castleton Tower in March, 2001 on our first trip to Moab. We'd read a great deal about it before this and were well aware of it's inclusion in the "Fifty Classics". However, reading about it and actually seeing it are two entirely different things. It came into view as we drove down "River Road" and I immediately understood its appeal to climbers. It is, after all, the archetypical desert tower.
While we had no real intentions of trying to reach the summit on this first trip (it was our first time every climbing on sandstone), we did want to at least get a feel for it and attempt the first couple pitched of the Kor/Ingalls route.
Our friend, Rick, was along with us on this trip, but even with three minds
we still managed to completely screw up the approach hike. We veered off to the
right when we should have gone left and never actually saw the trail that leads
to the base of the tower. Instead we ended up circling around the northeast
side
of the Tower well below the talus slopes that lead up to it. After hiking for
some time we were desperate (and stupid) to get up to the Tower. Access to the
Tower is guarded by an almost continuous band of cliffs in the middle of the
talus slopes. Eventually we found a weakness in this cliff line and decided to
just head upwards--trail or no trail. This turned out to be quite an adventure
in and of itself. Not only was it much further than it had appeared to the top
of the ridge, the footing was incredibly loose. Occasionally we would send
boulders rolling down the slope, and often we slide back once for every two
steps forward. I kept waiting for Angela to get grumpy (as it was now obvious
how stupid climbing up this slope was), but every time I waited for her to catch
up she would have a big smile on her face. I thought she was off her rocker!
Later she explained to me how this had been a life altering experience for her.
It stretched her estimation of just what is possible if you put your mind to it.
Finally
we did make it to the top of the ridgeline on which the Castleton Tower sits.
However, we were now standing under The Priest instead of the Tower which was
still a half mile to our south. On top of this, it had begun to snow lightly
and was downright cold. We knew at this point our chances of actually climbing
were about zero. Our new plan was to find our way along the ridge to the Tower
and then attempt to find the actual trail in order to descend.
My mood quickly turned from ecstatic (when I first reached the ridgeline and looked down into Castle Valley) to cranky. I felt very stupid indeed for messing up this approach so badly, and I was tired and probably hungry too. Finally, with the help of some climbers on The Rectory, we managed to make it across to the Tower. It was some very exciting hiking across steep scree slopes. There was a bit of a trail at this point, but it didn't amount to more than a footprint here and there. We found the trail where we should have arrived originally and headed downward. Now that we were on it, the trail was painfully obvious. We couldn't believe that we had missed it that morning.
Over the next two years we made two more trips to Moab but never even went near the Castleton Tower. I still wanted very much to climb it but was now more aware of the fact that my desert climbing skills might not be up to snuff. We spent our trips to Moab cragging with friends and practicing aid climbing.
In
the meantime, I read more about Castleton and dreamed. Interestingly, every
time I read an account of the crux pitch on the Kor/Ingalls route, I got sweaty
palms. This bothered me considerably! Fortunately I came across some pictures
of the North Chimney route and learned that while it is not one of the "fifty
classics," it might be a better route--at least for me. Angela wasn't entirely
convinced, but we had progressed quite a bit as climbers and were keen to give
it a go.
So we planned a trip to Moab in April, 2004 with the Castleton Tower as our primary objective.
After a couple days of cragging to get used to sandstone again, we set off in
the dark for Castleton Tower. This time we weren't taking any chances. We had
scoped out the parking and the first bit of the approach earlier so that we
could do it in the dark. We were set on being the first ones there (plus we
know
we're
slow) and not messing up the approach again.
Things went great this time and we made it to the base of the Tower in an
hour and a half. And indeed we were the only ones there. We took a bit of a
break to relax and eat before we started the climb. The sun was shining, the
day was beautiful, and the first pitch of the climb looked out of sight!!!
As I started up the first pitch loaded down with cams, a couple climbers from Brazil arrived. They offered Angela a smoke. I think Angela was a bit annoyed to have to smell cigarette smoke in such a beautiful natural setting.
The first pitch of this climb is touted by many to be
the "best 5.8 pitch in the desert". It certainly didn't disappoint. It follows
a remarkable corner with numerous cracks with are constantly changing size and
orientation. Keeps you on your toes. Then when you've just about had it, you
reach the crux
of the pitch--a slight bulge followed by an immediate offwidth crack. I didn't
fall here but had to climb up and down about three times before I could piece
together a sequence that would work for me. It was quite awkward and strenuous
but then quickly eased off as I reached the first belay anchor.
When Angela arrived at the first belay, she was
quick to point out that while I had climbed that crux with almost no gear left
on my rack she had to pull it with a full load! Not wanting to let her 'get one
up on me', I quickly reminded her that she had been on toprope and I had been
leading!
The belay stance was crowded and as soon as we had re-racked I set off on the second pitch. The brazilians were already on their way up pitch one and there was definitely not room for three at this stance.
The second pitch proved to be the crux for me. It starts with a true
offwidth crack. Definitely too big to jam and definitely too small to crawl
inside of. To top it off there is a very old and crappy bolt to protect this
section. I had difficulty just reaching the bolt to clip it. When I reached
out to clip it the hanger spun ridiculously. Finally I managed the clip but
couldn't see how I was goint to gain another inch in that crack. I gave in to
my weakness and ended up pulling on the bolt in order to gain a couple of feet.
(Kinda surprised it even held my bodyweight!) Then the crack narrowed slightly
so my biggest cam (a #4 camalot) would just barely "tip out" in the crack. As I
made progress I moved my cam up along with me until it
actually
fit well and then the difficulties were over.
I had now gained access to the North Chimney, and the climbing got considerably easier. There was just an interesting move here and there as I surmounted the various chockstones that were in the way. The belay stance at the end of the second pitch was even more confined than the first. When Angela arrived we had to practically stand on top of one another as we exchanged gear.
The
third pitch contained fun moderate climbing and some interesting route finding.
We knew from route descriptions that we should reach the end of the chimney and
join the Kor/Ingalls route at the end of this pitch. However, the topo that we
had brought along wasn't quite drawn right and almost led me astray. I felt
something just wasn't quite right about the topo so I followed my instinct
instead--and for a change, my instinct was right!
The North Chimney ends in a small notch filled with
boulders between the Tower itself and the enormous flake that forms both the
North Chimney and the Kor/Ingalls route. 
The
walls on either side of this notch are covered with the most amazing calcite
formation we saw on the entire climb. Looking down out of the notch to the
south, we could see the talus slopes fade into Castle Valley almost 1700 feet
below!
One more short pitch and we would have this thing in the bag! We were so psyched! The weather had been outstanding--hardly a breath of wind (even sitting in that exposed notch where one would expect the wind to howl through).
The final pitch, while only 5.7, was certainly one of the most exhilarating
parts of the climb. I started out by crimping my way up chunks of calcite that
had glued themselves to the sandstone to a small crack that lead out to the
left. This is were it got exciting as I stepped out from beyond the confines of
the chimney and felt 1700 feet of instant exposure below me! What a rush!
Then, suddenly, I was on top of the Castleton Tower! I couldn't wait to belay
Angela up to the top! I quickly crammed a couple cams in a crack to belay off
of and pulled up the excess rope. "On Belay," I yelled with pure giddiness in
my voice!
The last pitch had been quite short and it wasn't long at all until I saw the
top of Angela's helmet appear. Then I saw that she too had a huge grin across
her face. She popped up onto the summit and did a
little
dance--it was hilarious and awesome.
The summit was more incredible than we could have ever imagined it to be. It
was made even better by the fact that we'd been
dreaming about it for over three years, and that it had been some of the most
intense free climbing we'd done to date (okay, mostly free, I did french that
one move). The views in all directions are simply awesome!
We'd made pretty good time coming up the climb (5hrs) and were in no hurry to
head back down. That was until the wind decided to kick up out of nowhere.
Our
pleasant, sunny summit was suddenly bombarded by constant 25-30 mph winds. So
much for our plans of having a peaceful picnic on top!
We rounded up our gear and headed over to the northern edge of the summit to
find the rappel route.
Boy, what a sight! The north face drops straight down from the summit with
hardly and interruption for 400 feet! We quickly set up the first rappel, and
hoped that once we dropped over the edge we would get out of the wind. This,
however, was not the case. The wind was blowing from the west and made a real
nuisance of itself as we rappelled down the face. Our ropes were constantly
blowing out of sight
around the corner to the east face, and more than once they
nearly got hung up over there. On top of that, a couple of the rappels angled
slightly to the right, and the wind was blowing us to the left.
This made it a real chore to dock at the next set of anchors. We crossed our
fingers each time we pulled our ropes down and hoped they wouldn't get stuck in
a crack somewhere. Our luck held out and eventually we made it back to the
base--safely and in one piece!
The relief of being off that windy north face and having been to the top of
the Castleton Tower left huge smiles on our faces. We relaxed for a while
before heading down the trail, refueled our bodies, and simply reveled in what
we had just accomplished.
To celebrate (after a nice afternoon nap) we went to Eddy McStiff's for dinner and some good brews. When we arrived we were smelly, dirty, and dazed from our adventures of the previous few days. The host gave us a funny look, conversed quietly with some of the wait staff, and then proceeded to lead us to the furthest corner of the restaurant away from all the other patrons. We got a huge kick out of this!
