West Face

We made one rappel on double 60m ropes to get all the way back to our packs at ground level from the ledge between the Gossips' heads.

Excellent route! Hard to free the crux flared finger section. It wouldn't be so bad if you hadn't just completed the offwidth right before! Sep 12, 2002

This route worked me when I did it a couple of years ago - its really a great climb though. Make sure you have a big cam for the top of the first pitch! Nov 7, 2002

We had a hell of a time pulling ropes on the rappel off the summit of the West face route (back down the West face route). Bring a knife and some webbing and lengthen the anchor so it hangs over the edge. Nov 20, 2003

More pictures and a TR at piquaclimber.net/past/gossi… May 13, 2006

I don't know what our problem was, maybe we only brought one 60 meter rope when we climbed this, or maybe it was really windy. But we didn't rappel all the way to the ground from the saddle and got our ropes stuck. I ended up having to pendulum over to the route on the right, and climb a good 30' up, to get our ropes unstuck. It was horrible, be careful while rappelling/pulling ropes. Oct 31, 2006

We also got our ropes stuck, and it was no fun at all. Nov 1, 2006

I found something rather curious when I climbed this route in May, 1984 with Lori Graf;....at the crux (5.11) thin section, there were maybe 3 "fixed" stoppers; so I just aided on them through the whole crux (I was able to climb the rest free, but this section was too hard for me...). Glen Randall and Jeff Achey did the first FREE ascent of this route only 2 years before, in 1982;.....I was wondering if these stoppers were left over from their free ascent, and if they were placed by this team. I've also done the Lyon-Trautner Route (to the right) and D. Raleigh's Speak No Evil on the front side;....this W. Face route is by far , the cleanest and best way I've found to the top of the North Summit. Apr 25, 2007

Yesterday, the anchors on this route were replaced by the ASCA. You will now have three 1/2-inch bolts (at each station) with painted chain to get down. I placed the anchors in better spots, but the rap from the top all the way to the top of pitch one still has serious drag issues. This is almost unavoidable due to the number of bulges the rope has to pass over. I tried it both ways, just to be thorough, and found that rapping down the chimney from the top made for the drag... If you rap the outside of the bulge (you will see when you get there) it might be better. In any event, I recommend you do it in three raps... one to the saddle (50 ft), one to the top of P1 (110ft), and one to the ground. Do it that way and your pulls will be as smooth as John Daniels and as easy as Paris the day she gets out of jail. May 11, 2007

Pitch 1-Great hands for the majority of it. Use your #2 camalots wisely. Save 1 #3 camalot for top bulge, and optional #4/#5 camalot for over roof although I found it inhibits your hand/fist stacks. Even yarding through that section seemed hard. No face holds to speak of.
Pitch 2-Starts off with hands, narrows to thin hands. You can use all your .75/#1 camalots here as you won't need them later. Another tough OW bulge protects with #4 camalot, or use uber thin crack to the left with some face holds. Crux comes here where its pretty dang small gear over a bulge. I placed a red c3 here. Pretty flarey, would be scary to fall on gear there. More thin fingery stuff lands you in the easy squeeze for 30 feet to the anchor on the shoulder directly above squeeze.
Pitch 3-Sandy slab protected by #1 camalot gets you to chimney. 90% runout but super easy and secure.

Gear(camalot): 1 each green/red c3, doubles .3 to .5, at least triples .75 to #2, 2 #3, 1 #4 for sure, and a #5 will get used though not critical.
Descent: I can attest that we got down with 1 70m rope no problem. Pitch 3 is super short to shoulder, pitch 2 is the worrisome one, but we had 5 feet to spare(prob 34m), and pitch 1 had 20-30 feet to spare. Easy pulls, thanks sam! Nov 18, 2012

This route, as said before, goes really fast if you free everything and pull through the 5.11 crux at 5.10+ C1. Offset cams were useful.

Also, the summit is a great place to sleep on. Bring the beer and have a cookout! (Not saying I camped up there)..... May 5, 2015

This route is awesome, a must do desert tower. The rock is pleasantly soft but still solid for entrada. The first pitch is cruiser but still physical until the end where you encounter a beach ball awkward crux bulge, I found it difficult for my tiny hands/arms. It has an honest 5.11 2nd pitch with a "fun" off width and a crux flaring finger scoop/crack that is difficult to protect or aid. The summit pitch sounds like it will be sketchy but isn't bad. You climb a slab for about 10 ft put a couple of cams in and go into the chimney which is definitely fun/easy but unprotected with easy exit small holds. The best way to repel without getting your ropes stuck is to take 2 70 m. Tag one behind you until you get to the saddle below the last pitch. Summit. Then rap from the head to the saddle with one 70. Then double rope repel from the 2nd pitch anchors to the ground. Once on the ground, back up and pull from a distance. Jun 24, 2015

Crux easily protected with a rack of totem cams, bomber placements

Stout and sandy!

Fun Tower Nov 14, 2016

The route can be rappelled with a single 70m as Spencer said above, but you'll want a knot in the ends for the second rap. Thanks to ASCA, the rope pulls are easy. The 5.10 off widths on both pitches 1 and 2 are hard due to few or zero edges, and the crux does protect well with a micro cam, tricky stem/backstep to get through. Oct 22, 2017

Gear - we used a black alien, at least doubles of blue alien to red alien/0.5 camalot, quadruples in #0.75, #1, and #2 camalots were nice, plus 2-3 #3 camalots, 2 #4 new camalots, and a #5 new camalot.

The OW on P1 and P2 felt harder than the thin 5.11 crux (super fun stemming). Might be fist/finger size dependent.

Great desert adventure and setting.

Thanks ACSA for the updated rap stations. Nov 5, 2017

5.10 wide topout on P1 felt like 5.11. P2 5.11 stem crux is 5.10(b?) but there was some .75 camalot territory on P2 that felt harder than 5.10 to me. 2nd pitch OW had sandy but good holds out left that made it doable.
80M rope was ideal for the raps, which pulled hassle-free with the new set-up. Nov 6, 2017

Top pitch as we did it.
Go 15' right of the anchor and place a red camalot, then do 1 awkward move to a sandy hold. Proceed to tunnel up on 5.1 climbing to a horizontal with good 1"-1.5" camalots in a horizontal, then traverse then THROUGH to the N. face to a ledge. Proceed up the OW there. #6 camalot might work if you have it. 5.6 or 5.7 moves. Nov 6, 2017