Multipitch climbing requires a little planning. Things like “how long is the route”, “where are the belay stations”, “how do we bail” are all things that should be reviwed and planned before hand. When the people you are climbing with are not experienced with multiplitch climbing, lead climbing, or even climbing outside, the planning should probably be a little more careful. Zach and I didn’t really do much planning on this trip. Certainly not enough looking back on it. We knew I would lead everything and he would be the last up. We knew Chenney would lead belay me, so she would always be second. We didn’t have a good plan for Gus, Rachel, and John. They would be in the middle. We had 3 ropes and we assumed we could tie one climber into the middle of each rope since the pitches were all short (expect for the approach pitch). I figured an efficient method of movement would work itself out during the day. And if it didn’t, it was no big deal because we had plenty of daylight to get the route done. I didn’t review the guidebook (I’ve done the Durrance route twice before). Gus, Rachel, and John had never multipitched before. Zach and I hadn’t rehearsed anything to get our system worked out. None of us had multipitched with more than 3 people. It was a learning experience for all us.
Chenney, John, and I rolled into the campsite about 2 a.m. Work had dictated a late 4 p.m. departure from Minneapolis, so this was expected. Our group had already decided that sleep was more important than the standard extra-early start for the route. So with out 9a.m. Texas-alpine start we were already in the sun on the approach. I led the approach pitch to Durrance with the gear and a 3L camelbak. I decided that being the strongest climber on a somewhat familiar route that was below my ability, I could handle the extra weight. At the top I bumped into a party on the broken column pitch. Once we got John set for top belay duty so that Chenney and I were free for the next pitch, that group was moving off the column onto the 3rd pitch. We didn’t see them again. I started up the broken column with our 4th climber (Rachel) already up the approach pitch. By plan we were already behind. Everyone was up the approach pitch by the time Chenney started up the column. Definitely behind plan. I thought since now we were climbing we’d get it together and get the flow moving. I’m definitely an optimist.
The broken column pitch went well. I took off on the Durrance crack as soon as John was up (just like the plan). Everyone climbed well on the column pitch. I was impressed. Squeezing, arm-barring, jamming, chimneying, everyone just figured it out. There were some hangs involved to figure things out and rest now and then. We had probably already done close to as many feet of climbing as our group usually does at the gym in a night. And it was only the second pitch of the day. And it was hot, close to 90 probably. And sunny.
The Durrance crack is supposed to be the crux pitch. It’s sustatined, vertical, an in the sun in our case. As I climbed and slowly moved through the 5.8 moves I wondered if everyone would make it through. The pitch is sustained and definitely not 5.8 gym climbing. I finished it (albeit with a tug on a cam due to a wrong turn) and set the belay. Chenney blazed up it in good style with a hang near the top. Next came John. I got John set to belay and Rachel started her way up. Chenney suffered through a mild bout of heat exhaustion (and probably mild dehydration by now) including naseau and “the world is spinning”. Good thing we’re always anchored in. She rallied and I set off on the next pitch. Our 4th pitch was linkable with the 3rd. It’s a wide squeeze crack about 20ft long. I pulled onto the next ledge and decided it was worth making it another belay spot. It was larger and more comfortable than the smaller ledge below. And the next pitch was obviously easier so I thought it would be good for everyone to struggle one more time and then cruise the rest. I thought the next (our 5th) pitch was the last one before the jump traverse. I was wrong. I quickly sent the 5th pitch only to find myself on another belay ledge looking at another 40ft of squeeze chimney. I had assured everything that after the Durrance crack the hard part was over. I apologized to everyone as they all saw the chimney and said something less than affectionate (directed at the crack) under their breath. I linked the easier 5th pitch with this final squeeze chimney. I was out of water (3 liters worth) and everyone was running low. It was about 5pm and we had been longer than anticipated already. We couldn’t afford the time of another belay stop. I got John, Chenney, and Rachel up the final squeeze chimney and proceeded to rig the jump traverse with an tensioned assist line, something for everyone to grab onto during the traverse. The jump traverse is a bit misleading because I’m not sure where you’d jump from. It’s easily bouldered around 5.9+, and well protected by an old piton. The tension line helped immensely and everyone was into the Meadows in short order.
I ripped the tension line down and joined the group on the far end of the Meadows and immediately reorganized for the final pitch (which ended up being 2 pitches because of our rope situation). We were all tired, thirsty, and hungry. The Meadows was a bail point but it seemed we were close and everyone was in good spirits to finish what we had started. By now we had our rope work figured out and everyone tied in and was ready to go quickly. I was dehydrated to the point of losing focus on the task at hand easily. But I was conscious of the problem and tried hard to stay in the moment and keep things moving, and keep the group safe. We topped near 8pm and spent a few minutes looking around, taking pictures, signing the registry and generally taking a breath. It wasn’t time to completely relax yet as we still had several rappels to the ground, and it was starting to get dark.
The rappels went smoothly. Zach and I had planned how to rappel. Zach and Chenney went ahead and single-rope rappelled. When they were both down, I’d untie their rope and throw it down. Then I’d string the standard 2 rope rappel through the anchors. We made it down in good time, all things considered. Gus and Rachel had learned to rappel only the weekend prior. John hadn’t rappelled in years. Everyone did really well. The final person touched down and the headlamps came on. It was dark. We were at our packs, and ropes were down. We had a 15 minute hike back to the car. We were nearly done.
13 hours later we were off of the Tower. 7 hours longer than planned. We had planned for a lazy afternoon drive to the Needles and then climbing then next day near Mt. Rushmore. It was too late to drive to the Needles. The communal vote was stay at the Tower one more night, but find showers and food (perhaps in that order). Sundance was the closest town that might have what we needed. We drove the 25 miles there to check. Everything looked closed. We stopped at a final gas tation near the Interstate to ask if anything was open. It turns out this place was a truck stop. They offered to make some frozen pizzas for us and they had showers (very clean and nice showers actually). It was serendipity. We cleaned up, ate pizza, and watched TV. Once clean and fed, we headed back to camp for the night.
Congratulations to the team for a huge accomplishment and toughing through a truly grueling day on the rock.
