Here is a trip report on climbing Ancient Art at the
Fisher Towers and Sister Superior in the Castle
Valley. George Bell and I climbed these last
weekend.
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"Jah Man!"
Now is the Spring of my desert content. This was my third trip to a
different desert climbing area in as many weeks. Following up trips
to the Dragoon Mountains of southern Arizona and Red Rock
Canyon outside of Las Vegas, I was now heading to the sandstone
spires of Utah. But the weather wasn't looking good. It was a
blowing snowstorm as George Bell, his fiancee Esther, and Amos
their loyal New Zealand Sheepdog/American Spaniel mix pupster,
and I headed out of Denver.
Our objectives were Ancient Art, one of the Fisher Towers, the
Slickrock mountain bike trail, and Jah Man on Sister Superior and
we only had the weekend to it. After a dinner stop in Glenwood
Springs, we continued on and arrived at the Fisher Towers around
12:30 a.m. Signs of a heavy rain were evident and we doubted an
ascent of the muddy, Cutler sandstone (the worst rock in the
desert) tower would be possible.
The next morning I talked to a couple of climbers heading off to do
the Sundevil Chimney on the Titan. They were planning to do the
route in two days and were taking a porta-ledge! This is unusual in
the desert. Most people fix and come down because of the danger
from storms and because the routes aren't that big (the Titan being
the tallest structure on the Colorado Plateau (besides Shiprock) at
900'.) Nevertheless, two days is a fast time for the Sundevil.
We took our time around camp, in no hurry to get on the damp
mud towers. We put up our tents, ate some breakfast, and
organized our gear. The route called for a single set of friends. I
threw on a #4 Camalot and some stoppers, but it was still one of
the smallest racks I had carried in awhile.
Hiking around the Fisher Towers this time of year is great. The
rock is such a deep red and the juniper trees are a bright green. The
landscape looks like a red/green color blindness test. It also doesn't
see that many hikers. It isn't as well known because it isn't located
in a National Park, but can provide very peaceful hiking.
We wandered up to Ancient Art but wanted to let things dry out as
much as possible so we killed some time by checking out the
Colorado NE Ridge on King Fisher. Descending back down to
Ancient Art we spied a belay station in the middle of nowhere on a
blank, rotten face. On closer inspection we saw a couple of bolts
and then a couple of fixed copper (or aluminum) heads. I scanned
the guidebook and found the route: "Death of American
Democracy" - a 5.9 A4+ route put up right after Christmas in 19??
by...who else: Jim Beyer - solo. This must be one lonely, brave
dude. Beyer has put up tons of desperate aid routes in the Utah
desert and particularly on the Fisher Towers. I don't fancy these
routes see too many ascents.
The Fisher Towers are amongst the most bizarre looking towers in
Utah. They look more like sand castles of the gods.
When George and I climb together I'm the designated "Chimney
Man!" I don't really know why except that I like doing chimneys.
Maybe one of the few climbers around who like these things.
Anyway, I was able to use it to my advantage on this route because
the free pitches are pitches #1,3, and 5 and it just so happens that
pitch #3 is a chimney. That left poor George with short bolt ladders
on pitches 2 and 4.
I scampered up the very enjoyable 5.6 first pitch and George
quickly followed. He briefly considered trying to free climb the bolt
ladder (10+), but the marginal bolts and terrible rock deterred such
thoughts and he clipped in his aiders. At this point I realized that I
only had two photos left in my camera. Not enough for such a
photogenic route. I had another roll in my pack so I rappelled back
down, retrieved the film, re-climbed the first pitch, and then
followed the bolt ladder by using the aiders George left behind.
The next pitch is considered the crux by some estimations and I can
see why. It is a 120 foot 5.8 chimney on mostly crumbly rock. The
chimney is wide and mostly involves delicate stemming against
rotten walls. Holds you can pull down on strongly are few and far
between. By the time I crawled onto the spacious belay ledge I had
placed every single camming unit - some of them might have even
held a fall!
George ascended the short bolt ladder above and placed us on
something called the Sidewalk. At the other end of the Sidewalk,
the summit twisted, turned, and tilted upwards. A fragile sand castle
taunting gravity to tear it down. And tear it down it will, but
hopefully not today. George described the summit of Ancient Art as
"a forty foot tall corkscrew dipped in mud". The zenith appears to
be about a foot wide and tilted at a 45 degree angle. I knew I didn't
want to stand on that thing; maybe not even sit on it. I wondered if
the ascent would count if I just touched the top...
The final pitch is special: bizarre and exposed. Sidewalk, diving
board, steep moves to get on a ledge on the right. Clip a desert bolt
and execute a difficult (5.8+/5.9) move over a bulge. The primary
handhold was a little cup that was filled with water and mud. I
should point out that except for this hold (which never sees sun) the
rock had been nice and dry.
The summit isn't as bad to stand on as it appears from the last belay
and I cautiously did so and quietly stood there as George snapped
off a few photos with both cameras. A large group of hikers were
watching my antics on one side and two other hikers on the other.
When I finally stood on the summit they cheered.
With the festivities concluded and the bows taken, George lowered
me down from the slings just below the summit to the Diving
Board. I walked out to the edge of the board and executed, what
else?, a beautiful reverse gainer with a full twist onto the Sidewalk!
Okay, it wasn't quite that impressive, but I was stumped by the best
way to get off the Diving Board. I decided that I'd jump. This
sounds crazy, but the jump is only a couple of feet and the Sidewalk
is at least a foot wide. How hard could that be? Of course, on each
side of this foot wide Sidewalk of rock it drops over 400 dead
vertical feet to the ground below. I made the little jump with very
little fear, but when I landed two feet down a shudder of fear hit me
for some reason. Maybe I finally realized how easy it would be to
slip off and swing back toward the summit spire.
George goes through the same motions of climbing up, getting
photographed and being lowered to the Diving Board. Here he
deviated from my strategy and did a reverse belly flop move to
return to the Sidewalk.
Getting down with only one rope proved exciting. The chimney
pitch is about 120 feet long. Oops! The Book of Knapp states that
this pitch is 80 feet long and on that information, we left behind the
second rope. George handled this by clipping in an aider to the
bottom of the rappel line and climbing past the last hard part,
unroped, back to the second belay. This wouldn't work for me. I
braced myself in the chimney, got off the rappel line and pulled
down the rope. Then I tied in and George put me on belay and I
downclimbed the tricky section.
On the hike out we met Bob "The Alien" Sinclair and his girlfriend
Diane. They had lost their other partner, Jim, on the approach. I
had met Bob through the net a number of years ago and our first
climb together, with Jim, was Moses Spire. They were headed for
Ancient Art also.
We had lunch and drove to Moab. George and Esther dropped me
off at the Slickrock trail at 4:30 p.m. and they left for some hiking.
We planned to meet at 8 p.m. at Eddy McStiff's for dinner.
The Slickrock trail is a 13 mile loop across the top of a large mesa
covered by smooth sandstone. The challenging ride includes several
named difficulties like the Fried Egg Hill, Runaway Bike Ramp,
Gravity Cavity, and Precision Gruntwork. It is one of the most
famous and sought after mountain bike rides in the world and
therefore is extremely crowded. At the start of this ride I felt like
was I riding at a skateboard park. The congestion was terrible.
People waiting to go down sections, while others climbed up them.
This is due to the out and back nature of the first two miles of the
trail. Once I got to the loop proper, I chose to ride the loop in the
counterclockwise direction. This is the more difficult direction and
has less traffic in this direction. From here on I mostly rode
completely alone with no other riders in sight. This is probably due
to the lateness of the hour and the approaching storm.
I cruised the Slickrock trail in about two hours. I didn't stop much
and didn't take any sidetrips since my time was limited and was a bit
worried by the clouds. Afterwards I rode the Slickrock Practice
loop before riding back into town. This is such a fun place to ride
with many interesting, challenging problems, but oh so crowded.
I had hoped to hit the climbing store and get a new harness, but it
was closed by the time I got there. It was only 7 p.m. so I browsed
the bookstore and called my 38 week pregnant wife Sheri back in
Boulder. She wasn't in labor so I could climb the next day. Soon
Esther and George showed up and dinner followed. We camped
back at the Fisher Towers and it rained hard most of the night.
The next day we drove up the 4WD road towards the Sister
Superior group. This road is more of a wash than anything and,
although, not very extreme, requires high clearance and four wheel
drive. The wash is located between two big mesas: The Convent on
the east and the Parriot Mesa on the west. It is reputed that a
mythical desert climber known only as the ever laughing Master
Blaster put up a super classic on this structure known as Parriot of
the Gods. It hasn't seen a second ascent despite a rumored attempt
by Jim Beyers.
Sister Superior lies on the north/south ridge line that includes, from
the north, the Convent, Sister Superior, the Priest, the Nuns, the
Rectory, and finally Castleton Tower. A cool ultra-marathon
climbing achievement would be traverse this ridge climbing each
structure in a single day.
Esther dropped us about three miles from the River Road (Highway
128) at a large cairn making the start of the trail. The hike up is
very straight forward albeit steep. The 1600 feet of elevation gain
took us 50 minutes. After awhile we spotted a car parked at the
trailhead and then two climbers coming our way. Those guys
probably think they have this tower to themselves since we didn't
leave a car. We knew they were going for the same route we were:
Jah Man.
George fired the first, very short 5.8/9 pitch to a big ledge. Then I
led up the Sister Squeeze chimney. This 5.8+ offwidth/squeeze
chimney allowed me a #0 Alien and a #3 friend in eighty feet of
climbing. Thankfully, most of the climbing is in the squeeze
chimney and feels fairly secure. The belay is very reminiscent of
Boot Flake on the Nose of El Cap.
The next pitch, like all the pitches, is steep, very steep and rated
5.10+. George was undaunted though and immediately found the
climbing hard. Right off the belay a difficult move is required to
stand up on some good footholds. The crack is vicious thin hands
and some grunting is required to pull this off. Higher up he clips a
bolt and now must deal with the crux. After backing up the bolt
with a small cam, he launches into the traverse staying low and
doing powerful moves with little or no feet. It is an inspiring
performance that neither I, nor the two 5.11 climbers behind us can
duplicate.
At the end of the traverse, he plugs in a cam and cranks a powerful
layback move into a moderate handcrack and is soon at the belay.
Following, I almost pull off a crucial flake in standing up on the
initial footholds. The days are numbered for this hold. I continued
up to the bolt and nervously eye the large gap to the next piece. I
can't see how the low traverse is possible and try to go high. With
my hands down near my feet, I'm pumping out. I can rest in a
crouch, sort of - the wall is dead vertical, put that isn't getting me
across. Finally committing to the desperate moves, I struggle with
everything I've got to reach the sloping ledge and avoid the big
swing if I peeled. I was doing the Rasta Man Vibrations at the crux
and peel I did. I swung across to the left, not hitting anything due to
the steep nature, but so spent physically I almost puked. By the
time I peeled, my left arm was gone. I was so pumped I could
barely get back on the rock and struggle up to the belay.
I wanted to rest longer before leading the next pitch (also rated
10+) but didn't feel I could take that luxury with a party behind us
(although we climbed faster than this party.) I flashed the next,
steep, continuous, thin hand crack up to a great belay ledge. Our
consensus rating was that the 3rd pitch is 5.10d and the 4th pitch is
5.10b.
Black clouds were moving in all around us and I could see it raining
nearby. I wanted to get up and down quickly as I'd left my rain gear
at the base of the tower. As George started up the last pitch it
started to snow. Stumped at a tough move, George paused and the
snows continued to fall. He said it was a tough move, but that he
could aid it. I said, "Aid it! Let's get going" but then he tried the
move one more time and succeeded. Apparently the threat of me
making him aid it was just the incentive he needed. This pitch is
rated 10a, but it is more of a boulder problem.
I hurried up to the summit after having the same trouble with the
boulder move and we snapped the obligatory photos. A single rope
rappel got us back to the 4th belay and two dead vertical double
rope raps got us back to the ground. Up and down in two and a half
hours. These are short pitches, obviously.
After some lunch we retraced our steps back down to the
road/wash and started hiking out toward the River Road. We got
about halfway there before Esther came rumbling along to pick us
up.
We started driving home at 3 p.m. in the rain. The drive went pretty
smooth until we reached the Colorado mountains. We just barely
got over Vail Pass before it was closed but when we got to Dillon
we found I-70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel was closed. We had
dinner there and hoped the road would open. Around 10 p.m. we
gave up and headed for my parents condominium in Breckenridge.
The next morning we completed the trek back to Denver and
directly to work for me. A great, super successful weekend!
--
Bill Wright (bi...@netcom.com)
or (bill_wri...@mail.amsinc.com)
Home: (303) 494-7232
Work: (303) 969-3583
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