Taking On The Tower

The Tower From Bills Tent

Aleya, Bill and I crawled out of our tents around 5:15am after a great night of sleep. Once I got out of the tent I got my first view of the the tower in daylight. I was in awe at its size, towering above us nearly three miles away. After staring for what seemed like days, I began to organize my climbing gear for what lie ahead. Cams, cordelette, carabiners, ropes, you name it, and it was probably lying on the gate of our ford explorer. All of our gear was organized, the instant coffee was drank, and the oatmeal consumed, yea we were ready for this. We did a final sweep around our tents making sure nothing of use was left behind, then we drove away.

Our Gear Hauler

The road leading to the parking lot from where we would launch our assault on the tower circumnavigated the feature and gave us a clear view of the Durrance route which we would later be climbing. It was all put into perspective for me right there when I saw the little specs that were people climbing. A few minutes later we were unloading the car and doing a final run down of our equipment. The amount of gear carried by a team on a climb like this really is astounding, usually I will leave gear I don’t need at the bottom of a climb, but on an adventure of this magnitude where you are committing the better part of a day to it, you can’t risk leaving anything behind.

The park service at Devils Tower requires registration for all climbers and anyone going beyond the boulder field. This allows the park service to know if anyone is on the tower abnormally long to help in the event a rescue is needed. We filled out the climber registration card for our team at the kiosk at the trailhead and read a bit of info on the tower before heading up the tower trail and officially kicking off our adventure.

The walk to where we began to scramble was pretty short, the boulder strewn skirt of the tower provided us with a pretty good scramble that would gain us nearly 600 feet of elevation before we arrived at the beginning of our route. We ascended for a good forty five minutes before I slipped on an upward ramp and slid twenty five feet down pulling some muscle in my right shoulder, but not bad enough to toss out a day of climbing. At this point I suggested putting on our climbing shoes for a little bit better friction on the ramp. Fortunately for us the beginning of our route lie just beyond us.

I finally got my first up close and personal view of the infamous leaning pillar that begins the Durrance route. The leaning pillar is a broken off piece of the tower that fell into the adjacent column and is nearly seventy feet high. I took my pack off at the base of the pillar and started to flake the rope in preparation for our climb. Shortly after I reached the base of the route, Aleya and Bill joined me. We cast our gaze upward in excitement, little did we know what the day would hold.

I started stacking cams and various other gear onto my harness while scarfing down a banana. I threw the sling containing the rest of my gear over my shoulder and everyone put their helmets on. Aleya shouted “on Belay” and I excitedly returned with “climbing” and I was off towards the first crack style climb of my life, as a leader no less.

Aleya Belaying the First Pitch

The pitch started as a crawl, but quickly it turned vertical and I began jamming my hands and pulling. Liberally placing protection as I quickly rose upward, I began to get the hang of this style of climbing that was quite alien to me. In no time I had cleared the first pitch and sat atop the leaning pillar where I built an anchor to protect myself and my companions below.

I pulled up the remaining length of rope and put Aleya on belay, then yelled down to let her know she was up. I began to reel in the slack generated by her ascent stopping only to let her pull the gear I placed from the crack. More quickly than I did, Aleya cleared the first pitch and stood beside me atop the leaning pillar. I gave her a celebratory bump of the fist then she prepared to bring up Bill.

While Aleya belayed Bill I pulled out my camera to shoot some video, during which my Belay device managed to unclip itself from its carabiner and dropped hundreds of feet downward as I watched helplessly. This mistake left me with only my figure eight to rappel on post climb.

With the three of us on top of the leaning pillar and the rope re-stacked, it was time to take on the crux pitch of the route, Durrance Crack. Durrance crack is rated at 5.7+ and features two side by side cracks that shoot straight up for about seventy feet before the next ledge. The crux of the pitch is about 15 feet before the end of the pitch, but I’m ready because I know I have a number four Camalot ready to protect the crux.

Patrick Leading Durrance Crack, Aleya On Belay

With Aleya feeding rope to me I began to work the left side crack. with a combination of hand jams and stemming I finally make my way to a hand hold about forty feet up which provides me little rest before working through the crux section. At this point I am about fifteen feet above my last piece and I have to commit to the right crack. I quickly and nervously switched to the right side and plug my number 4 cam before pulling through to the safety of the belay ledge above.

It’s now Aleya’s turn to climb, and not surprisingly she makes quick work of it with a series of high steps and hand jams. She pulls herself up onto the belay ledge to join me and pulls the rest of her rope up before belaying Bill. After climbing Durrance crack, Bill joins us as well and we are all standing on the second belay ledge and feeling great.

Aleya On Durrance Crack

Pitch three was about to be Bill’s first lead of the day, Cussin’ Crack stretched upward about forty feet and was a combination of stemming and a flake about ten feet up that provided decent hands and protected with a few small stoppers. Bill ascended the face to a position where he placed a stopper and clipped the rope to it. He then worked his way into the crack and shimmied his way up to the next belay ledge while throwing in a few choice words. after it was Cussin’ Crack.

It was Aleya’s turn to ascend Cussin’ Crack. As expected she climbed admirably and cleared the pitch to a cheer from Bill and I. Once she was safely clipped into the anchor above, Aleya and Bill pulled up the slack and it was my turn to clear the pitch that proved to be my least favorite on the route.

I was back on the sharp end of the rope for pitch four which to quote Aleya was “like a stairway.” I high stepped, stood up, and placed a piece of gear. I repeated this process almost like I was a video stuck on loop for about forty feet before standing on a belay ledge the size of “all of Canada”.

The Fifth pitch, Chockstone Crack was a short but enjoyable outing. It ascended thirty feet to a large boulder that you had to clear to get onto the ledge above. Fortunately the boulder provided excellent handholds and we all cleared it with ease.

Following The Fifth Pitch

We made it! We were standing on top of the Fifth pitch. All that stood between us and the summit was the 150 foot Bailey’s Direct. After our final preparation, I led up the awkward, and drawn out pitch, which provided some very odd sections followed by a crux just below the last set of anchors. I don’t think I’ve ever placed so much protection on a single pitch. I had this one zipped right up.

Safely clipped into the final set of anchors, Aleya followed and cleaned the pitch. I struggled to hear her voice through the wind as she neared the final section of the climb. I shouted some undoubtedly muffled encouraging words as she cleared the ledge and joined me at the safety of the Anchor system. Shorty after being joined by Aleya and some rope re-stacking Bill joined us and the team was back together and ready for the fifteen foot scramble to sweet victory.

On The Belay Ledge

We pulled all the rope in, and Aleya made her way up the scramble to the summit, followed by Bill then me. We did it! We stood on the top of Devils Tower after hours of climbing, and the feeling of accomplishment was almost overwhelming. I untied myself from the rope that had bound me to my companions for the hours preceding and followed them towards the summit cairn.

Aleya and Bill Signing the Summit Register

We walked around the top for a bit, gazing into the distance, taking photos, signing the summit register before making our way back to the Top of the route where we would begin our descent. I noticed some dark clouds approaching from the west, but thought nothing of it and continued towards the edge.

Suddenly out of nowhere the wind began to accelerate rapidly. I yelled for Aleya to come on, and with a bit of hesitation we down climbed fifteen feet to the rappel anchors and clipped in. The wind was still howling around us at what felt like forty or so miles an hour. We anchored the ropes for rappel and tossed the rope downward to astonishingly find the twenty pound coil of rope blowing up over our heads.We kept our composure and continued on. Bill descended the line first and radioed up to send Aleya down. I followed suit shortly after.

On the next ledge we were a bit sheltered from the wind making communication much easier. We pulled the ropes above us and down they came. We quickly set up the next rappel and threw the rope over; this time gravity was in control and they fell downward.

Again we descended the lines down onto yet another ledge. This time though, we went to pull the rope and nothing happened. So we pulled again, with nothing but some rope stretch. The rope was stuck, and with several hundred feet of rappelling still to go making a down climb attempt impossible. We quickly determined that the ropes had twisted preventing them from being pulled through the anchors. We struggled with the ropes for what seemed like and eternity, twisting them one way a few times, pulling, then twisting the the other way.

Urgency clicked up a few notches when suddenly we heard a clap of thunder and the skies began to close in on us, and rapidly. It began to rain, and the lightning became increasingly close with each strike. We had a hundred feet of wet rope above us, and a hundred feet below us. This made for a great path of travel for said lightning.

I quickly began to reel up the the rope below us and stack it on the ledge while we continued our struggle to free the rope. With every ounce of forearm strength we had, Bill and I pulled the rope hand over hand before it came tumbling to us. I looked behind us while we were organizing the mess of rope and Bang! A bolt of lighting hits some rock about 100 feet from us, the rain intensified, but only briefly before a magnificent rainbow appeared behind us.

A Picture Of Stress

The storm was breaking apart, and we had our rope free. We descended the rope two more times before arriving in the bowling alley below where we hiked back down to the trail. Hugs and high fives were exchanged. We snapped a few photos, and recounted the adventure for a few curious tourists. Feelings of happiness, accomplishment and dehydration surrounded us, but we looked up and knew that our goal had been completed.

The Team After The Climb

The one thing I took away from this experience more than anything was that bad circumstances do happen, and they can happen to anyone. Keeping cool and not giving up was a major part of keeping this climb and descent successful. Also, an early start is the key to not getting stormed on.

By Patrick Gensel

Photos: Patrick Gensel and Bill Urbanski