Adventure out West

This weekend I set out with two very good friends Matt Lloyd and Dan Cornella.

Our plan was to leave Denver Thursday afternoon, drive to Rifle, pull on some hard sport routes then jump back in the car and drive on to Utah.  This is where the plan ends, we knew a tower was in our future, just not which one.  The decision was made to climb The North Face of Castleton tower, The north face being shaded all day this seemed the only sane option.  Castleton tower is one of the most prolific of Utah's desert towers, attracting climbers from all around the world to reach it's summit.  The North Face is the most difficult trad line on the tower.  To my knowledge there is a bolted 5.12? also on the tower.

Here are some photos from our adventure.

Rifle

Here are some photos I took of Dan & Matt on a new(ish) 5.13a called "I'm Sorry"

Dan trying hard to work out the moves on the low crux.

Control the swing

Latching the crimper of the upper crux.

Matt enters the upper crux

Working out some tall man beta.

We got to Castle Valley around midnight and then went hunting for the dirt road that would lead to the trail head... We didn't find it.  We found a different dirt road and went 4 wheeling in the dark for an hour before we gave up and made camp.

It wasn't till morning we realized that the entire 4 wheeling adventure was parallel to a paved road and that we passed the trail head at one point along the drive.  Go us!

Nothing beats a 4Runner - you can disagree but then you'd be wrong.

Castleton Tower, The Milky Way, Starry skies.  I love Utah at night.

Castleton Tower lit with moonlight.

Before going to bed I set up my camera to do some star trail photos.  I took the results and came up with these three final renderings.  Let me know what you think.  I'm new to this.

I never sleep well camping and was the first one up, so I grabbed the camera and went to work trying to capture some landscape photos while the sun rose.  Here is what I got.

And the tower - I mentioned we missed the trail.  We went straight up the hill, Matt and Dan are both 6'5" I stand 5'8",  trying to keep up with them hiking is usually quite a task in and of it's self, then there is the tower.

A lone flower I found on our approach.

I liked that little house.

The view on the approach

From the top of the first pitch

Our route

Pitch 1

Pitch 3

Summit shot

Turning the edge - See if you can pick out our packs down below.






Now from time to time Matt or Dan will take the camera.  Here are those shots - Random order.

Tape gloves :)

Racking up

The toss on Cryptic Egyptian 5.13c

High up on Cryptic

Hope you enjoy
-Keith North