Devil's Tower 2012

All right, it’s Matt now! Since this was my adventure, I am the bloggie for this post.

I climbed Devil’s Tower on Thursday, November 8^th. I had wanted to summit the 800 foot monster for a long time now. Ever since I got to school, and realized how much outdoor climbing I would really be able to do, I made it my goal to top-out the Tower before the end of my freshman year.

A couple of my buddies lived in Rapid over the summer and had already summited. Climbing it again came into conversation not three days before we actually went. A spontaneous trip, my favorite. I schmoosed a little bit and got myself a “ticket to the top”. I was in!

We left at 8 a.m. on Thursday, and were at the base of the Durrance Route by 10:00 a.m. We dropped off our packs and started to sort out the equipment. Two ropes, an entire rack of traditional climbing gear, shoes, and our helmets, we were set.

The route is technically six pitches. We completed it in five, combining two of the shorter ones. The weather was absolutely primo, 55 degrees and sunny. We could not have asked for a better day.

A panorama that I took about halfway up. There isn’t much out there, but an excellent view non-the-less.

This is one of my two climbing partners, Brett Michels, leading up the hardest pitch of the day, the Durrance Crack. You bear-hug the rock the entire way up, straight grunt work, but crazy fun!

Summit! This is the view from the top. The top had more terrain than I would have guessed. I was assuming a flat sandy top, but there was a little bit of elevation gain and had a lot of desert plant life.

The tubing that the summit registry was in. It had to weigh at least 25 pounds and was totally bomb-proof. I feel sorry for the poor guy who had to haul that thing to the top.