Factory Butte

BETA PHOTO: Factory Butte from the highway.

Description 

This'll be fun:

1. Mostly sport, trad, bouldering, mix, what? None of the above.2. What type of rock is it?It's not.3. Is it always in the sun? It depends which side you are on. 4. Do most routes descend off the crag a certain way? If so, what's the descent route? There isn't one.5. Any access issues? Yes, the approach. Oh, and the climbing. Oh wait, the climbing is the approach. 6. Any super-must-do classics on this rock? Hmmmmmmm.

Okay, to be a little more helpful, the only weakness in the flanks of this baby is the obvious deep chimney/gully on the southwest aspect. This cuts through the assorted pseudo-cliff bands which litter the lower slopes. Any other approach/climb/grovel looks to be real dangerous and/or mindbendingly slow. The stuff it is made from is mancos shale, which climbs like buff-colored cake-icing. There is a tier of real cliffs right at the top, which gives a brief pitch, but it's barely worth dragging ropes and stuff all that way up the icing.

Getting There 

From I-70 at Exit 147 drive an hour south (west) on Highway 24 and hang a right at Hanksville. Maybe fifteen miles out of town turn right on the obvious dirt road which passes the formation. When we climbed this, a few years back, you could drive out on a spur road to a close-in funny knoll feature. Now that the area is so overrun with OHV tire tracks, the BLM are trying to keep this road closed (perhaps so climbers don't interfere with the wilderness experience of the brave boys on ATVs?). Not that it matters, as the best approach is to park several miles south of the butte, where the main drainage crosses (and has torn up) the road, and from where the butte looks distressingly far away. Then hike north and stay west of the various drainages as much as possible. Approaching from closer in on the east side around the south face requires going up and down dozens of forty-foot-deep soft sandy drainages (check out Tom Till's photo on the back of Bjornstad's Swell guide). Perhaps hiking round the north end of the butte, from the road, would work.

The Classics