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Viewfinder Towers Rock Climbing

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Routes in Viewfinder Towers

	Bensass T 5.10a 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a
	Booty Tower - South Face T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a C0
	Cartman Tower - Wined and Dined T 5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c C1
	Dirty Devil Tower- South Side T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a PG13
	Formation: Castle Ardbeg. Route: The Whiskey Tour T 5.8+ 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c A2
	Johnny Hanksville of Mars T 5.11a 6c 22 VII+ 22 E3 5c
	Meat Log T 5.10- 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a PG13
	Planet X, via the route Problicom Motion 5.5 4b 13 IV+ 11 MS 4a A2+
	Power Chords T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a C1-2
	Prairie Dog S 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	Princess Bong T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a A1
	South Face - Meat Log T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	South Side T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a PG13
	Strummer T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a A3
	Unknown - Brigham Butte T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b C1

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GPS:	38.79847, -110.45724 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	14,464 total · 59/month
Shared By:	Steve Bartlett on Jan 6, 2004
Admins:	Andrew Gram, Nathan Fisher, Perin Blanchard, GRK, D C Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

Viefinder Towers are found a few miles north of Hanksville, right off of Highway 24. This is a nice area to hang out; very relaxing, the few cars just drive right through. The rock hereabouts is some kind of ornery Entrada. It is fine-grained, has no real varnish, and has distinctive rounded horizontals of alternating hard and soft rock, rather like Cutler Sandstone. The less-than-vertical surfaces are often deeply rotted, but the steeper faces can be pretty sound. Free climbing seems pretty problematic on this stuff, so aid climbing seems a fun option. Eric Bjornstad told me that Henry Barber (free?) climbed a cleanish crack system somewhere on the cliffs on the east side of the road in the area.

The main Viewfinder Towers, on the west of the road are described in Bjornstad's Desert Rock II book. They are small but skinny, and are composed of slightly better-looking rock than that found on the east side of the road.

Getting There

The area is located a few miles north of Hanksville, adjacent to the Highway 24 road. The Viewfinder Towers pullout has a few sighting tubes to locate the named towers on the west side of the road. The largest of these, called Brigham's Butte according to the sighting tube (though it is way skinny for a "butte") and apparently referred to as Prairie Dog in Eric's book is rumored to have been free climbed by Alan Stevenson. I can see this, the rock is covered in bubbles, giving good (if fragile) holds. The smaller spires nearby go free. All three View Finder Towers in the book have different names to the ones on the sighting tubes. Confusing.

15 Total Climbs

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Classic Climbing Routes at Viewfinder Towers

Mountain Project's determination of the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area.

5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a PG13 4 ● Dirty Devil Tower- South Side Trad
5.10- 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a PG13 4 ● Meat Log Trad
5.11a 6c 22 VII+ 22 E3 5c 5 ● Johnny Hanksville of Mars Trad