The Watchtower. Tips and crimps at steep start an...
Description
Super Classic left facing dihedral on the Watchtower formation. Goes from crimps, to tips, to ever widening hands at the end of pitch one. Hardly anybody does the second pitch, and there is probably good reason for that.
Location
Inbetween the Church wall and the Religion walls.
Protection
Some grey Metolius at the bottom all the way to hands at the top.
I did the first ascent of this route/tower with Jim Erdman around 1990?. I led the first pitch and Jim led the second which is a sugary loose mess. It had this loose toadstool that could fall and kill the belayer. It might be gone now. We aided some on both pitches. Later, with Brian Smith, I traversed the limestone band to the left at the top of the first pitch to access the obvious wide crack on the south side. The traverse was easy but the crack to the top was pretty crummy like the original second pitch. No fun, and I had already been to the top so we bailed. I think this is still a better pitch than the original second pitch so somebody should go do it.
We named the formation The Watchtower and the original route The Last Temptation. I don't know if JM renamed it after the FFA.
Lower Religion Wall
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