PRINT: Rock Climb Tower Ridge, Wind River Range

Tower Ridge

5.7, Trad, Alpine, 1500 ft (455 m), 12 pitches, Grade III,

Avg: 2.9 from 9 votes
FA: Hans Kraus and Roger Wolcott, 1946.
Wyoming > Wind River Range > Titcomb Basin Area > Mt Helen

Description

A truly classic Wind River adventure on pleasant golden granite for a long long way at a moderate grade.

As you're looking at the West Face of Mt. Helen from Titcomb Basin, the Tower Ridge starts by ascending the gentler ridge on the right side of the steep West Face. This involves about 1,000' of climbing, with lots of 5.7 sections in the middle and some 4th class to easy 5th in the beginning and near the top of Tower 1. Pass Tower 2 on the right (to the south). Pass Tower 3 to the left (north) and climb a short section of steep, exposed easy 5th class rock (which often holds snow/ice) to get to the knife-edge saddle between Tower 3 and the summit of Mt. Helen. The summit ridge provides another 500' of entertainment, including the crux climbing.

The entire climb is on excellent rock.

Location

The technical climbing starts a few hundred feet above the base of the ridge, on a prominent large ledge below slabs. Access this ledge from the steep talus gully (or snow early season) immediately south of the ridge.

Descent options are many. Frequently, parties will make a shorter outing of the climb by descending from the summit of Tower 1 instead of continuing to the top of Helen. The mountain is a complex collection of spires, towers, ridges, gullies, ice couloirs, and talus fields. Invest some time in scouting out your options for descent.

Protection

Set of nuts, set of cams from fingers to hands, 2 - 60 meter ropes, lots of runners. No bolts here.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

An exposed traverse on the Tower Ridge, looking down into Titcomb Basin and over to Summer Ice Lake.

Mary Erdei dealing with really stout wind at the end of the day near the top of the upper ridge. Most of the descent was done in the dark. Sept 1980

Tower 1 Couloir after several storms. The alternate way to do the complete Tower Ridge. Sept 1980

Kevin leading the first rock pitch after topping out Tower #1 Gully (9/7/2021).

Mary Erdei climbing in what would have to be described as un-favorable conditions while traversing the 'towers' on the Tower RIdge route in Sept 1980

Guy Johnson descending lower Tower Ridge after doing Tower 1 Gully in August 1990

Standing on the large ledge where the climbing begins for the Tower Ridge route of Mt. Helen. The route follows the obvious ridge to the top of Tower 1.

Mt. Helen. Tower 1 (with its steep West Face and the Tower Ridge route) is on the left. Tower 2 is the small blocky spire, and Tower 3 then leads to the summit.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

adam tschida

Not possible to pass Tower 2 on the south anymore, have to go over. We climbed the right crack of the west face, very licheny, but very cool climbing with chickenheads. Aug 9, 2009

mark felber
Wheat Ridge, CO

Is there a walk-off descent route or should parties plan on rappelling? How long are the rappels, if any? Jun 23, 2018

fossana
leeds, ut

Descent options are described by Kelsey:
Summit options: SE Couloir-E Ridge (normal), NW gullies (become icy late summer)
Tower 1 options: downclimb/rap to the SW, S-facing gully between Towers 1 and 2

Rap length not stated. Jun 26, 2018

mark felber
Wheat Ridge, CO

Thanks fossana, I had been looking at a much older edition of the Kelsey guide that did not include descent information, at least not in such detail. The 2013 Kelsey guide is more complete in that respect, as you pointed out. Jul 18, 2018