Devan Johnson coming across the 4th pitch on Washe...
Description
Approach: Park to the SW of the towers, right before the wash where the road turns back to the left (or southeast)... same as for Washer Woman. Park on the road, but pull off the side as far as possible. Park Rangers issued us a warning about parking off the road. Parking here gives you a view of the western sides of these towers. Head up a ridgeline right north of the parking and ascend the benches to the final talus slope. My recommendation is to head for the south end of Monster Tower and then traverse up and right around the tower to the east side just down from the notch separating the towers.
The Climb: P1 - Easy left facing dihedral leads to a ledge. Climb around a small amount of looseness and up a small and short right facing dihedral. The belay is here, right below a curving crack that will appear somewhat wide. GRADE: 5.9
P2 - Climb the curving crack above the anchor. After reaching a ledge, clip a long sling to the fixed gear and ascend the low angle wide crack to a big ledge on a pedestal. (Or belay below the low angle wide crack and separate that pitch.) GRADE: 5.10+
P3 - Move slightly left to the obvious thin crack which is a shallow right facing dihedral. Climb the thinner crack and then offwidth to a large belay ledge. A great rest appears after the thin climbing. There are smaller gear placements to be found in the offwidth sections. GRADE: 5.11
P4 - Climb blocky ledges and then a chimney. Finish on a ledge with a fixed anchor. Supposedly, another option is to climb poor rock through ledges and another chimney to the right. Either way, this pitch has the most loose climbing on the tower. GRADE: 5.8 or 5.9
P5 - Begin off a very large ledge. A variety of climbing leads up, out a bulge, slightly right and then traverses left again to a good ledge. Next, either move left to a free variation or use the bolt ladder above the ledge. We aided the bolt ladder which led back to face climbing free moves to a ledge right below the summit cap rock with an anchor. GRADE: 5.11-
Summit by having your partner belay the easy moves up and back down from the cap rock. Register on top. Never saw an anchor on the very top.
Protection
1 each Friends #1 to #4, 1 each Camalots #.5 to #4 (old purple #4)Aliens or other small cams for under 1"1 Set of Stoppers.
Extra #0.5 Camalots, #3 Camalots or equivalent.
Bringing gear larger than an old style B.D. #4 Camalot is up to your discretion as a desert climber.
We took one 70m rope and made single-rope rappels back down safely from anchor to anchor. Fixed anchors at the top of every pitch.
We just did the North Ridge last week... great climb, but with some rather poor bolts.
The picture in Bjornstad's guide that purports to be of the first pitch is actually of the crux fourth pitch - this confused us a bit looking for the start.
The last couple of pitches have some loose rock (not really bad by desert standards, but be prepared - it ain't all cleaned off like Fine Jade!), and the last two pitches as described in the guidebook must be done as one, as there is no anchor - a scary runout to the summit if you let rope drag develop!
The second pitch is very physical but straightforward; the fourth is just plain HARD. The crux - pictured in the guidebook - can be aided on #2 Friends... which will suffice to get you to the offwidth ;-).
Anchors on the entire route consist of old star drives, which were a little spooky to rappel from (most can be backed up for use as belay anchors). Some new bolts at the belays would do this route a lot of good.
The North Ridge of Monster Tower is a spectacular climb with incredible stances and beautiful scenery.Mistakingly we avoided the 1st pitch. The 2nd pitch (5.10d)is a stunning wide hands curving crack well worth the fight to a good rest stance. Put in some pro here cause your not going to get any for the rest of the 5.7 or 5.8 slanting squeeze chimney up to a perfect belay stance. The 3rd pitch(5.11a)is the crux. A long sandy loose fingers crack. I felt insecure all the way to the top of this section then peeling off just before a descent hand jam. Then pulling into a wide offwidth to squeeze crack. A #4.5 and #5 Camalot would have been nice to have thru this section.The 4th pitch is a welcomed easier pitch. We took the left hand variation. The 5th pitch (5.10)I thought had some fun moves. Short pitch.The 6th pitch (5.11a) was very exciting. We did the free variation heading left and up. A few sequency moves unto easier but sandy rock will put you on top. This to me was the best view of the desert landscape I've seen. With the White Rim below you, Washer Woman beside you and all the other towers and mesas in the distance.
Re: the North Ridge-- Approached via the SE slopes (as for Washer Woman/Suds) as we'd found an excellent, gradual ridge-hike departing right from the parking site in the wash to the SE of the towers. Others we saw came from the N, but we didn't feel like attempting an unknown slog when the one we found worked well. The traverse around is no bargain, though-- ball-bearing scree over hardpack. The 'long sandy loose fingers' section on p.3 is about twenty feet and takes 1" pro as often as you can let go to stick it in; the OW above took a 4.5 Camalot which I found welcome. My pard put a #5 in on the 4th, the only place we used it, but he was glad enough to have it. Ditch it all after this cuz that's the end of the wideness. Bolts are good (enough) as of 11/03. Eventually J Smith's 1/4''er at the crux of the summit pitch will need replacing, but it's in good rock, doesn't wiggle a bit, and seemed OK for now. Pulling ropes seemed like the crux-short ropes are OK for this route as the pitches are all under 120'.
Aaron Cloud and I did this route on 3/26. Here are our impressions:
The first pitch can be avoided by scrambling along the east side of the notch. The second pitch is about as good as it gets in the desert. Hard, fun and pumpy. Mostly fist and wide hands. Didn't lead the crux, but felt it was super hard and the OW's didn't give easy. We had a 4 and 5 cam and were very thankful we brought them. Belay bolts are in sorry shape, definitely need replacing. Rapping down from the top of the 2nd pitch will eat your rope. One 70m rope will suffice for the raps. The best desert summit I've ever been on.
We found the SE approach fairly well trod and cairned as of 5/08 -- start by walking up the major drainage on the tower's east side. We accidentally missed the 1st pitch by scrambling up to the notch and over to the base of the 2d pitch; probably a mistake -- 1st pitch looks good. The crux 3rd pitch whipped my 50+ old carcass; had to pull on a few pieces. Seemed solid 5.11 to me (1 1/4" finger stacks or wild laybacking). Did the free finish; agree that it is 11a, but somewhat spooky since protected by a 1/4" buttonhead with a Leeper hanger, with the next pro being a rusted LA driven in upside down (with some blade exposed). All star drives on the belays/rap stations have been backed up by new bolts or drilled pins.
Monster Tower
RSS Feed
