BETA PHOTO: View of Worth the View Spire. The high point has t...
Description
An adventure route in a beautiful desert area.
P1) Climb up the corner and easy slab trending right to the col. 80' 5.0. P2)Traverse left past a 5.3 step down then across the garden to below some cracks. P3) Climb the cracks to a big rock ledge below the final summit spire. 80' 5.5. P4) Cross the gap to the right hand shoulder of the spire. From here go around to the South/West face and aid up a steep sandy crack to a groove that leads to the small summit and magnificent views over the Swell.
Descent: Rap anchors on the summit and the top of pitch 3.
Location
From the underpass turn right and go .5 miles to a right fork, then right again at .7 miles. Then 1.4 miles to a wire gate. Here one can view the spire formation to one's left(west). From the gate go .3 miles, turn left, then .6 miles to a good parking/camp area on right. Walk up to the north side of the formation to the right hand end below a short corner/groove.
Protection
Cams from 1/2" to 3.5" and medium to large stoppers.
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Mar 5, 2007 rating: 5.5 C1+
This is an ok route to a cool summit. The climbing is forgettable, but the overall experience is pretty memorable. Nice work finding this. A few notes:
Pitch 1 is more like 4th class, and a corner isn't really apparent. Climb up where the cliffs are considerably lower.
Pitch 2 is also more like 4th class with one spooky bouldery move on a traverse. We soloed both of these pitches, and I'm not sure a rope would do you any good.
Pitch 3 is pretty short - more like 50 feet. 5.5 seems about right.
Pitch 4 is actually on the south face of the tower. There are two discontinuous cracks on the north face that would be hard and unpleasant, and would probably require a few bolts. The second followed this pitch free at 5.9, though it would be an exciting lead since the rock quality isn't very good.
You can get off this tower with one rope. Rap off the summit, and then scramble over to the top of pitch 3 and rap again. We were able to downclimb the rest of the route pretty easily - not sure how else you would get off. Its possible to climb straight up to the spooky traverse move, which is probably less creepy than reversing the traverse. Might be nice for the next person up to add a quicklink to the rap stations.
This last Saturday, May 10th 2008, Maura Hahnenberger and I did the first free ascent (lead) of this tower at 5.9. I just read Andrew's last post and I hadn't read it before we went down there. I was going to rate it 5.9+, but I guess I was overgripping a bit because the rock was a little soft and loose. I had tennis shoes on too so that could have made it feel harder. We really liked the route, and the name says it all, it is a fantastic view from the summit.
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO May 13, 2008 rating: 5.5 C1+
Nice work Ben. That pitch looks scary to free on lead.
Head of Sinbad North
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