The route
Standing Rock is a desert tower in South-West Utah, located in Monument Basin within the
Island in the Sky area of the Canyonlands national park. More than any other in the US (except perhaps the restricted-to-climbers
Totem Pole), Standing Rock exemplifies the classic desert tower shape: an implausibly-tall and slender 130m column.
The
Regular Route was first climbed by the legendary team, Layton Kor and Huntley Ingalls, in the 1960s. It is de rigeur to repeat Layton's quote about Standing Rock in any account of climbing the tower: "
We climb it not because it’s there, but because it won’t be there much longer.” Ironically it is still there, 50+ years later.
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| Standing Rock from Monument Basin rim |
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| Standing Rock middle distance |
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| Standing Rock - close-up |
The context
In autumn 2000, Dan Donovan and I travelled to the US for a two week "holiday" attempting desert towers. Remarkably, nine were summited (full list below)
and we managed cragging days in Eldorado Canyon, Maple Canyon and Indian Creek. Most of the credit belongs to Dan who was in excellent shape. In contrast, my trad skills were rusty and in the twelve months leading up to the trip had barely climbed at all (Leo was born in February 2000). We were lucky with conditions, experiencing mostly dry mild days. The word "desert" in desert towers suggests somewhere reliably arid but on a
subsequent visit to the area in the same autumn season it was cold, windy and rained quite frequently.
We flew in and out of Denver, renting a vehicle at the airport. We lucked out by scoring an SUV - Ford Explorer - for a small supplement to the basic rate we had booked. In fact, having a vehicle with reasonable clearance proved essential for some of our objectives. We also discovered that it was roomy enough to sleep in the back and and took advantage of this on several nights.
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| Dan getting beta from Andy Donson in Boulder before we drove west |
My diary notes from the trip describe Standing Rock as "probably the most exciting climb I have ever done". I am not sure if that is still true, but it was certainly the highlight of the trip, and the most committing of the towers we attempted. Even getting close to Standing Rock is an adventure. The Island in the Sky national park is a curious upside-down place, a large mesa surrounded by multiple tiers of eroded sandstone of different varieties delimited by the Green and Colorado rivers. The top layer is Wingate sandstone, forming fairly solid cliffs, in places eroded into towers like the Monster, Washer Woman or Moses. Below this is a terraced flat area of white rock - the White Rim - encircling the whole mesa. Below this again is a layer of the much chossier Cutler sandstone, which in one location is eroded into the Monument Basin, containing Standing Rock and other surreal features. Even the base of the Monument Basin is still well above the level of the nearby Colorado River, with yet another cliff tier in between.
In 2000 access to the White Rim required a mandatory ranger briefing at the Island in the Sky park office, and as far as I recall, some kind of permit application. Then we drove down to the White Rim trail and tortured the Explorer's suspension along fifty kilometres of stone-and-dirt track to our destination. Looking into the Basin from the rim that evening intimidated me. Standing Rock appeared dauntingly tall and slender and getting in and out of the basin clearly added to the challenge. I guess that anyone venturing that way now for the first time will come pre-armed with numerous trip reports from the web, but we just had a basic guidebook description. If we were to have an accident on the tower, getting any assistance appeared impossible. We had barely seen anyone else on the road. I was a new father with responsibilities; what the hell was I doing? I slept poorly that night.
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Looking into Monument Basin
Standing Rock is not the prominent tower just left of centre - it is more distant and further left |
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| Monument Basin rim rock weirdness |
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| Camping in the Explorer near the White Rim trail |
In the morning we made the discouraging discovery that we had left a light switched on in the car and drained the battery, raising the risk that we might be stuck in that remote spot for several days at least. However, about a mile away we could just see another group - mountain bikers with a support vehicle - starting to pack up their camp. After weighing our various unsatisfactory options, we decided to run in their direction in the hope of intercepting them before they left. Thankfully this worked and they had jump-leads. More of the day was then lost to idling the engine to recharge the battery.
Descending into the basin required a short steep rappel. We left the rope in place with stashed ascenders, stumbled down some talus then then set off across the silent basin toward our tower. The floor of Monument Basin is almost wholly
cryptobiotic soil: a living though dormant crust of lichen, moss and bacteria structured like a tiny fractal version of the towers and cliff rim around us. The ranger had spoken sternly about not disturbing the crust, without which the basin would be a dust bowl. We did our best.
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| Cryptobiotic soil, Monument Basin |
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| Dan chilling in Monument Basin |
The ascent
At the base of the tower, we took a break for a while. Dan happily puttered off somewhere to explore. My anxiety had escalated into an irrational certainty that I was going to die, not least as I had committed to leading the unstable-looking 5.10 first pitch. While sure that Dan wasn't watching, I recorded a short video message to Leo on my new digital camera apologising for dying plus some other platitudes that I no longer recall. (That the camera would somehow make it back home from Utah in the event of my death seems a major assumption in hindsight.)
As often happens in rock climbing, once engaged in leading the opening pitch, up a corner system, I felt much better. The rock was more stable than it looked and protection acceptable. The style felt recognisably similar to choss I had negotiated in the UK. At the end of the pitch there is a cruxy and exposed traverse rightwards out of the corner to a belay stance. Very exciting but still fine.
Dan then romped up a long 5.10+ crack pitch above. I followed this OK though it was strenuous. Pitch three is weird, and judging from more recent trip reports, may have got weirder. Dan led again. I remember a hard crux move (5.11?) and a very hollow flake on a steep bulge. I believe I managed it free but won't swear to that. The diary is silent on this detail. I led again on the top pitch, which spirals around the tower some more, out of sight from the belayer. Though easy (5.8 or 5.9?), it was runout, lonely and exposed enough to be intensely memorable.
On the summit we found an ascent register. Satisfactorily, it appeared from the spaced ascent dates that the tower was still rarely climbed. Then we rappelled, tiptoed back through the cryptobiotic crust and re-ascended our fixed rope to the rim. Dan, at that time a qualified vertical access worker, howled with laughter at my incompetent technique, especially when I got significantly stuck trying to pass a bulge.
The next day I assumed we would rest. Dan instead pointed out the relative proximity of the
Washer Woman, and insisted that we thrashed six pitches up that - the diary records that I led nothing - and back down its
somewhat notorious "arch" rappel. Washer Woman shares a col with the self-descriptive
Monster Tower. Inevitably Dan then suggested that we bagged that too; I rebelled and we retreated to Moab for showers and beer.
Subsequent ascents
I have not been back to Monument Basin.
The tower ticklist
- Fine Jade, The Rectory
- Kor/ Ingalls, Castleton Tower
- Stolen Chimney, Ancient Art
- The Cobra (RIP)
- West Crack, Owl Rock [Dan only: he soloed while I took photos]
- Regular Route, Standing Rock
- In Search of Suds, Washerwoman
- Primrose Dihedrals, Moses
- Learning to Crawl, Thumbelina
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| Me on the Cobra |
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| Dan on Owl Rock |
