They'll let anybody on the Tower! Hey Jaybro, had the pleasure of climbing alongside FS a couple times...I love his one hand belay technique, carefully coveting a cig in the other!
Summit note: My partner and I did (Wiessner 5.7). Fritz Wiessner did the FA in '37 I believe with a hemp rope and shoes, hip belay, and placed only one piece: a piton at the end of the first pitch (100 + ft. or so). I only had one #5 cam and didn't feel comfy walking it up, so chose Pseudo-Weissner (5.8) as an alternative since it took all kinds of gear. I gained alot of respect for him that day. Anyway, fun climb, nostalgic and is a nice alternative if "Durrance" has a waiting line.
Climbers: Gabe(?), Bryce Mithchell, Dick Lugar, Tim Henke
What a positive, good times, inciteful troll, that gordon guy is!
Nice, all! got a video coming after class tonight.
Roy-medial epicondylitis? (or complications after too few gloves iceclimbing @ Lee Vining? kidding)
Lugar, know what you mean, but I'll still put the Colonel on the least likely to drop someone list; he's saved my life! ... now second hand smoke... he does provide me dead mammal free comestibles when I visit, however. In your photo which one are you?
Jaybro...I'm the best lookin' one, with the tennis elbow! BTW...I was at the Voo over Labor Day, off the couch, got spanked leading a 5.7- handcrack...very humbling indeed. I may have to train for the next year's Bugaloo fest, sounds fun!
At the time Jay,
When dinosaurs roamed the earth, or so it seemed, and 5.11 was still cotton candy, it was lateral epicondylitis.
Now it's medial, radial, lateral, and cerebral, with chronic muscle fatigue thrown in as a topper!
(Never got over the cold hands either; now it's cold hands, feet, crotch, nose, all require mucho insulation...)
Climbing at the Tower used to be highly regulated.
The "No Climbing Above This Point" sign was erected by the Park Service on the approach to the Durrance.
Certain Wyomingites helped the sign make its way to the summit.
The summit is also a good place to observe that the state's population of cottonwood trees, which depends on occasional flooding to sprout its seeds, is now overly "mature."
I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise
I know that you have 'cause there's magic in my eyes
I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles
Oh yeah
If you think that I don't know about the little tricks you've played
And never see you when deliberately you put things in my way
Well, here's a poke at you
You're gonna choke on it too
You're gonna lose that smile
Beacuse all the while
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles
Oh yeah
You took advantage of my trust in you when I was so far away
I saw you holding lots of other guys and now you've got the nerve to say
That you still want me
Well, that's as may be
But you gotta stand trial
Because all the while
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles
Oh yeah
I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise
I know that you have 'cause there's magic in my eyes
I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles
Oh yeah
The Devil's Tower and the Taj Mahal are mine to see on clear days
You thought that I would need a crystal ball to see right through the haze
Well, here's a poke at you
You're gonna choke on it too
You're gonna lose that smile
Beacuse all the while
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles
and miles and miles and miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
Oh man Munge...you caught me off-guard, tire and loopy, but I wrote a poem about the Tower one trip a few summers ago, so here it is for high cheese value:
Bosom of the Gods
The Tower of the Devil,
It stands erect and steadfast
Protuding right above mother earth's navel
Like an aroused nipple thrusting towards
The mouths of the gods
At night from my campsight,
As I sit pondering my senescence
The full moon appears on the horizon
Illuminating it with its light
As I sit and stare and envision my ascent
I see the crack that before me lies
I instantly see how life is a crack in disguise
The night grows long, the light fades from my eyes
Sleep comes over me with little resistance,
And I dream, I dream of her until sunrise.
Great shots! That shot of Chris and i from 1983 brings it back jaybro... We did Belle Fourche Buttress as I recall.... let's see what I can find in the slide collection ....
In northeast Wyoming, near Sundance, one day last week, Parachutist George Hopkins leaped out of an airplane to win a $50 bet. The problem was to collect. For George Hopkins landed, as the bet prescribed, on Devil's Tower. A lava blister, formed by an eruption 20,000,000 years ago, Devil's Tower is a gigantic rock stump rising 1,200 feet into the sky. Teddy Roosevelt made it the country's first national monument. Its weathered sides are fluted, nearly vertical, practically unscalable.
While a crowd held its breath and stared, Hopkins tried to lower himself on a length of rope which had been dropped to him from an airplane. When his foot slipped, he clambered fearfully back. The rope was too short, anyhow. National Park Service officials, who had been sending instructions via plane, ordered him to stay where he was, wait until they could think of something. Hopkins resigned himself to spending the night there. Park Service mountain climbers tried to get up, failed. Planes dropped food, blankets, wood for a fire, whiskey, a megaphone, which Hopkins used to screech out a request for some funny papers.
Several days went by. Officials considered using helicopters, blimps. The climbers had another try. failed. Said one official sourly: "We hate to jeopardize the lives of our men for a stunt that someone thought was smart."
From New York Jack Durrance* and Merrill McLane, ace Dartmouth College mountain climbers, started for Wyoming by airplane. Durrance said that he had scaled the Tower in 1936, thought he could do it again. With Paul Petzoldt, a veteran of Himalayan climbs, and five other men, Durrance and McLane inched their way up the Tower's sides, driving iron spikes ("pitons") into its hard, sheer sides to make a ladder. They reached the summit, roped little George Hopkins into the middle of their column, and carefully edged their way back down again. Safe on the ground, Hopkins drew a grateful breath, departed to collect his bet.
I'd say equal parts Frazeta / Boris Vallejo; neither one a slouch.
Thanks Nick D that IS what I'm talking about!
-thanks shingle! - imagine if they had used blimps! holy futurama!
The george hopkins photo is more elusive than I thought, even though it's at the tower vc in large, in various books, etc. My copy is two hundred miles away from my scanner. Somebody out there please help!
Its a great story, but here is an account of the 1893 ascent:
The best-known early event was the 4th of July celebration held at the Tower in 1893. According to the handbill circulated for the occasion, the principal speakers were N. K. Griggs of Beatrice, Nebraska, and Col. William R. Steele of Deadwood, South Dakota. The handbill announced "There will be plenty to Eat and Drink on the Grounds;" "Lots of Hay and Grain for Horses;" and, "Dancing Day and Night." It also stated "Perfect order will be maintained." The feature attraction, however, of the day was to be the first climbing of the Tower by William Rogers, a local rancher. The event was apparently given wide publicity.
Rogers made elaborate preparations for the big event. With the assistance of Willard Ripley, another local rancher, he prepared a 350-foot ladder to the summit of the Tower. This was accomplished by driving pegs, out from native oak, ash and willow, 24 to 30 inches in length and sharpened on one end, into a continuous vertical crack found between the two columns on the southeast side of the giant formation. The pegs were then braced and secured to each other by a continuous wooden strip to which the outer end of each peg was fastened. Before making the exhibition ascent, the men took a 12-foot flagpole to the top and planted it into the ground. The building of the ladder by Rogers and Ripley was an undertaking perhaps more hazardous than the climbing of the Tower itself.
People came for a distance from 100 to 125 miles to witness the first formal ascent of the Tower. The more conservative estimates are that about 1,000 people came by horseback, wagon and buckboard to see the spectacular feat. For most of them it was a trip requiring several days of tedious travel over rough and dusty trails. Rogers began his ascent following proper ceremonies which included an invocation. After climbing for about an hour, he reached the top Amid much cheering from the many open-mouthed spectators some 865 feet below, he unfurled an American flag, which had been specially made for the occasion, from the flagpole. Devils Tower had at last been conquered in the full view of an assembled throng. During the afternoon, a gust of wind tore the flag loose and it drifted down to the base of the Tower. Here the promoters tore it up and sold the pieces for souvenirs.
I'm just wondering out loud...do any of you think a native american ever climbed Devil's Tower, since it was significant landmark to them, prior to the 1893 ascen?. There must of been some restless youth or some rite of passage that made someone climb it, you know..."I dare you, I double dare you.". Now whether they were able to downclimb is another story. I've wondered the same about other famous climbs in N.A...Grand Teton, McKinley, Whitney, Shasta..etc. Just curious.
Who knows, but I'd guess no. Footwear would be an issue. Though there would have been those that could solo one of the weissner's or Durrance and slog up to the top from the meadows. Though they would have to downclimb the ascent route.
I bet if one did it, he dragged a bunch of his buddies up there.
I'm sure 'those guys' climbed Shasta & Whitney prior to recorded history.
Yeah J-bro...I'm sure those guys did on climbs that had a relatively easier way up than the Tower. I just saw where Nike came out with a specially designed shoe for native americans...the "Native N7". NA's supposedly, on the average, have a wider forefoot than their typical consumers. I wider forefoot may be condusive to OW jamming on the Tower...intriguing!
I would be very surprised if they never tried this in 10,000 years before the white man came here. You know that the ancient SW peoples were phenomenal climbers of desert cliffs (and no doubt sandstone towers as well). In fact, it would be a surprise if a number of desert towers were not done before recorded history (well before our modern FAs).
Agreed, but still, I'm betting they didn't get up (and then down climb) Moses.
The southwestern types were, known for chipping holds though. But to put it in perspective, I think it's easier on the earth to carve toeholds for 'middleaged,' 17-yr old dowagers, to ascend to Mesa verde with five gallon, clay, water jugs on their heads than to build virtually any, modern, offramp.
This is what the parachitist who got marooned for five days (his name is Bozo the Hardy) saw as he jumped.
The top photo reminds me of a wooly mammoth trying to hide from something. Afraid of bears?
Credit: mouse from merced
And ancient page from Mountain, which year, I guess the expert local climbers would know--though there are apparently it is not PC to be "local climbers" in National Parks and Monuments, according to many.
Clue:
"The Window--((A4) This is the hardest aid route at DT. It was pioneedred by RR in 1964 and was repeated for the first time last July."
For an interesting time you won't forget, after you watch the above video, click 'done' and you see a selection of related videos before you. the one to the immediate right,"climbing Devils Tower with Frank Sanders" is a click into an introduction to one of the most unique of he many eccentric individual people in our paradigm of eccentricity.
Enter at our own peril; I first met him at the tower in '76, I've climbed five el cap routes with him, a bunch of other walls, and shared uncountable other life experiences with him as well. But you want to be on your game. Maybe at Xmas we'll actually climb the tower together....
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