Geoff Settles on Hallow Souls. (sorry about the po...
Description
This route is located directly across canyon from the one-pitch stuff at Ice Cream Parlor. It is on Space Tower, which is separated from the main cliff by a large chimney that faces NE. The tower appears to touch the canyon wall at the top (it is actually separated by about an inch).
Hallow Souls involves wild full body stemming inside the chimney. Begin by climbing 40 feet of easy choss to gain the clean crack system inside the chimney, on the main cliff. One can belay just inside the chimney, or at a wonderful little ledge about 1/2 way up, or do the whole tower in one rope-stretching pitch (not at all recommended--there would be lots of rope drag and the top is somewhat run-out).
Near the top the rock becomes soft and brittle and the crack dies out. Chimney out to the right to a good bolt, and continue until you can pull onto the tower side; a short hand crack leads to fixed anchors. This top section is scary--the position is phenomenal! Give yourself a long leash, tag the summit, and then make rap 50 meters to the ground.
Protection
Bring two sets of friends from 0.5 to 3, a set of tcus, and a few medium stoppers. Larger gear in the 4" range can be useful at the first belay.
I have climbed this route twice and both times I have done it in one pitch. The rope drag as I recall was not that bad, and I can’t imagine the belay in the chimney is all that fun. But I did not place much gear getting into the chimney and put runners on everything. Whatever you end up doing, it’ll be fun. This is a great route, even though it's very questionable on tower status.
I made the mistake of continuing deep into the chimney, over several chockstones, before realizing this was a dead-end. The huge wad of lowering slings on the final chockstone showed I wasn't the first! Follow the first obvious crack system on the right wall when you enter the main chimney.
I thought I'd reached another dead end when the cracks petered out and the wall steepened dramatically. You have to crane your neck way back to see the bolt (up and right on the same wall as the crack system). The climbing away from the crack isn't too hard, but the footholds are a bit gritty and a fall before the bolt would be ugly.
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