Devils Tower Climbing

Devils Tower crams a high concentration of great cracks into the smallest area possible. People come from around the world to climb on this unique wonder. Climbing is sustained, and cracks are beautiful and uniformly shaped. Essentially, there is a crack every 5 or 10 feet, and they mostly run perfectly up and down, which reduces rope drag. The majority of the tower is less than vertical, and faces are blank. There are few face climbs, but who needs them with all these splitter cracks?

The easiest route to the summit is Durrance, which is stout 5.6. In general, climbs that are 5.8 and under tend to be offwidths, 5.9 are hand cracks, and 5.10 are finger cracks. There are too many classics to list. However, check out Assembly Line, Walt Bailey, and Soler for 5.9. For 5.10, go to One-Way Sunset, Hollywood & Vine, and Tulgey Wood.

Many routes are best done by climbing the first few pitches and then rappelling. Fixed anchors are numerous. The rock quality is poor for the last 100 feet of the tower or so. Most parties who summitrap do so through the Meadows area. This is the ledgy area that is a small distance below the summit on South face of the tower. Climbs such as Durrance, Wiessner, Bon Homme, Walt Bailey, and Soler use this. From the meadows, follow a 4th class chimney and ramp system to the summit (some parties rope up).

To descend from the summit, a rap anchor is on the south side. two ropes are required. The summit part can either be rappelled or downclimbed to the meadows (easy, but exposed). Then, 3 two rope rappels are required to get down to the ground. Be careful when rappeling from the meadows -- it is very easy to get your rope hopelessly stuck in the cracks, so rap over the face.