M O U N T A I N
W H I S P E R S

THE TOWER

If you ever aspire to climb a desert tower, one simple word of advice: Do not attempt it in the middle of July, with 3.5 hours of sleep, and virtually no water. Unless of course you are grappling with inner demonic voices telling you to become a „Hard Man¾ and test yourself under extreme conditions that could result in dehydration, a serious sunburn even with 30+ block, cracked dry lips, and the infamous heat exhaustion. Well, me and my brother Jamie after leaving Telluride, Colorado looked for an epic of this sort. We drove out of the Rocky Mountains toward the Colorado Plateau, where Range Cattle swarm by the thousands. These domesticated beasts act like living lawnmowers devouring public lands, they out compete the native fauna like elk, mule deer, and antelope for forage. Over the last century it has been proven that these animals have reduced the number of native fauna significantly, as well as degraded the land to the rating of „POOR¾ by the Bureau of Land Management. Food for thought as one drives through their country headed for the next climb BUZZING on stout coffee and listening to grunge blaring through the dashboard speaker in Jamie¼s van.

We are headed to the desert heat of Moab, Utah „Mormon Country¾ to climb one of the country¼s 50 classic climbs: Castleton Tower. Modern day "wanna be..." explorers feeding on new adventure, my brother and I decided we needed a change of scenery after spending a week becoming familiar with the brew pubs in Telluride. Castleton tower was climbed in 1961 via the chimney corner on the south face. Laton Kor and Huntley Ingalls were the pioneers of the 4 pitch, Grade III, 5.9, a great climb for the day and for my current limited skill. Castleton Tower is located 15 miles east of Moab in Castle Valley, the valley is named this for the number of desert spires that spring up out of the arid land like giant castles. While driving into the valley we admire the irrigation techniques of the locals, the valley is in bloom and which is a great contrast to the barren red rock canyon of the American Southwest. Noticing we have no water, we stop at a sole oasis, a small farm house were two people are in the yard tending to several planted trees blessed by the waters magic. After a very friendly conversation about the climate, the beauty of the place, and irresponsible tourist who come here to MT. bike we head to the beckoning tower. Castleton Tower comes into view as we come around a corner "Shit !!" Jamie says, as the tower jumps into our view and commands our attention, we pause like always at the first sight of a intimidating climb, we become concerned about the heat and our late arrival, but uncontrollably excited at the challenge. We find a small dirt road that take us to the end of the line where a faint trail winds up into the sagebrush hill and out of sight over a plateau.

Man, it is 11:00 in the afternoon and the heat is increasing by the second 96..97..98..99..100...., we only have one day "Today" to climb because tomorrow we have to be in Idaho. We have both spent the last month working manual labor in the sultry summer heat of Arkansas and decide that we can tolerate it, however at what level is unknown. Madly, we throw the rack of cams and stoppers and both ropes in a backpack, with one cherished bagel for a possible summit lunch and jog off into the sagebrush landscape of the desert southwest "Catus Ed country". Our approach was in every meaning of the term "WAY OFF", following the trail up and over the red rock mesa we notice we took the wrong trail and are now in Nowhereville. Now time and heat began to increase exponentially. Down but in no way out, we change directions on top of this mesa and head directly for our date with Castleton Tower several miles and canyon crossings away. We began to cross over and around several serious obstacles on loose terrain, we could see the main approach trail off in the distance and it is worn white in the red sandy earth by previous climbers. We began to hate the line we choose, Jamie noticed faint footprints in the sand and said "Thank God were not the only confused individuals out here!!", I could not agree with him more at the time, I had chosen to wear no socks for reasons unknown and now the sand was acting like sand paper on my fragile skin, I trudged on silently moaning and cussing under my breath. After about 2 hours of hell, we found a trail that disappeared around the base of this grand earthly finger jutting to the sky. We found the base of the route we had planned to attempt and took a 10 minute break to examine it and to relax our sun burned frames in the first reward of the day: SHADE!!!!

After the quick scouting session and the gear organizing, Jamie began to lead the beautiful crack leading to what appeared to be a encompassing chimney, he did it as always with grace and style. Just as I began to climb the sun slipped behind the top of our skyscraper made of weathered earth exciting us beyond belief, we were exhausted and we were just beginning the challenging climb. Looking up before I committed to the first move, I watched a Falcon dance in the thermals high above, it flew swiftly around the top of the tower over and over guarding the small summit. I wondered how this elusive bird having survived its war with DDT, felt about two humans spidering their way ever closer to its secret sanctuary. The first move immediately cleared my head and I began to climb. The first pitch was sustained and sometimes overhanging, the weight of my pack tried to pull me off with every move. "Hell, what a nice lead !!" I thought as I struggled upward.

The pitch led into the vast depths of a huge chimney and it took a second for my eyes to adjust to the darkness before making any moves, when I arrived Jamie was there sitting calmly on a chokestone with a excited stare in his eyes. Wondering why, I then noticed the next pitch went up and tunneled behind a massive stone wedged in the chimney the size of my apartment in Portland. "Wow !!!" I said with a nervous crackle in my voice, within a few seconds Jamie spidered up the wall and on top of the massive stone!! I gulped with the feeling that I was next! This is the feeling you had when you went to the principles office knowing you were going to receive a paddling.

Flying with the gusting wind, I heard Jamie¼s voice "ONNNN....... BELAYYYY........." that was my cue, I removed the gear nesstled in the sandstone crack and began climbing up and over the massive chockstone and into blinding sunlight. Before finally exiting the chimney, I noticed a bone covered ledge that smelled of a fresh death, the Falcon¼s place to view the world and what a grand view he has, I noticed several feathers buried beneath layers of bones and plucked one for a token of good luck. As I surmounted the final moves and stared up at the rope attached to my harness, I noticed Jamie¼s purple helmet amongst the brown earthy backdrop, I approached him with the excitement of a young tiger pup from the feeling that I had just climbed one of the most classic and exhilarating lines of my life. Jamie gleamed with accomplishment and smiled back.

One final easy pitch and we were there, the summit of Castleton Tower. A small circular summit with amazing exposure, we could see in every possible direction: north, south, east, west, up, and down. We could see the mighty Colorado River carving its way to Mexico, I was intoxicated by the view, we could see for miles and viewing the river made me remember my sickening thirst. We could also see the van "our home" a tiny white dot in the expanding sea of sagebrush miles away. We gave each other a hug and a hand shake, split our only food of the day: a bagel, and paused for a few minutes of personal mediation while looking through climber¼s journal that was buried under a small overhanging rock. After signing the register "Rednecks from Arkansas", we rappelled the route and landed where we started about 6 hours ago, we were both dehydrated and exhausted and moaned with every step toward the van. We talked about drinking gallons of water; slurping down ice cream and milkshakes; and eating basically anything.

The walk was longer than we both imagined, the sun was still relentlessly shinning in the western sky and it felt like we were walking through a invisible fire raging in the desert. Jamie swore he was dying every 10 minutes and to be honest, he looked almost that bad, I think we both did. We were both proud of our accomplishment and we were paying for it physically and mentally, arriving at the van with no water, we immediately drove 30 minutes like a bat out of hell to the only natural spring in this dry region. I almost slid the van sideways trying to stop at the spring, madly we jumped out and gulped 2 quarts of water as several sweating well dressed tourist stared in disgust at our deathly dirty appearance.

Looking into each others tired blood shot eyes we realized the red rock canyons and desert spires revealed to us a unique beauty that no motor tourist will ever experience. Smiling with a childish appearance, we promised with a wink to never reveal their secrets. For one day in the future, we will return again !!!!

The North Face of Mt. Hood | Castleton Tower | | To Be A Wolf | Gaia Spirit