McCarthy West Face Variation

Lots of climbing the last few days. Here is a pic Jake took of me on McCarthy West Face Variation pitch 2. Then I toproped the original line which was super cool, but a little spicy to lead.


Check out my Devils Tower Web Page for more pics etc.

Durrance Route

Today we did the Durrance Route on Devil's Tower. It was one of the first routes and features a cool (but improbably) leaning pillar. We signed in around 7:15 and followed another couple up (they were far enough ahead to be out of the way though). We took the "jump across" variation, but climbed instead of jumping. Then we spent a bunch of time on the summit relaxing and taking photos (and I stepped on a bit of cactus in bare feet). It was lovely (except for the cactus that really wasn't that bad).

This is the first pitch, the leaning column - this couple was ahead of us.


This pigeon was scrutinizing my belay technique





Dawn on top of the leaning column



self portrait



people watching us



Dawn racks up for a pitch


The belay ledges were luxurious

The final scramble to the top

Feet on the summit

and our heads

cactus foot. ouch


summit handstand




Dawn scoping the descent on the south side (180 + degree panorama)

TMF part II, and Devil's Tower

Part II of the TMF trip report has been posted over at the Wend blog here.
Lots of pics to be seen there.


In other news, we climbed at Ten Sleep a few days (fun sports action) and then headed up to Devil's Tower. We did Assembly Line to the top, then rapped in the dark and a bit of rain. The next day I did Back to Montana and Everlasting with Jake. Then a rest day and we moved our tents up to the Lodge (very nice, Frank rocks).
Today we got rained out from the Durrance route, but still got in a pitch on Bon Homme Variation in the afternoon. We'll try Durrance again tomorrow.


here is a pic from near our first camp.

This is the west side of the tower... maybe in 2 days we'll do one of these routes.