Tom Grundy's Travels: North Six-Shooter Tower

Matt on Supercrack

I'm getting a little out of order here, but I'm going to jump back to Indian Creek where I was climbing before I headed to Red Rocks.

macro image of a lizard near camp

After the rest day where I posted the last bit of Indian Creek Photos we went to the Blue Gramma and Supercrack areas. I tried to lead "fingers in a lightsocket" but fell at the top. I also got a TR burn on "binge and purge", an offwidth, which was a good full body workout.

For my last day there we went up to do the lightning bolt crack on the North Six-Shooter tower. We got a late start because the others went to Moab the night before to get Drew on his way to the SLC airport. I was starting to wonder if we were going to have time to do the tower when they came back. We were on our way around noon. The approach involved some sandy driving up a wash and about 45 minutes of uphill hiking in the sun. The tower looked quite intimidating from the base.

View from the approach hike

Mike and Jase prepare for action

I got the first pitch and I popped off right at the bottom where the fingers start to flare. I started again from the ground and managed to get up to the offwidth section where I got confused and pumped out and had to hang. After re-thinking it I easily laybacked a few moves and finished the pitch. Jase had the next pitch up an overhanging but short crack. Then Mike got a really exciting pitch with some wild exposure past the left side of the roof and plenty of wind. By then I was getting quite cold and regretting not wearing long pants and bringing the balaclava (or any other layers). I followed the next pitch and then continued on past a skull (cow?) and up the squeeze chimney. From the top I belayed the other 2 up and experimented with the insulative properties of ropes (not much when it is very windy). We didn't spend long on top because of the cold wind and late hour but the views were very nice. It took 2 raps back to the ground and some more insulation for the walk back to the car. We were treated to some nice light on the descent and it got pretty much dark before we were done with the 4 wheel drive exit. All in all it was a very satisfying climb although I would have liked more insulation and some time on the top with my camera. After 3 days on we were all pretty wrecked.