TOWER TALES TRILOGY

TOWER TALES - BOOK 1 / CHAPTER 1

4SEP01 (1st Attempt):

Greg made his first attempt at climbing the Devils Tower last week. I think I'll call it a practice / research climb. The first pitch and I'd already drank 2/3 of my water. (Bad luck that it got up to 101 degrees that day and I was on the South Face.) I was panting and parched and suspected there were no drinking fountains on top. Anyway, I headed back down and told the Rangers: "I'll be back." On of them said: "Cool."

I started out going the wrong way to get to the Durrance Route, which starts at the "15" on this diagram I scanned from a guide book. (Diagram 1) So I'd already gotten my gear out for some sloping columns before I got started on the main climb. On the way down I found an easier approach for next time, so I can start the technical climb at the "15". I also decided next time I'm going to leave the extra 285' of rope (that I have to take along to rappel down) in a duffle bag hooked to my bottom anchor. Then when I remove the bottom anchor, I'll leave the duffle hanging, climb back up to the next anchor, pull the duffle full of rope up to that anchor, attach it and move on. The old plan was I had the extra rope hooked to my pack and it was like a millstone around my neck, getting between my legs sometimes, hanging where I couldn't see my feet so I stepped on the rope a couple times... not good. Also, the first time I made it a free climb up, down and up again to remove anchors and move up. The rope was just safety. Seein's as the Devil whooped my ass; placing a new top anchor will be the only leg of the routine that will be free climb next time. I'll rappel down to the lower anchors and walk back up (using the rope for aid) to move anchors up. The damn things 900' tall so I don't think I need the extracise.

The old plan was a poor system; but now that I've got the bugs worked out it'll be a lot faster and safer. Plus, I'm going to get a Camelback water pouch, (like my brother Steve wears at Hare Scrambles races), with a tube that you just bite a hold of and drink. That way I won't dehydrate while I'm clinging to the face and can't get into my backpack. GAC

ATTACHMENT:
B1C1-1DTSF.jpg (Diagram 1 - South Face)

TOWER TALES - BOOK 1 / CHAPTER 2

16SEP01 (2nd Attempt):

I had another go at the Devils Tower yesterday. I didn't get started till almost 7:30 this time 'cause I left my shoes in Gillette and was halfway there before it hit me they weren't in my duffle. Anyway, I got farther than last time with no dehydration problems since it was a cooler day and I had a camelback (actually a Gregory brand because they've got a protective pouch to put the water bag in so you can put it in your pack). So anyway: bad move going on Sunday (and getting a late start) because people started stacking up below me. There was a guy and his sister and then 2 girls right behind them. Actually with them; it seems that is a preferred way to climb, in 2 groups of 2, because they don't have to drag any extra rope along. Each group uses their whole length of rope to climb, then they get together at the top and all 4 use the 2 ropes to rappel down. I only use about 35' for climbing and drag both ropes along in a duffle, hanging it on the bottom anchor as I move up. Even though I had improved my routine and was faster than last time, its still very slow solo because I have to set redundant bombproof anchors (since I remove the bottom ones to move up). Anyway, there was at least 1 more group below them and I thought rather than ruin the day for 6 or 10 climbers I'd get out of the way and come back on a weekday. So I told them I'd rappel down and let them pass if they'd lower my top anchor gear down when they got to it and they said, "No problem." Its about 400' back down to the base from there and takes about 1 1/2 hours. On the way down I noticed most of the climbers had some big 5" SLCDs on their gear racks and I ask somebody about it. He said on the route I was climbing there's a big crack where you need at least a 4.5 incher. My biggest was 3.5"; so I got back on the Internet and ordered 3 more bigger ones. GAC

ATTACHMENTS (Video snaps):
B1C2-1GAC.JPG (Howdy)
B1C2-2.JPG (Southwest Face)

TOWER TALES - BOOK 1 / CHAPTER 3

24SEP01 (Visit):

Well, last Monday I headed south to Gillette to pick up my SLCDs at the Post Office and when I opened the box on the way to the Tower, I found out they didn't send the biggest one because it was backordered. I figured it was a bad omen. So I left my gear behind and just spent a few hours climbing boulders and squeeze chimneys on the approach route over the Southwest Shoulder climbing area, for exercise. Anyway, I was talking with a Ranger who had climbed another route solo and he was telling me about a new self-belaying device called a "Silent Partner". He said: "that's just what it is; because its as safe as having a partner belaying you." I have an older book that says you can't trust such devices, but I think this Ranger knows what he's talking about and he certainly doesn't want anybody getting hurt on his watch. He was the same Ranger who said "Cool" (my first time out) when I told him I was soloing. So I Yahooed up a "Silent Partner" for my next climb.

When I was "bouldering" that morning I saw a couple climbing up to the Durrance Route. So I'd have been in somebody's way even on a weekday. I'm glad I wound up just hanging out and talking to that Ranger, because with my "Silent Partner" I'll be able to climb all the way to belay stations, setting single anchors along the way like normal people. Then I can use my 2nd rope to rappel all the way back to my bottom anchor, instead of rappelling 12' at a time between anchors. Then I'll climb back up cleaning my gear off the face as I go, (just like having a partner belaying from above). Ha... I expect to be about 5 times as fast with this new routine. Those other climbers'll never catch me now. My next email will include shots from the top. So Long. GREG

ATTACHMENT (Video snap):
B1C3-1.JPG (View from the Southwest Shoulder.)

TOWER TALES - BOOK 1 / CHAPTER 4

7OCT01 (3rd Attempt):

On Friday my #6 Friend (SLCD) arrived by FedEx; I was ready to climb. Logged a well Saturday morning and checked the weather report that evening. It was going to be nice on Sunday, then rain Monday and stormy and colder all week. I knew there'd be no logging on Sunday, so Bango, fate had herded me into another Sunday climb. So I was up till 11:00 scanning and blowing up maps and printed directions of where to find the rappel bolts for "rapping" off the Meadows on the descent. I hadn't slept Thursday night (cause of logging) so I wanted at least 6 hours but figured I have to settle for 4 1/2 since I needed to be up at 4:00AM. They don't have alarm clocks at this camp, but I always wake up before the alarm goes off when I'm going to do entertainment. Woke up at 3:30, then 4:30. I can still be out of here by 5:00... Wrong, barely made it by 5:30, and as I stuffed my little emergency Ray-O-Vac into the BD Bullet pack, I thought: "I know I just put new batteries in this thing, I just hope I didn't pilfer them for my radar detector again, in the mean time."

So, I got to the Tower about a half hour after daybreak, no one there yet. Scrambled to the base of the Durrance route (15 on Diagram 1) in an hour (record time: cut a half hour off my old APPROACH time because I'd scouted it out good on my last exercise visit). Got my bottom anchor set up just as a group of 3 reached the base. The leader says: "And now we wait. That's what you do when you're not first up." As I got started climbing he suggested that instead of me rappelling back down from the top of the first pitch then cleaning my protection gear (pro) off the rock as I climbed back up, I could wait at the top and let him use the pro I'd already set and once he got to the bolts he could top-belay his comrades and they would clean my pro on the way up. So when I got to the bolts (top of Leaning Column @ white #1 that I added to Diagram 2) I said, "If you want to, just come on up and use my pro." And he did, and I thought he climbed it faster than I had, (although he later said he thought I climbed it faster). I said: "You climbed that pretty fast. Why don't you 3 go ahead of me, I really shouldn't be soloing such a popular route on a Sunday anyway." He said OK but that I wasn't really holding them up much. Said he'd been there before when he didn't even get to start climbing until noon. His name was John and John says: "Listen, you're going to be running short on time letting us pass. Why don't you just climb with us the rest of the way, it'll save you time." And I told him I'd be thinking about it.

Well, by the time Tina and Tim had joined us on the top of the Leaning Column (they weren't as fast as John), I said: "I think I will join you if you don't mind." (I figured I'd run short of time if I didn't.) I was just going to tie in to the end of their rope and drag my own rope along with my duffle as I climbed. Then we would split up at the Jump Traverse where they were going east to the Meadows and I was going straight up Bailey Direct. And Tim says half the time when they climb here people wind up climbing with different parties than they came with. Maybe somebody splits off and goes on with a faster group or somebody can't hack it and goes back down with somebody else. Funny thing he said that, cause John led the next pitch and Tina followed up, then Tim climbed up a ways and hung there in the crack, cussing profusely for a while and then started back down with the good news that he would make it to the ledge before he threw up all over me and a guy from below who had just joined me at the bolts. Turned out he'd been drinking till the wee hours and only rolled out to climb cause John and Tina were expecting him to. The 3 of them work together as paramedics, Tim's the driver...hmmm...OK... he's not driving today anyway. Pretty soon Tim asks me if I'd mind staying with his partners all the way up and let him rappel back down on my ropes before he blew lunch all over the rest of these folks below us. Of course I said OK and I'd just have to do Bailey Direct some other time cause I wouldn't have my own set of ropes anymore. I thought it would be good to follow up behind Tina because it was her first "big wall" climb after training all summer on rocks and gym walls and she was expecting Tim to be right behind her... and she was interesting conversation too.

So John led up the next 3 pitches, top belaying us from #2, #3 and #4 (Diagram 2; my white #'s). It was loads of fun: I was in climbing from the "rocking chair" position (these guys had all the lingo down), in other words I was tied in to the end of the rope with nothing to do but climb, no worries about setting pro. So we're standing on a ledge at the #4 bolts and I'm thinking I can climb this thing solo another time, but at least I'll get on top this time... then all of a sudden Tim's on the walkie talkie in John's pocket saying: "Ya know its past 5:30; you guys got an hour an a half, maybe 2 hours of light left." (I didn't have a clue cause my $5 lizard watch had these little spines on its back, (buttons that you set the time with), and they'd gotten pushed in my pocket, so it was wrong and I'd stopped paying attention to the time; I cut the spines off later along with his head.) Then John stated the obvious: "We're not going to the top today." Then he says: "We've either got to go back the way we came or if you want to rap off The Meadows, [where the standard descent routes are set up] you're going to have to lead the next pitch and across the Jump Traverse cause I'm just too tired to lead efficiently."

Well, I told John: "I'll lead; but... You decide if we should go for The Meadows. You've been on this rock a lot more times than me so you're a better judge of how long it takes to get around." (John had climbed this route over a dozen times and actually made the "first ascent" on a route which is located about a dozen columns east and got to name that one.) He stood there thinking for maybe 5 seconds and it was like a cup of ice water in his face. He says: " We have no time, we've got to turn around right now." And John, who was totally professional and very meticulous with the rope up till now, starts whipping the ropes around and clippin' biners here and there and says "don't do anything stupid, but move as quickly as you can." We lost site of John as he rappelled off the edge and Tina says: "I'm worried because I have never seen John so concerned before." I told her everything was going fine and John was just bugged because the hourglass caught him this time. I went last and on each pitch had to be careful to keep the rope up on the nose of the columns, because that's the problem with rapping down the climbing routes, if you let the rope slip into a crack there's a good chance of catching the knot in the crack when you pull it down.

With 2 pitches down and 3 to go, John says: "Could you find that flashlight of yours, I'm having trouble seeing which rope is which." I'm thinking: "I should have checked those batteries cause it looks a little dim." 3 down and 2 pitches to go (we're on top of the Leaning Column) and its almost total darkness. I guess the moon was still on the other side of the Tower and it was mostly overcast that evening as well. As John and me were pulling the ropes through the bolts, I told Tina she better start conserving the light cause its definitely getting dimmer and we need it for connections. Note on the first diagram that we could just rappel to the start of the climb (15) from these bolts. But we don't want to because the APPROACH is actually more dangerous than the technical climb. You don't use ropes but you're climbing over sloping columns and boulders at the edge of a 200' cliff (The Southwest Shoulder climbing area); not recommended in the dark. We needed to rappel to the east about 30 yds to the bottom set of bolts for the standard Meadows rappel route. (About 150' above where I marked BASE on the first diagram.) BASE is where Tim was waiting and fortunately he had scoped out the bolts with binoculars while it was light and kept a bearing on them as it got dark.

So John clipped my light on his belt and Tim guided him over as he descended to the last set of bolts. As I was rapping onto that ledge it was just dark shadows and for some reason John says: "You're right on target." So I dropped in... right on top of Tina. I didn't hurt her or anything, she just laughed. Pulling the ropes 30 yds across the face, we were just lucky the knot didn't get hung somewhere. So John gets his rappel loop tied in, and as he unclips his pro biner by the ebbing glow of my Ray-O-Vac, he insisted several times over (and Tina agreed) that "Rappin' off the Tower, after dark... is absolutely... epic."

Well, we got down to where Tim was waiting and that isn't really the base, I just called it BASE for my story. Its about another 300' down thru the trees to the asphalt trail and there's a path but we lost it in the dark cause the flashlight was now like flipping a cigarette lighter. Glowing about ten seconds then off for a minute. So we drug our butts down the slope, crawling over the occasional boulder or ledge. Tim said: "We'd be laughing at bozos that drag ass down the slope like this in the daylight." It was 9:10 when we got back to the Ranger Station.

EPILOG:

Rappin' down in the dark, I thought the days have grown too short to solo it this year. WRONG. Next issue... Halfway back to Broadus I thought: the only way to speed up the lead leg is to take more risks and set poor protection; BAD IDEA. But I can speed up the rockin' chair leg, (well, soloing: it is not so much rockin' chair really). So, get back on the internet and order ascenders. (They're like grippers that clamp onto the rope.) Climbing back up the 2nd time to clean my pro off the face will be like a walk in the park. Next time I'll be faster than a group of 2. I'll be standing on top of that rock before the month's out. (In fact the UPS man already delivered my new gear. I also got a haul pack so I don't need a pack and a duffle. It's designed not to hang up as easy so I won't as likely have to climb down and free it.) And the moral of the story is: Bring 2 flashlights with good batteries. (A Canadian geologist told me the moral is don't use radar detectors; WRONG.) You know... when we're clinging to the side of the Tower: it's like we're little people climbing a giant petrified tree stump... a footstool for the Gods. And I'm gonna drop in for the view. GAC

GEOLOGIST'S NOTE: THE TOWER'S COVERED WITH LICHEN SO YOU HAVE TO LOOK CLOSE FOR A FRESH EXPOSURE, BUT THE ROCK IS A PORPHYRY WITH A MAFIC FINE GRAINED MATRIX. INDIVIDUAL PHENOCRYSTS OF SODIUM PLAGIOCLASE FELDSPARS ARE UP TO AN INCH ACROSS. (WELL, I'M SURE THERE'S SOME SOLID-SOLUTION GOING ON WITH CALCIUM; BUT THEY ARE ON THE SODIC END OF THE SOLID-SOLUTION SERIES.)

ATTACHMENTS:
B1C1-1DTSF.jpg (Diagram 1 - South Face)
B1C4-2DTSWF.jpg (Diagram 2 - Southwest Face)
(Video snaps):
B1C4-3TINAJOHN.JPG (Tina & John at #4; turn around time.)
B1C4-4TIM.JPG (Tim with my rope; at BASE. X26 zoom.)
B1C4-5GAC.JPG (Me climbing; Durrance Crack.)

TOWER TALES - BOOK 1 / CHAPTER 5

20OCT01 (4th Attempt):

Totally anti-climactic... I had my first anchor set and was arranging my ropes when a guy and his son arrived at the APPROACH starting point. I was shivering and told them: "I was hoping to huddle behind that boulder to warm up before I started the climb, but I guess it's too late for that now that you're waiting." They said: "Yeah..." So I climbed the first pitch and actually worked up a sweat, once I got out of the wind, in the squeeze chimney behind the Leaning Column. (And I did climb that chimney a lot faster without a backpack on.) But then when I crawled onto the ledge atop the Leaning Column I was moist and the wind was a whistling and it wasn't long before I was shivering again.

The problem is it just takes time to get all the connections set up, pull in the haul pack, get the ropes all arranged... it's not enough exertion; just time consuming. Then I rappelled back to my anchor and shivered some more; breaking the anchor down, racking gear and arranging the ropes again so they won't tangle or hang up in cracks as I pull them up. Meanwhile, "Kevin and Gunner" huddled behind the boulder I'd been eying earlier. Setup seems to take at least as long as climbing, usually 2 to 3 times longer. And other climbers agree. More than one has said: "Hey, it's your life you're dealing with."

I must say climbing back up and cleaning my pro off the face was much faster with my new "ascenders", although it wasn't quite the "walk in the park" I had fantasized. I mean it's like climbing a rope with handles on it, but you still have to climb it. It warmed me up; but back to shivering while I'm setting up for the next pitch. And I don't like shivering while standing on a little ledge a couple hundred feet up. I don't like it at all.

Once you get tucked into the columns on the South Face, you can't see the weather coming from the northwest until it comes over the top. So, about the time Kevin was crawling onto the ledge, his son says its starting to rain down on the APPROACH. Well, it was just a sprinkle, but it wasn't encouraging. Kevin told his son to climb on up, but he was shivering too and said he just wanted Gunner to be able to say he climbed the first pitch. I just didn't have a good feeling about going on. They rapped back down the way we came, because they were thinking of taking the APPROACH back down. I rapped over to the east, to some bolts on the Meadows rappel route, because I wanted to get the extra couple hundred feet of rappelling to help limber up my ropes so they'll coil better.

I circled south and west to Gillette to get my mail before heading back to Montana. The sky looked ominous to the north and back toward the Tower so I didn't regret backin' off. I got some more sprinkles from Gillette to Broadus. I've generally had pretty good luck going with gut feelings. And I don't need to camp out on the South Face in 30 some odd degree rain showers trying to make the summit this year instead of next. I'm too cold blooded for that.

Originally, I figured if I ran short of time this year I'd just pay a guide (who's climbed the route a hundred times and knows exactly where to set his pro) to just zip me right to the top. But now it's the principal of the matter; I want to make my first ascent solo. Paying a guide would be like joining a fraternity to get me through school. So Long. GREG

TOWER TALES - BOOK1 / CHAPTER 6

27OCT01 (5th Attempt):

I rode my bicycle in a cold north wind almost every day this week. I take a southwest road out of Broadus at about 3 or 4:00PM, ride an hour or hour an a half, then turn back. If I'm not hallucinating, the wind comes out of the west till about 5:00, then turns colder coming out of the north. So I'm bucking a quartering headwind both ways, which is good for exercise resistance but bad for freezing my butt. Anyway, there's an old girl that goes for a walk with her mini-collie about the time I'm coming in and I always stop to say hi. So Thursday I told her: "Well, it's still bearable out here, but winter's coming." She says: "It's suppose to be in the 60's tomorrow." I headed straight in and went for the "Instant Weather Channel". 55 to 60 Friday. 65 to 70 Saturday. 60 to 65 Sunday. Indian Summer. Suncor was waiting on a permit for the last well, so no logging for several days. One more chance before they cut me loose. Got to go for the top on Saturday.

Only thing; I had ordered some more biners Monday. But I didn't tell them 2nd Day shipping because with no good weather in sight, I figured it would be at least a week before I needed them and I really didn't think we'd get any more Indian Summer or that it would correlate with a free day. Actually, the only reason I'd ordered them was because I knew that next summer the economical part of my mind would say: "Fogehht abowwdit; you don't need any more biners." Thing is; I considered myself free of an equipment budget after my first 2 relatively insane climbs, but I have continued to be stingy about getting a biner for every nut and chock. I'd tell myself: "You've got nimble fingers. Just practice separating 1 nut from 2 others with 1 hand and slipping it off the biner without losing any. No problem." Then I'm clinging to a face, toes on half inch edges, fingertips jammed in a crack, the other hand (that didn't practice) fumbling for a nut; and that little voice says "If you keep trying to solo climb this rock on a budget: Death will come quickly for you. Get a biner for every nut next time." Then I get back in the comfort of a warm room and think: "I don't need any more biners... not really." WRONG. "The bane of mankind is how quickly he forgets._Merlin"

So, Friday I drove to Gillette to get my mail. No biners. I bought what they had at a little bike and climbing shop. Still had nuts doubled up, but I singled the ones I knew I would want readily available. Got to bed early for a change, because this was the first climb I'd planned a day ahead. The others were all: Gotta go tomorrow.

Signed in an hour earlier than last time. Crossed the boulder field in the dark and scrambled the APPROACH by first light. Reached the base of the first pitch as the sun crested the horizon. Set up my anchor, climbed the first pitch, pulled up my haul pack and rapped back down just as the first climbers reached my anchor. The standard first question is: "Where's your partner?" (Like they expect I've got him tied up by the toes behind the Leaning Column.) Well, I told them straight up I'm not going to let them pass because then I wouldn't have time to summit. Although in my mind I was questioning if I had time anyway, since it was already 10:30.

The first pitch had taken as long as it did the last time. I was only an hour ahead because of my early start. Also, I had no idea how long I was going to have to spend massaging out the twisted kinks I'd just put in one of my ropes. You see I had gotten a hankerin' to save about 25 seconds clipping in to rappel, by using a single oval biner instead my BD Super 8. You know... for old times sake... Tommy brought us up on Ranger MO: You can do anything with one carabiner. Unfortunately, Tommy trained us on static rappelling rope, not dynamic climbing rope. (Kernmantle climbing rope has an outer sheath with an inner core and is designed to reduce the impact of a fall by stretching: hence dynamic.) Anyway, what I had done was to twist the sheath around the core because the tight wraps around the biner caused too much friction (and maybe I was moving a little too fast for kernmantle rope which can't take as much heat as static rope and it does things like twisting the sheath). So... the "snake on a fryin' pan" I was looking at wasn't a pretty sight. I was already considering team negotiation.

At first I wondered if these guys were bench climbers because they started tossing out names, like I should know who the hell they were talkin' about. (Apparently they were referring to name brand climbers.) But Bill says he's climbed this route to the top twice, so I figured he was OK. I found out later Jim had never made a technical climb before, but he was a regular mountaineer and does lots of scrambling. He was no problem; quite the mountain goat actually.

Bill figures if they wait, they won't have time to summit either and asks if I'm dead set on making it solo or if I'd team up with them and we could all get a summit. OK: I've got Blackjack and the House has got an Ace showing. Do I take even money or go for the gusto? Well, the Devil is the House and he's already humbled me 4 times this year. I took even money. I wanted my first summit to be solo but making the top this year was more important than perhaps waiting a year for another solo attempt. Bill's next question was if I needed to lead the climb, because he was wanting to lead. Turned out he had never led a Tower climb and that was his ambition. I told him that if I wasn't going to make it solo, I didn't care either way.

So we shook hands and I said: "We should have talked about this before I broke down my anchor." Bill retorted: "We don't need an anchor. You can just top belay us when you get back to the top of the first pitch." And that was the most efficient plan, so I cleaned my pro (protection) off the face on the way back up and top belayed him onto the Leaning Column. Then Bill asked if I'd like to lead the 2nd pitch cause he thinks he climbed that first one a little too fast and maybe ought to take a break. I told him to go ahead and catch his breath and I'd rather he led this one, with Jim belaying, while I got one of my ropes stowed in my haul pack and rearranged my gear for a team climb. I said: "We can alternate leads and decide who does Bailey Direct when we get there." (At this point I was thinking I better get some work out of him now, in case he's a slacker that suckered me into dragging them to the top.)

My fears were unfounded because Bill led the 2nd pitch just fine. From the bolts above the Durrance Crack he top belayed Jim to the ledge, then me. About 10' from the ledge, the crack widens and, (thinking I should try something different from last time I was here), I reversed my body direction, moving up into the crack left side forward. About 3' from the ledge I realized I should have kept my right side in the crack because the left surface was too slick to get traction with my hip, especially since I had moved most of my gear to that side when I planned to climb most of the crack left side out. I kept inching my way up to within a few inches of a handhold, then I'd slip back down and fighting to hold what I've got, start inching upward again. Eventually I was getting so pumped I was fighting myself and knew I needed to down climb and reverse my body. But I'd think: "NO. I will go forward. GRRRRR..." WRONG. Anyway, finally Bill looks over the edge and says: "You're almost here. Use the rope if you want to. Nobody here cares." (Both of us were hangdogging on the pro while leading so he was wondering why I was burning all my energy up as if I was expecting an award for free climbing. Well... when I'm being top belayed, I like to imagine I'm solo free climbing with no rope.) I was thinking I'd really like some water... I grabbed the rope and climbed up. That was the most humbling moment of the day. I'm not saying that if I didn't have the rope clipped to my harness I would have fallen to my death. But it would have been a critical decision to down climb and retry while my muscles were nearly played.

Bill asked: "You ready to take the next one?" I said: "Sure, just let me get some water first." But I felt like Bill did back on the Leaning Column, before he took the lead; not so anxious to dive right in. Interesting how quickly this Devil can knock your arrogance down a peg. I was thinking it would be nice if somebody dragged me to the top.

I figured I had enough pro for this pitch on my harness loops. My shoulder sling of gear was buried in my pack and I didn't want to have to unpack it then tie it back up for the next haul. (It's all this arranging and rearranging that consumes so much time.) This pitch is called Cussing Crack. I climbed past the lower Cussing Crack to find either more Cussing Crack or a 15' horizontal traverse on a 6 inch ledge with a "not so cussing of a crack on the other side". Only thing is I need my #5 SLCD (which is down in my pack) for pro in that crack. So I went back and eyed the upper Cussing Crack again and didn't like it. John had gone that way when he led the "epic after dark" climb. He didn't like the exposure on the traverse, where you will swing into the wall on a 15' arc if you fall. Bill suggested I tie all of my longest slings together and dangle them down to them, so they could send up my #5 SLCD. I set the pro at the other end of the traverse and climbed up to the next set of bolts.

Bill hollars up: "Can you go ahead and climb the next pitch too and top belay us over both pitches? It'll save time." I climbed about 15 feet and I set my first pro, but I'm having to pull slack up with both hands because of all the friction where the rope doglegs along that 15' traverse. Well, this is crazy because you should be able to pull rope with one hand and hold on with the other. I don't need to hit the deck from 15'. Then if I bounce off; it's another 15' before the rope catches me. So I down climbed to the bolts. Tied the rope off. Rappelled down to my #5 SLCD. Cleaned it from the crack. Climbed back up on the rope and hollared: "Your going to have to send my water up before I can do this other pitch." Bill says: "Might as well pull the packs up and belay us up now." So I did, then climbed the next pitch and belayed them to those bolts.

Well, now it's 3:30 and Bill figures we don't have time to do Bailey Direct. He figures it will be faster to take the Conn Traverse to the Meadows, then scramble to the top. I was thinking he was probably right and since he'd been up the Meadows scramble route before, that would speed things up. I wouldn't have done either of the traverses to the Meadows solo because my "Silent Partner" will not lock if you fall perpendicular to the rope. When you've fallen far enough, the rope feed will lock the device and the pendulum action swings you in under your last piece of pro. You can take the wall pretty hard if you don't hit the deck first.

Bill volunteered to go first and made an impressive lead, setting no pro along the way. Tied into the bolts; Jim was belaying him from the ledge and not feeding him any more slack than he needed to advance. If Bill lost it; he'd have done the pendulum swing into the column below us. When Bill reached the Meadows bolts he set up to belay Jim across. I belayed him from behind as well so he wouldn't swing if he fell. Then Jim belayed me across while Bill scouted the scramble route. I much preferred climbing toward the wall I might swing into, over the prospect of taking the wall backwards, as on lead.

So... the Meadows scramble couldn't of taken 20 minutes. We were on top. I don't know... why don't we just all have a cigar? My 1st Tower summit. Signed the logbook in the cairn. Drank in the view... all the way around. Shot some video. Speaking of video: My camcorder is beginning to resemble the Terminator after being run over by the truck. Sections of metallic guts peaking through where chunks of plastic have been blown off by rocks. I've been getting my money's worth out of it. Guess they weren't intended to be treated like chocks.

Rapped the last pitch after dark again (which makes this another epic, under John's ruling). Thoroughly enjoyed it. There was an excellent Moon. Found the trail easily by moonlight; never got a light out.

EPILOG:

A bitter/sweet victory. I can no longer make my first ascent solo. I can only make a first solo ascent. Ah... but as always, I had loads of fun. And if I hadn't gotten this first summit under my belt... By this time next year... I could be a desiccated carcass, pecked by the buzzards on the blistering tarmac. But don't count on it... I'll be back.

Question is: Would I have made the summit if I'd continued solo? I think not. Without Bill's input: I would have gone Bailey Direct. Encroaching darkness would have forced my retreat, leaving booty (pro) behind for the wolves. Thing is: I suspect my teammates might not have made it on their own either. I don't mean to belittle Bill's ability because he did lead the Durrance Crack, which is considered the crux of the Durrance Route. The Conn Traverse was more finesse than work and was as strenuous following up, although the lead included the psychological stress of the higher risk factor. Anyway, I led 3 of the 5 pitches and considering that Bill started out wanting to lead the entire climb: he did seem to be backstepping a bit. My point is that this teaming up in the field thing is good for everybody. I'm getting a kick out of this additional facet to the game. Instead of playing out a dubious hand or going home and coming back with a new plan; you can change the equation and continue the assault. We all want to see the House go bust; in that respect, everyone at the table is a teammate. GAC

ATTACHMENTS:
B1C1-1DTSF.jpg (Diagram 1 - South Face)
(Video snaps):
B1C6-2CIGAR.JPG (Have a cigar Ward.)
B1C6-3GACBILLJIM.JPG (Me, Bill & Jim @ summit.)
B1C6-4.JPG (Sundown)
B1C6-5BILLJIM.JPG (Making connections by moonlight.)

2001	2002	2003