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From the bottom of the tower, climb 7 feet to a ledge that accesses a less than vertical handcrack (5.5, 15 feet, #3 Camalot). Belay off boulders just above the crack. Hop 50 feet around the base of the first tower and either rappel or downclimb (5.2, 30 feet) a gully to the east between towers 1 and 2. Set up a belay with medium stoppers. Climb easy fingers to hands to blocks to top of second tower (5.6, 60 feet) and belay off a slung boulder with a relic piton. Rappel to saddle between tower 2 and Index off a slung block (30 feet). The first 25 feet of Index are about 5.6ish and easy to protect. Enter a small alcove and contemplate the the 25 feet of 5.9ish vertical #5+ Camalot OW above. Climb it to the fantastic and elusive summit. The rock is perfect.
Two pitons off the backside act as summit anchors or you could easily sling one of the summit boulders. Do a single rappel off the backside pitons to the saddle. Another rappel from the saddle off pitons to a large grassy ledge on the west side. A final rappel off a sturdy rock pinch will get you back to your packs.
A single set of Camalots #0.3-#3.
1-3 #5 Camalots for the upper OW.
Mid-sized stoppers.
1 set of Gear4Rocks plastic stoppers.
.380 Kel Tec?
Bigbro's work for the OW, but stick with #2s and 3s. #4s do not fit and are useless. We used a 100 foot Mammut Serenity and a 100 foot tag line for rappels. All green webbing is new as of 8/11.
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Grand Junction, Colorado
14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo… May 2, 2017
Montrose, CO
The relic piton at the top of Tower 2 extracted by hand with no effort. Nothing in situ, but there are plenty of boulders or a large cairn of sorts to sling for belay.
Existing yellow and green webbing at the south end of Tower 2 was re-rigged for rappel.
Existing green webbing on the Tower 3 pitons was re-rigged and augmented for rappel.
Found 3 pitons at Tower 2/3 saddle with no tat; installed webbing and made a single 100-foot rappel, past the aforementioned ledge, all the way to the approach ledges.
Installed webbing above and descender's left of the crossover chimney on a pinch for rappel.
Red webbing is new as of this update.
Were I to repeat this climb, I would bring:
Cams (BD) sizes .1, .3 - #3, and two #5's, three alpine draws, two double- and two quad-length runners, 30 feet of cordage, and a 60 meter half rope. No passive pro for climbing or otherwise. Oct 8, 2020
Superior, CO
Some of the rappel webbing that Mike D. installed in 2020 was already partly or completely worn through. Where necessary, we replaced it with new day-glo orange webbing, which will probably fade to pale pink before long. We also installed rap rings where those were missing.
The piton rappel anchors on the summit block and in the tower 2/3 gully were still okay (they held my 200 lbs partner), although the latter pair flexed a bit when loaded.
Be wary of crumbly rock in the "5.0" approach gully. I almost took a fall when a handhold broke off. Aug 31, 2022