The Raven

Last Tuesday I set out on an adventure with two of my good friends Dan Cornella & Matt Lloyd to drive out to Utah, climb the Kingfisher Tower and return all within 24 hours.  The breakdown is 11 hours of driving, 3 hours of sleeping and 10 hours spent hiking and climbing. 

Timeline:

Tuesday 4/29

9:00PM - Leave Denver - Drive west

Wednesday 4/30

3:30AM - Roll into the full campground

3:40AM - Lay down sleeping pads and crash at the trail head

6:20AM - Wake up

6:40AM - Start hiking

8:00AM - Start the first pitch

2:05PM - Reach the summit

2:15PM - Begin decent

4:00PM - Arrive at the car

9:00PM - Roll in to Denver - Mission Complete

 In my mind adventure, and I mean true adventure can't be achieved without suffering and/or fear.  While I love a good day out sport climbing, the adventure just isn't there.  This trip would offer both.  

Suffering: Doing anything on three hours of sleep is always brutal.  But climbing desert towers is always suffering, you hang in your harness for hours on end, to get up pitches aid climbing takes what seems like forever, hanging on the wall you are stuck there, if it's windy, you get blown around, sunny you turn into a lobster, cold you freeze, hot you burn.   The weather was very kind to us we froze on one pitch because of wind, the rest of the time we were quite comfortable. 

Fear: I don't have much experience on sandstone.  My first time was in Joe's Valley, the rock was bone dry, and hard as nails.  Kingfisher was entirely the opposite.  The stone, if you could call it that, was dry however when I tried to brush the dirt off the holds I just found more dirt.  Every time I got to an anchor I wondered if I just yank on this bolt hard enough will it pull?  Ascending single lines - also scary, as the second I had the easy mission.  Dan came up 3rd and had to manage the initial swing out from the belay anchor till he was below the next.  When Dan was getting ready to jug the 2nd pitch he ended up just swinging out almost 30' laterally while being able to look over 100' straight down.  To top things off, this was no controlled swing.  None of this even compares to leading the pitches.  Our resident badass Matt took that challenge on, having to clip and fully weight a pin hammered upwards into a roof immediately after leaving the belay anchor.  Or having to step on the top point of a shoddy anchor and reach up with his full 6'10" wingspan to clip nothing more than an old pin, with nothing to hold onto in between.

 And now we have fear.

Why?  What kind of sane, healthy, happy, normal person would subject themselves to something when your only guarantee is fear and suffering.

I don't pretend to know.  I can say that at the end one is left with a tremendous sense of achievement.  Upon return home, the realization hits.  In the past 24 hours I lived, I actually did something worthwhile, and not a single moment of that time was wasted.

Here are some photos we managed to capture during the experience.  Please enjoy.

The approach, along with the sunrise.

Dan almost done jugging the 3rd pitch.

Dan, almost done with the 6th pitch

Climbing up onto the ledge.

Dan back to normal now that he's on the ledge.

Prepping to belay.

Organizing the mess

The view was incredible.

Matt at the base with his Boreas pack.

Exposure

We don't smile on the tower.

Matt flew up this pitch.

And then told me what would happen if he wasn't "immortalized" in photos.

Breaking the rule.

Relaxing while we wait for Dan.

Summit.

Dan showing how he really feels about the tower.

The summit shot.

When I finished the final pitch I got myself out of the system and scrambled up the last few feet to the true summit.  I looked to my left...

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted - nevermore!

The Raven... "Nevermore"

Seeing the raven was the coolest part of my day.  And the least expected of all events.

----------Keith


Check out more of my work at www.keithnorth.com