Avg: 3.7 from 32
votes
Access Issue: RAIN, WET ROCK and RAPTOR CLOSURES: The sandstone around Moab is fragile and is very easily damaged when it is wet. Also please ask and be aware of Raptor Closures in areas.
Details
Somewhere I read that if you free the first pitch, you've done Pale Fire, and if you don't free it, you've done the North Face. Whatever.
The first pitch is the business. While the technically hardest moves are below the splitter (.12b/c), the splitter rattly fingers crack is stout and sustained. It's .11d, but it ain't no Indian Creek .11d (meaning, if you struggle on .11d at the Creek, then you'll get your ass whooped on this section). Mostly #1 Friends, .5 and .75 camalots. I wouldn't recommend stopping at the hanging belay, but instead go the next anchor about fifty higher. The whole pitch is about 160 feet.
The second pitch is sustained .10d. Mostly hands and cups. #2 and #3 camalots. After the crack ends, there are some balancy face moves getting to some ancient drilled angles. I wouldn't recommend stopping at the end of the crack, cause you'll have an uncomfortable hanging belay. Work past the couple angles and star drives (can't remember what they are exactly) until you get to the slabby face.
The third pitch has a lot of fixed gear (drilled angles, star drives, and other ancient relics) that go up the slabby face. This pitch is mostly 5.10, with an occasional 5.11- move.
One more easy pitch to the top.
Three double rope raps back down the route.
Standard desert rack up to fist size. Maybe one #4 Camalot and some extra rattly fingers for the first pitch.
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Palo Alto
Cottonwood Heights, UT
If you plan on aiding this route you may want to throw in a stick clip. Other than that the route is spectacular, but would really benefit from a rebolting.
Oct 27, 2009
Carbondale
Much of the bolt ladder on this route has been replaced with stainless glue-ins courtesy the ASCA. Several original bolts throughout the route were left - but in each and every case these bolts are unnecessary for safely protecting the climbing (they are located next to gear placements). They remain to serve as a reminder of the historical FA. In the case where replacements were performed, the original bolts were pulled and holes reused when possible.
All of this was done with the permission of Fred Beckey and Eric Bjornstad.
The logical, and arguably best, way to free climb this route would be in three pitches, ledge-to-ledge. The first pitch (5.12b, 210') skips the hanging belay (rap station) after the crux and continues to the chains in the alcove. The second pitch (5.11a, 180') continues up the crack and then follows the bolt ladder to the ";shoulder";. The anchor at the shoulder should NOT BE USED for rappelling and is not equipped for such. The final pitch (5.11d, 150') performs the final face crux off the belay and continues up the bolt ladder skipping two separate anchors all the way to the summit.
This route, like many desert towers, has fragile features that could break and render the passage much more difficult if not impossible. Use extreme care! Oct 4, 2013
Salt Lake City, UT
It was a major coup (as Kor and Carter had no idea about the Tower!!) at the time as Lin Ottinger from Moab took them in there with his VW Dune Buggy and then they enlisted the help of 3 other climbers to get all the work and route done over 4 days. These days, the FA is far too often credited to those who come later and free a particular move or climb and end up renaming it. Though this occurred 9 years later after the advent of passive protection and camming units (Friends), I strongly believe that people like Fred and Eric were the real Pioneers on Moses and their work and vision should never be forgotten or erased from climbing history. May 28, 2014
Little Rock, AR