West Face 

Eric Bjornstad's book rates the first pitch as 5.11+, A1.
Has anyone done this as a free climb on the lead and not on toprope?
It seemed light years away from any 5.11 grade to me. The rest of the pitches seemed rated correctly. It's quite soft rock and I'm wondering if it has been freed by anyone in the last few years at the grade of 5.11.

Erica Kutcher and I climbed this route on Oct. 9th 2004. We swapped leads and both of us climbed the route entirely free. I remember the first and second pitches being harder than expected.

I meant the first pitch only was pretty hard. Above those anchors (which were stripped) where the crack is wider I was thinking of as the second pitch. The section above those anchors is rated 5.9 in Cameron Burns desert book. It was pretty damn hard I thought.

S. Green book gives drastically different ratings than C. Burns' (kind of think Green was right on and Burns is way off).

I climbed this route on 4-12-08. Once I got home and reracked, I realized I was missing a BD 3.5 camalot. It most likely has a small strip of orange tape on the stem nearest the lobes. If anyone climbs the West face and happens to find it either on the climb or the approach, please let me. Thanks

I found this climb quite scary and struggled on it. The cracks are full of sand and dirt. After thrashing & whining a bit I decided to rest on a seemingly well-placed nut, which then pulled through the rock (mud?) in the crack.

If you do this route I would recommend bringing 3 #4 Camalots.

EDIT: Matt I didn't see your cam anywhere.

Mike, glad to hear you "enjoyed" yourself on the quality Arches entrada. Thanks for the info on my missing 3.5 camalot. -Matt

This route is very hard. The crux for me was the second pitch above the offwidth squeeze chimmney. I aided a lot of this section. Offset cams might have helped with the flaring sandyness. I can lead 5.11 clean in the desert and this was not even close to what I could free... It is an amazing summit though. we rapped the route on one 70 meter (I dont think a 60 would have done it)

I just found a stack of pictures that Erica sent me before she was killed climbing in Pakistan. She was a great and talented climbing partner. This is nearing the top of what is now considered pitch 1. I think we split it into two and I belayed on the ledge at the top of the thin section. I remember her cruising this fist/offwidth crack. Judging by my ridiculous expression, I didn't handle it nearly as well as she.

Argon Tower - West Face Submitted By: Ben Folsom on Dec 24, 2011

Climbed this with Cameron Tague, 2000. He led the first pitch all free, no hesitation, no falls, no hangs. I understand Bret Ruckman (or was it Marco?) freed it much earlier.