The Totem Pole gets jumped, it just costs about $10,000.
The RedBull Team did it last year.








For Ben:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual>>>>>

Thanks for that video! I was able to scope my new route on the face from the helmet cam footage! It's good to see that people have been out there jumping, it seems like an great place to do it.

Towers and buttes:

greyhghost,

Who are you if you don't mind my asking? not trying to be an ass but just interested in putting a name with a face. We should talk. I just returned from the dez last weekend where I did three different tower jumps including a highly probable first descent off Hindu in Onion Creek, that was spicy, but wonderful. I've made 30 or more desert tower jumps off ~ dozen different towers, maybe more, time I add them up. There are so many to do its truly unlimited. so far my favorite has to be ancent art or the titan, gotta love everything about the fishers and AA CSS is just fantastic, Titan is the only slider up tower I've done.

Did your know there are jumpable 'towers' right here in the front range? I did one just recently but there are plenty more to be done too. I like your "all I need is ~140 feet" quote, I generally agree though as you know there are many factors that go into that choice, nevertheless that's the attitude and style I like to see. If you can imagine it it can be done. gotta have the vision thing Anyhow, blah blah blay, yadda yadda yadda, please pm me we need to scheme and dream . . .

The second pic from the top shows what I have come to know as the Monument Pass Tower group. They include; The King, Throne, Shangra La, Rabbit, Bear, Stagecoach Mesa, and the Indian Chief. I have personally summited all but the Bear and Stagecoach.

The next one down, with the strut in the pic shows the Three Sisters, Left Mitten Thumb, and I believe Mitchel Mesa.

Two more down, with the greenish butte (Eagle Rock) in the middle shows Eagle Rock spire and the Sitting Hen.

Hope this info. helps....

Stu

Greyghost, watch out for that Wayne cat! And a couple PMs sent.

So is the jury out about what type of rock is needed to qualify for a tower?
What about the Lost Arrow in Yosemite?
Lost Arrow in the City?
The Summit of the Thumb in LCC?
Quatermoon Tower at Ibex?
Any limestone towers?
What about those butte/landform/summit things in Maple, can't rap to those things.

Or is this JUST a sandstone list? I know Ben Kissel's answer already so unless he is the president of the board ;), what's the general opinion?

" I have personally summited all but the Bear and Stagecoach."

You're killing me Stu! :)



I only count sandstone towers on the Colorado Plateau.

I'm not the president of the board?

What do y'all think of Everyman's Endless Edge? 7 towers or only 1 tower for the trojan?

Ben, I'm not familiar with EEE, but it appears from the photo that it might be 0 towers: a ridgeline with 7 tower like summits? I dunno, and in many ways I don't care, if you think/feel/say its seven towers that sounds good to me! but as a case in point I guess I would consider river tower in the fishers 1 tower not 4, just as I consider Ancient art one tower not 4. No doubt there is some grey fuzzyness in there somewhere . . . . is forming tower also in the fisher's a tower? what about the oracle? by many definitions in this thread its a tower like extension of the ridge, certainly not a freestanding tower. When does life begin exactly? you see being alive is similarly vague and nondescript as is being a tower???

It's all grey fuzziness isn't it!

If we take the dictionary's definition:...

"tower

-A tall narrow building, either freestanding or forming part of a building such as a church or castle."

...then it would seem EEE is 7 towers in the same way a castle wall can have multiple towers and still be one ridge-like formation.

If we take the dictionary's definition:...

"tower

-A tall narrow building, either freestanding or forming part of a building such as a church or castle."

...then it would seem EEE is 7 towers in the same way a castle wall can have multiple towers and still be one ridge-like formation.

EEE- It's 7! Ben invite me to join the party... actually, I am inviting myself.

It is hard to tell the scale (that Titan sure is small) but I would say that the pancake, lightbulb, humingbird, and trojan are towerish formations.

I'd give it up for the Trojan and perhaps for the Hummingbird Perch depending on how tall it is from its base on the ridgeline. (probably not though for HP)

Nothing else on EEE is a "tower". :)

Will, I like your logic but I think I would call it 1 tower. Wayne I agree there is some grey area and a lot of personal opinion. Case in point I would call the 4 summits of ancient art 4 towers.

Ben

This formation in a way reminds me of the summit of Echo Tower in the Fishers. I don't think I would count a variety of hoodoos on a ridge as seperate towers. However, I think the case can be made in circumstances like Bridger Jack, that multiple "legitimate" tower summits are sometimes linked together as parts of the same formation. Another example might be the Crow's Heads. I have always looked upon the Sister Superior group, and it's countless little summits, with some suspicion. Having never been out to EEE, I would defer judgement to those who know better the exact elevation differences between "summits", and how distinct they are from each other.

Stu

Hmmm . . . . ,

Well yes Ben I might even agree agree with you on Ancient art now that I'm called to task on it, truth be told I'd probably have a stronger opinion if I had climbed more than the corkscrew summit. I hadn't actually opened up that EEE photo previosly and when enlarged I also stand corrected. I believe, agreeing with BB, I see two towers, the trojan definately looks like a tower to me by my standards (which are purely undefined subjective "gestalt") and on the far left there appears to be a little feature oxymoronically named -the titan- sticking up. I believe that is a tower too!

The Trojan is the only "true" tower on the ridge line. There are a few like " The Land OF Joseph and Lightbulb part deux" that needed to be rapped off but I think the rest are more like pinnacles. The Pancake can be stepped off of and back on to, and the Gunsight summits are kinda "bumps" along the road, if it was "summit like" on our way up the ridge we bagged it.

Wayne, I would have to say that the Oracle is a tower also, that summit spire/spike thing is not small.

Hey TP, how long do you think the EEE will take now that it is established? would you really call it a grade 6?

Ben

Ben, no doubt, oracle is huge and since its historically been described as a tower that certainly carries some weight. OF course it all just depends on what the optimality criterion are for your defining hypothesis. Yes, the spikey part is quite large, is it larger/taller than the base part of the ridge from which it projects? does that mattter? I guess i just like to play around with ideas and definitions . . . btw, I do consider The Oracle a "tower" . . . I guess maybe I tend to think we all know a tower when we see/climb/jump one so it really is kind of just semantics (which I enjoy). But then there are those rare cases where we don't all agree, so . . . . Like I implied before, for most of us most of the time all that matters is what matters to us individually and for most of us most of the time there is a broad overlapping consensus there reagrdless.

Maybe I should start using the definition someone else did of considering all buttes and butresses towers?

Ben, is forming tower a tower? it climbs and jumps like a tower, but I tend to think it is a tpower in name only . . . what about the finger of fate? the minotaur?

paz y amor . . . .

The definition of a tower according to Eric B or George H is any formation that is taller than it is wide. Doesn't seem too compicated beyond that...unless one really seeks pedantics.
I guess El Cap is now a Grade II now that it can be climbed in a couple of hours if that is how you define the Grading system. I sure miss those Grade IIIs, IVs, Vs, and VIs. Just think, most of you guys will never get to do one.

I guess I should have clarified.

Grade 4-ish by using short fixing methods and the other trickery that goes into saving time. IF you broke down every pitch like we did I bet it would make it grade V-.