Please respect this beautiful area. Stay on established trails and do not trample any vegetation
BETA PHOTO: Topo
Gothic Pillar
Located 250 feet to the right of Evil Eye.
Pitch #1: Face climbing to the right of a left facing corner. 5.8, 100'.
Pitch #2: Climb the overlapping roofs (The Seismic Sea Wave) with incredible position and great rock to another ledge. 5.11a, 90'.
Pitch #3: On low angle terrain, scramble to some easy 5th class to a two bolt belay. 5.6, 160'.
Pitch #4: Climb through a roof passing pitons and bolts to a gully on the left. Traverse past this gully (well protected)to a ledge and two-bolt belay. 5.8, 120'.
Pitch #5: Jog left than right through another roof to underneath a groove. 5.9, 90'.
Pitch #6: Climb past 3 bolts (5.7) to the final upper headwall to the top. 5.10c.
Rappel Black Streak or Walk off Protection: One set of cams to 3.5 Camalot. QDs and runners. Helmet
Great route guys. I agree with above info. But I don't think pitch 2 is 11a....I'm not an 11 climber and had no problems with that ptich... the holds are awesome.. I'd give it 10c or Little Cottonwood 10a The crux for me was also the last pitch 10c... 10 feet or so. Was all good and had a great time on the Castle as usual. Also still snow at the base for your beer. Cheers Steve
SS, Just goes to show you how hard core you guys getting after it are these days up at the Castle...I was pretty intimidated by that "11a" pitch BOTH times I was on it! Right On! Also, the routes on DC tend to naturally get easier with time...Black Streak was definitely at one time 5.11a as originally rated (complete with a fern garden on pitch #2 and Pitch #3!) and now no one feels it is harder than 5.10a/b...a whole number grade down graded, pretty significant change, really! jg
On my topo, I tried to make the ratings a bit soft, as to not get anyone in trouble.
By Boissal From: UT Aug 31, 2009 rating: 5.11a PG13
I'm a bit surprised at the almost 4-stars rating on this one. It felt much looser than Horns Of Satan or Shadow of the Blade and way less sustained with a couple of good pitches and the odd fun move here and there connected by some of the worst choss on the castle (P3? really?). P2 is a bit disappointing considering the raving reviews, the move of the belay is great but the rest is pulling on loose sandy jugs. Nothing harder than 10+ but it's sustained and pumpy. There's some questionable pro in the second half of P5 with a piton in a completely detached block and a bolt at chest level to protect the hardest move. Nice ledge fall potential, PG13. Same for P5 which is 5.7 if you're comfortable on runout choss, otherwise clench your butt cheeks and test the holds before committing. PG13+ P6 (second half of P5) has a short powerful sequence with cool pockets and intricate footwork. 10c seems inconsistent with the rest of the line, it felt quite a bit harder. Gearwise, you could get away with only a #1. The gear you get on p3 is barely good enough to serve as a directional and keep the rope off the choss stacks. Don't fall on 5.2. Poor choice if it's your first outing on the castle. You might be scared into never checking out the other great lines.
Devils Castle is adventure climbing and you could get the chop up there. You should expect "Loose sandy jugs, detached blocks, ledge fall potential" etc. To moan about the stars, grades and rock on any of those routes is stupid.
For what its worth I would give the route 3.2 stars because just like the beer I like to have or do one once in awhile.
Keep up the good work Brian.
By Boissal From: UT Sep 6, 2009 rating: 5.11a PG13
Brian, I think the route is not as good as some of the others you've put on the Castle. Based on the star rating I was hoping to be in for another Shadow of the Blade style route... It was different. Still enjoyable in a perverse kind of way though.
By Zac Robinson From: Salt Lake City, UT Sep 7, 2009
really?
I have only done the Black Streak and Gothic Pillar, but I thought that Gothic Pillar was amazingly better than I expected. Less Shitty ledge traverses and a few pitches of actual good solid climbing. I was stoked on it. Acually ran into BSmott on the summit and tried to lie to him about the quality, but couldn't pull it off.
Two stars for a route you don't even like seems generous + a dozen times beaned, you're a lot more of a rock magnet than most, I suspect. Serious # of hits, glad you've survived.
You have taken whippers up there?!, its a good job Brian gives soft grades or you really might get in to some serious trouble. Like James said, you have been a very lucky(or unlucky)boy.
Well 2 stars = "a good route" so yes, that's being generous. I'm glad to get the input because I did feel a bit leery about giving the route 4 stars. James gave Black Streak 4 stars, so I tried it with Gothic! ... One could in fact argue that the Castle, with all of it's looseness shouldn't get any stars... after all, you're climbing on Satan's turf.
By Boissal From: UT Sep 8, 2009 rating: 5.11a PG13
The route keeps 2 stars for length, position, exposure and the fact that you can get cold in the middle of the summer. The 4 mp.com stars are misleading, it's a Ruckman's 1 star, or a rock canyon 1.6 stars. It's OK when compared with other Castle's routes and as Brian mentions if you look at it within all of LCC it gets a couple of bombs. Let's agree to disagree for now, I'll go back up there to do Evil Eye and maybe amend my post.
Ooooooooooooh, the "no wonder you hated it, you're not strong enough to climb there". Silly you, I broke holds and took the ride with them, doesn't have much to do with the climbing.
Sorry if you veiwed the post as elitist drivel. It was not meant to come across as that.
What I was getting at is that Devils Castle is no place to mess up and to have fallen off a bunch of times up there is obviously not a good thing. You are very lucky and I'm happy that you fell close(I'm guessing)to the bolts and that everything was ok. I still worry about falling on the bolts as like you say there is detached blocks everywhere. Over the years Ive seen limestone blocks with the bolts still in them lying on the ground. I just can not imagine taking falls up there and it sounded to me that you were taking it like a badge of honor. Again sincere apoligies if that was not the case.
I'm sure we both agree its a serious place and I hope everyone else thinks the same way too. However, I do disagree that breaking holds has not much to do with the climbing up there. I'm sure one of the first things you mentioned about the climb to your friends afterwards(but not your wife/girlfriend/domestic partner) was about taking a fall or getting hit because of breaking holds and bad rock. Only after that did you get into more detail about the climb itself. I know I did. But like you said we have to agree to disagree on something.