Turk's Head Ridge
5.7,
Trad, 500 ft (152 m), 7 pitches, Grade II,
Avg: 3.1 from 81
votes
FA: unknown
Wisconsin
> Baraboo Range
> Devil's Lake
> W Bluff 03 - Cl…
> Turk's Head
Description
An alpine route at Devil's Lake? Turks Head Ridge, with the Wiessner Wall finish is seven to nine pitches long. Sure the pitches are short, but its all we've got.
To approach, walk north past the cabins on Tumbled Rocks Trail until you can see a tower about 50 yards above the trail. This is the first pitch (5.3). Descend the tower, and continue on long, mostly unbroken ridge to the base of Wiessner Wall. Continue up Wiessner in two pitches and complete the longest route in Wisconsin.
Pitch two (5.6), an ugly wide inside corner, protects well with big cams. The third pitch, a left slanting finger crack is the crux (5.8) and difficult to protect. It is short, though, and the 5.6 face to the right might afford the leader some respite. After this, it is 5.4 climbing to the top.
For what it's worth, I have usually climbed the ridge in this order:
Pitch 1: The Tower, 5.2
Pitch 2: The Dirty Inside Corner, 5.6
Pitch 3: The 30 Foot Wall, 5.8 or 5.6
Pitch 4: The 15 Foot 5.1 Groove
Pitch 5: The 40 Foot Inside Corner/Ridge, 5.4
Pitch 6: The short Rightward Diagonalling Crack, 5.4
Pitch 7: The Double Cracks, 5.5
Pitch 8: Wiessner's Chimney, 5.4
Pitch 9: either Wiessner's Face, 5.7 or The Crack Above The Tree, 5.2
I feel as though, when climbed this way, you maximize both the quality and the quantity of the climbing. There are, however, numerous variations possible.
Protection
Standard Rack--Maybe some big cams. Gear to set belays.
[Hide Photo] Summer Evening Lap
[Hide Photo] P7 Magic Ed - most guys his age like to watch golf on a Sunday afternoon - Ed ain't afraid to do a little soloin'
[Hide Photo] Stew nearing the top of Weissner's Crack after yet another HWDAMF summer solo of Turk's.
[Hide Photo] Stew coming up P4 of the Ridge.
[Hide Photo] The above topo was written by Joe Block and appeared in Vertical Jones, Issue 10, July/August 2001. Posted with permission.
[Hide Photo] P3 The inside corner is easy on this pitch - the 5.8 crack is just to my right, and 5.6 on the far right of this wall.
[Hide Photo] A couple of the good ole boys on a casual Sunday solo of the Ridge. P3 shown here.
[Hide Photo] Nice spot for a direct belay.
[Hide Photo] Joe goofing around after a lap up Turk's Head Ridge.
Madison, WI
It is in NO WAY authoritative. As anyone who has climbed this beast knows, it's less of a "route" and more of a "pick your own way" type of climb. Please add additions/subtractions/modifications. I made that topo as an attempt to give those new to the climb a general idea of what the ridge we're all talking about is.
Does anyone do this thing in the winter, preferably during nasty stormy conditions, or is it just me (I doubt it's just me)?
And, if you're going to climb this (not necessarily for speed) you must finish on the 5.7-ish face route on Wiessner, not the 5.2 cheater (which I use, admittedly, at times). A spectacular finish.
A possible modification to the gear list: I don't think there's a need for anything larger than 1.5 inches. Maybe on top of the last pitch, but you can use the rock spike or sling one of the monster blocks behind the face (not the loose boulders).
Jul 4, 2002
Plymouth, NH; Lander, WY
Madison, WI
1. The uppermost band extends from the Cleo Amphitheater to the Wiessner Wall to Turk's Head. 2. The middle band extends from the "40 foot ridge" on the south to the broken walls and towers on my topo.3. The lower band extends from several buttresses south (and above) the first tower to a series of overgrown and just less-than-vertical walls to the north.
The abovementioned "fixed" photo really helps you see this description. Once you see it this way, the ridge's terrain is much easier to decipher. Tackling the northern side of the ridge (the right side) is more committing, offering less walk-arounds and trickier third-classing. The "40 foot ridge" section forms the southern side of this band, and is quite impressive. The left side of the ridge (south) is the least committing and easiest route.Now that I've wandered a bit more around there and modified the picture, I can see an easier way to write up a route description, providing hints on pitches to link up. I suspect in the winter the ridge could be done in three long pitches (with some hard climbing), separated by scrambling.The interesting part is the fact that there is, as far as I can tell, a fair amount of virgin rock north of the ridge. The "middle band" particularly offers up a possible continuation of the route via a traverse underneath Turk's Head. I don't know where it ends up, but I suspect it peters out in the wide basin between Turk's Head ridge and Prospect point. (The top of the bluff drops a bit at this point)(The drawn overview map in The Climber's Guide hints at these sections of rock. It's much clearer in the older, '79 edition)I'll post a better description of the pitches in a few weeks. Aug 6, 2002
Portage, WI
Wisconsin
Fort Collins, CO
Chicago, IL
Fort Collins, CO
They're pretty close, but for the most part you will feel like you will stop at the top of the prior pitch if you fell from the current pitch. I'd say there is a walk of 10'-30' between each pitch. If you want the tour, PM me, I'll show you around.
Cheers,
James Apr 2, 2016
Madison, WI
I note with some irony that the "usual" finish does not seem to include actually climbing the Turk's Head! And why does no one do Turk's Tooth? Aug 8, 2016
Chicago, IL
Approach beta: we followed the instructions on Jay's book, which were extremely helpful. We'd like to add that there are white numbered lines drawn on the paved Tumbled Rocks trail, and the first pitch can be reached by going off trail and up the boulder field at #518. Some of the numbers are quite faint, but the "18" is easily spotted if you look for it on the trail. Jun 27, 2017
Baraboo
Sandy, UT
Madison, WI
Madison, WI