History:

Circa 1998, local GJ climbers, Joel Arellano, and I had set out to climb

Get a Life

. Without sufficient location beta, we found ourselves bailing off of a dead end line 100 feet left of

GaL

and having wasted most of the day. We wandered around and eventually did find

Get a Life

. While

GaL

is an impressive line, we became more attracted to the unclimbed fat crack to its right. Big Camalots had just recently been released, so we each vowed to throw down some $ and return with a proper rack.

Life got in the way, and I ended up back there with Pete Clark a year or so later, packs bulging with fat cams. We made the 45 minute hike from the Coke Ovens trailhead and proceeded to climb  the first pitch. 15' of loose, fingers thru hands lead to 80' of blue collar, hand-fist stacking and 4.5" OW corner groveling. This went at ~5.11c and was a great start.

As I pulled over onto an obvious belay ledge, I was surprised to see anchors already in place (head scratch)! The second pitch is ~ 60', went at about 5.10b/c, more wide crack but substantially easier, and . . . ended at another set of belay anchors! I was quite puzzled and a little bit peeved at this point. As any experienced desert climber could tell, we had just ascended 150' of virgin rock: teetering rock piles atop 'must use' edges, flakes that break with a flick, loose but easily trundled blocks

in

the line, zero chalk, etc. How could it be?

Continuing, now at what would become the crux third pitch, an awkward and puckering escape from an overhanging bombay pod required a fixed pin to control the run of the rope from edges, and so it was. From here, we bailed for the day, exhausted and confused, and hiked out.

Our next attempt, we used the top down approach using a 20 foot 2x6 bridge :), and rapped down the tower finding one more anchor on the line.  We repeated the lower pitches and sent the crux (5.11+ OW, sustained), continuing up the crack 60'. The fourth pitch, absolutely stunning, is a left-leaning, stepped, and overhanging 4.5" OW for 70'  joining

GaL

at a big ledge. The last pitch - which I agree is scary and a bit dangerous - went down, and we celebrated on top.

Almost forgetting, we looked for a summit register and found a message from other climbers admonishing us for adding protection to an ‘existing’ line. Someone had been on it since our first ground up attempt! 'BS' we said, no one had actually climbed the route before our ascent, free or aid. In our opinion, it didn’t exist yet as it had not been ascended.

We later confirmed it as such over beers in GJ with one of the other climbing party. As it ended up, the other suitors had (smartly) established the belays from the top down, prepping for a more efficient ascent; we just happened to get there first for an actual ascent. The line (4th pitch) was featured as the cover of a 2000s era climbing magazine, John Thesenga climbing and naming the route Wide Load, 5.11+.

Pete and I had agreed on calling it 'Industrial Strength' before making it to the summit. So there it is, a slightly controversial origin story for what I say is the best OW tower route anywhere. P1, 3 & 4 are each 5 star OW pitches that

never

feel easy. The crux is brilliant and unforgettable (and nicely protected). There's even the scary last pitch to remind you that you were on a tower, in The Monument. It faces South, it's a great late fall/winter/early spring route. For an aspiring desert rat, it's a great annual fitness test; blue collar climbing with exposure, spice and consistency.

Wide Load AKA Industrial Strength

Monolith Spire - Dewar Dihedral

Pharaoh Point - Chimney Wide

Big Foot

Higher Mind Dynamics

Wizard I

Friends Can't Be Trusted

Route  4

Left Dihedral aka Dihedral  1 aka First Dihedral

Wide Load aka Route  3

It Ain't Over Til It's Loose

Unknown Tower - Northwest Face

Euro Route

Snake Eyes

Pina Colada

Carter Route

Wingate Warrior

Crispy Corner

Desert Solitaire

Circle, Square, and the Triangle

Route  2

Da Nada

Get A Life

Luhr's Route aka Right Dihedral

Short Route

Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire

Elephant Head

Mormon Tea

Big Bertha

Egypt Rock - The Revolution Will Not be Televised

Climbers frequently become obsessed with their new route projects.  Be it a Flatirons boulder problem, a sport route in Clear Creek, or, as in this case, a multi-pitch desert spire, sometimes the climb will get the better of the climber.

Such was the case with Get A Life, one of the finest climbs in the desert region.  Bret Ruckman, one of the many unsung talents in Colorado (and Utah) climbing, discovered this imposing crack line on an obscure pillar in upper Monument Canyon, and became...obsessed.  With Fred Knapp he established the route as a five-pitch 5.11 A0.  Continuous crack pitches, some funky rock (but excellent climbing), a killer line, a short stretch of clean aid, and an exciting face climbing finale, all added up to a great desert routes. Now if only it would go free...

Ironically, the hardest climbing is only 15 feet long, but in that short distance much humble pie can be consumed.  After a number of attempts spread out over many months, Bret finally succeeded in leading the crux pitch in excellent style.  Finally he could resume a life back to normal.

Get a Life is located on the appropriately named Clueless Tower, 45 minutes down the trail from the Coke Bottles/Upper Monument trailhead on Rimrock Drive.  As you descend the Wingate cliffs, past some steep switchbacks, you will soon see a detached pillar on your left.  Upon closer inspection, a dramatic crack line will emerge from the red rock walls.  Just to the right of this line is an imposing wide crack line (Wide Load, 5.11+, FFA either Pat Adams and Jonathan Thesunga, or party unknown). Rumor has it some climbers approached the route from the rim using an aluminum extension ladder to cross the gap, then rappelled the route.  One can also rap from the rim a short distance in the gap, summit, then rap the route to start.

Pitch 1: Climb to a left-facing corner, placing every last #2 Friend you brought.  Excellent 5.11-. Belay in an awkward pod.

Pitch 2: Continue up the corner system to a 2-bolt anchor.

Pitch 3: Climb the tight finger crack (TCUs) past a hanging right-facing corner that is perfect off-fingers.  Desperate.  If you succeed in getting your feet into the corner then it's only another 10 feet of struggle to reach the belay.  A short, full-value pitch of climbing.

Pitch 4: Up less-than-perfect rock, nice crack climbing, but funky, then up to a nice ledge.

Pitch 5: Face climb on excellent stone past 2 bolts, then move left and up easier (but still exciting) rock to the proud summit. 5.11- PG-13.

Rappel the route with double ropes.

The route gets full sun, and is best done in autumn through spring. Straightforward clean aid on the short 5.12 pitch will yield a worthwhile 5.11 A0 ascent. Be prepared to have a wonderful rock climbing experience!

P1. Start up the giant dihedral on the left side of the catcher's mitt.  Climb a super fun hands to wide hands to fist crack past an anchor to a second anchor. When I climbed this, the anchor on top of pitch one was less than inspiring, but can be backed up with gear. (5.10, 130')  Per

Alex Garhart

: it is now two bolts and a drilled angle.

This is the end of the route Dewar Dihedral but we continued to the summit via 'As Above So Below'.

P2. Traverse straight right off the belay past a thin crack, continue up and right over manky rock to a offwidth crack and join up with 'As Above So Below.'  Climb the 5.9 ow to a large ledge and anchors (5.9, 60').

P3. Face climb a bolted arete to the bird crap covered summit (5.10+, 70').

Descent - rappel from the summit to the top of pitch 2. Then rappel off the back side of the tower to the ground.

The F.A. of 'As Above So Below' was done by - KC Baum, Andrea Heath, Peter Hollis, and Chris Monz in April 1989.

This is a clean aid/free version of a maximum adventure route in The Monument done in 1960 by the greats. It has mostly good rock with the occasional Monument funkage, an amazingly long chimney, and an exciting final pitch which leads to a small, prominent summit.

Start on the north side below the enormous chimney.

P1. Climb thin C1 up to ledge following old pins, traverse left here from original line to wide crack that takes a 6 at the base, then place 4s and 5s,

and get good free climbing (5.9+). This goes up an easy chimney to a 2 bolt anchor.

P2. Do a quick chimney/canyoneering pitch to the start of P3.

P3. Chimney upward (5.9) plugging TONS of thin gear into crack system on the Pharaoh side. It gets wider and wider. Stemming is possible until you finally have to move to crack and start aiding. Two short sections of C2 lead up to spot where a belay can be set up with 2 #3s.

P4. Plug in a super extended piece up a bit higher to avoid a shitty fall, then friction traverse (5.7) right on small feet over to an old, drilled ring piton, rejoining the original aid line. From here, easy runout climbing on junk rock leads to a nice hand-finger crack which you can aid to the top, then a mantel or clip the anchor and pull up to the summit.

Climb an overhanging hand and fist crack in a flake until it converges with a finger splitter to the left.  Continue up via hands into a flaring squeeze and finish with good hands to the anchor.

Steep slab climbing on solid rock.  There are two distinct cruxes, one at the first steep bulge, and another in some white sandy rock below the second steep bulge.

The rock here is really solid and less sandy than in other parts of the monument.

Great climb with a bit of everything. Thin fingers in a corner seemed to be the crux. Great rests all through it.

Friends Can't Be Trusted is a consistent, technical, thin face climb. It is less than vertical the entire way. Most climbers will find the crux to come about half way up the route, at a distinct bulge. Unlike the two bolted routes to the right of it; Friends Can't Be Trusted does not have any chipped holds (that the author is aware of).

The route ascends parallel cracks, an offset hand/fist splitter and a finger crack in a corner. The climbing is very 3-dimensional and there are several good rests.  A great top rope variation ascends the splitter thin hands to small fingers crack through a body length pod left of the main route (5.11).

This is the right-facing dihedral at the Side Areas at area 1.  A clean finger and hand crack crack offers good jams up the ramp to the chains.  This route's first pitch and the other dihedral are good warmups for getting used to the sandstone in the area.

Pitch one goes at ~5.8+.

P2: per ??: The second pitch goes free at about 11+/12-.

At the Side Areas, area 2, is this nice route.  Just left of the thin crack with a fixed pin, start up the finger crack corner.  The crack keeps getting larger in size from thin hands to offwidth.  The knee jam seems to work alright here, although painful.  Thrutch your way up the wide crack, then continue through a squeeze chimney up to a ledge with a fixed anchor.

Submitted subsequently by

Tony B

: To find this route, pass the popular Lower wall on the Monument Trail with the route "Dihedral #1" and go to the next significant prow on the same side of the canyon. [This] huge prow has a large protruding buttress with a clean dihedral high on the wall (part of the aid route "Binge"), making it easy to identify. On the left side of this prow there is a left-facing dihedral that pops up above a small roof to a slot. The bottom of the climb is fun and mostly easy-going. There is a crux at [the] bulge/roof, [and] then some runout easy climbing to the anchors. A few cams would go in up high if you take a few larger ones that high on the route. All in all, it was fun, but the sandy top of the route detracts from the lower half. Still fun, still worth doing....

Just north of Independence Monument is a buttress with a ledge system about a pitch up.  There are clearly other routes here that have been climbed.  There is potential for upper pitches here.

This line follow a crack system that goes up to the right side of this ledge area.  Follow the crack to a great rest about a third of a rope up.  Upper section is stiffer.  On the first ascent there was a good looking flake (name inspiration for the climb) that became an IFO making the traverse more solid.  About 2/3 of a rope.

The ledge system has a decent tree at left edge for a double rope rappel.  Slings and rings left.

This is one of the originals.  Mediocre climbing at best is made up for by an adventurous experience, a remote setting, and sweet views of the entire Momument Canyon.

P1:  Climb a short pitch through the Chinle and up through a lieback (cruxy) to a bolted belay. 5.9.

P2: Climb this long pitch up through wondering wide terrain exiting a 5.9 squeeze (crux) and onto the ledge before the summit caprock.

P3: Climb a scary sequence off the belay to the summit.  This is not worth it in my opinion.  C1.

Double 70m ropes will get you to the ground with rope streach.  Watch the pull as we got our ropes severly hung up when they fell.  Better maybe to rap to the bench at the base of Pharoah Point and third class it to the base.

For some reason there are bolts on the route that has a perfect crack going up the corner system. It is unknown who put this up, but the bolts look newer than before the bolt ban....

Start low with both your hands on the flake of the face. Throw to either side, and top out. It is short but fun. It definitely helps to have a longer wingspan on this!

As with anything in the park, don't climb when the rock is wet.

Start with your right hand on the arete and your left hand in a upside-down hueco thing. Move up the face using the rail and various crimps.

As always, do not climb when the rock is wet.

There is no downclimb: I just hopped down to a pad.

This is an inviting looking, right-angling crack that is just left of Dihedral #1 or "Left Dihedral" in this website guide.  Well, it invites, but it doesn't delight.  It is loose.  If you have to, you have to.  There is a rappel point at 100 feet up that is less than inspiring.  There is a 2 bolt anchor above.  I wouldn't get that curious.

Fantastic face climbing with a very distinct crux about 1/3 of the way up, just below a flake.  Crank through the crux on small holds and then it's smooth sailing to the anchors.

Start on the low shelf, and stay in the corner to top out.

Access this stellar route via the Lower Independence Monument trail. The route is located 400 yards up trail from Monolith Spire and 1/4 mile before Independence Monument. Look right for the beautiful lightning bolt splitter 2 pitches up with a left-angling, 4th class ramp leading to it. Approach via drainage after trail passes in between two large boulders. This route is south-facing and very sunny.

P1. Crux pitch. Locate a beautiful left-facing Wingate corner that leads to a left-arcing hand crack. 110 feet of the best the Monument has to offer leads to a perfect 3 bolt anchor with chains, 11a.

P2. Choose your own adventure. Either coil yer ropes and traverse around right or climb interesting 5.6+ choss straight up. Either way requires some 3rd class junk.

P3. Choose a better adventure. Now you have the choice between splitter hands via the lightning bolt crack or another perfect Wingate corner. Bolts with chains at top of corner, 5.10ish, 55 feet.

P4. Climb excellent fingers straight up from the chains with a few interesting aid moves to a new bolt. Belay in a cool pod thing from bolts, 10a C1, 60 feet.

P5. Continue up the crack fingers to excellent tight hands to a large belay ledge with a fixed anchor, 11a, 60 feet.

P6. Climb one of the cracks off the ledge into a chimney below a block. Continue through roof with hands to a 2 bolt anchor, 5.9, 60 feet. Rap from here.

Descent:

One 60m rope will get you off in 2 raps with a 4 class downclimb. A 65m would be better. A note on combining pitches: pitches 3 and 4 can easily be done together with the standard rack. Combining pitches 4 and 5 would require extra small cams. If you don't have a bunch of time, pitches 1 and 2 are sooo good.

Enjoy! Aaron and Eric

This is a inviting looking bolt line just right of the ??/

Luhr's Route aka Right Dihedral

.  It shares the same start.  It is slopey, slabby, face climbing with modern bolts.  With traffic, this route will change.  It has a 3 bolt anchor and a 160 foot rappel.  You might reach the belay of ??/

Luhr's Route aka Right Dihedral

.  This route seems out of place in the desert.

Addendum:

I included the guidebook rating for the route.  It felt a touch stiff to an average climber.

The crux is between the two homemade hangers and inserting yourself in the squeeze. It has great rock. The giant, wedged block on top is a little scary.

Pitch 1: The crux is 30 feet off the ground where you have to face some blown out piton scars. Bad gear and a fall might end you up on the talus. This goes clean, do not bring a hammer, there is already enough rock damage. Once you high step the last pecker scar trend right with the giant flake and make a semi free move to gain a rotten crack that widens to #5/6. Be careful of the block below the anchors as it is detached.

Pitch 2: is C1-ish through a roof and up a flare to belay anchors.

Pitch 3: was short and solid to a natural anchor on the right side of a good ledge. Probably C1+ on the FA but I thought it would go free at 10ish. Anybody know?

Pitch 4: was no fun with some big loose blocks stacked in the back of the chimney. It was getting pretty dark and we may have missed an easier way to get up. 5.9 moves and a lot of 4th class/ easy 5th class and a couple aid moved because Im a chicken when its dark.

Descent: walked off toward town. Stay high on the rock until the last bit. We scrambled down to soon (to the west) and had to do a bunch of unnecessary bushwhacking.

This is the left-facing dihedral in Area 1 of the Side Areas.  Decent climbing, but not the best rock.  Start on a sport route and face climb past three bolts, only clipping the last two with 24" runners to give some pro for the first 20 feet.  Then move into the dihedral and make some awkward moves to get going.  Watch out for some loose blocks here.  The rest of the climb is nice with good liebacking to the anchors.  The technical crux is using some crimps past the bolts, but the awkward move in the dihedral is kinda hard, too.

Per

Troy from Tooele

: This route is located about 12 feet left of "

Circle Square and the Triangle

."  I would admit that this route is much easier than it looks.  Clip the starting bolts, long runner the last one before the crack, then enjoy the giant left arch.  Clip a bomber chain anchor and lower. One rope will get you to the deck.  Pretty clean, with a cool ledge to sit and have a smoke on about 50' up.  Enjoy!!!

Eds.

This was entered twice into the database.  Now we've combined the 2 entries under the first entry.

Enter a pod off the ground and climb hands to wide hands out of the pod to a two bolt anchor.

Covered in Eric Bjorstad's book, I stumbled upon this climb.  It is about 1/4" up (west) of the concentration of slab routes lower in the canyon.

Ascend a delightful finger crack to a ledge.  This crack faces east.  Above the crack clip a few bolts then move up and left into a corner.  Another clip and one or two pieces of gear will get you to a ledge with a two bolt anchor.  This route is surprisingly good.  Except for a sugary section halfway up, the route is quite clean.  With more travel, it'll get even cleaner.  There are two slab moves.

I personally felt this to be better than

Carter's 5.8 dihedral

and

Luhrs Route

.

We climbed 2 different routes, and found them to be challenging yet not overwhelming. There is something for all us novices to work on; convex face, dimpled face, finger and hand crack, 1-4 inch ledges, etc.

See the photos: press onto a 3 inch ledge (#1) and work along it and some toe cracks to a finger and hand crack on the left (#2).Climb the crack to another small ledge and work right on the convex wall to a bolt hanger (#3). Or power over the dimpled face with smooth 1 finger pockets and toe smears to the hanger (#3). Continue up and right to the top of the elephants head (#4). From here, it is finger holds and toe smears up and left to the second bolt hanger (#5) then an easy scramble up to the top (#6).

What appears to be a nice moderate warm-up will likely leave you disappointed. At the base, stay near right-leaning crack and climb on subpar rock to ledge. Eventually work left and up to left-facing dihedral with flaring crack and hand-sized pods. After protecting (PG-13),

grunt

your way by whatever means around bulge to gain easier ground and bushwhack to belay ledge with tree. (The sandy nature of the rock - footwork -  makes getting around the awkward bulge much harder than expected.)

If you

must

climb this route, I recommend walking off. Near the top lip of the route, you will see numerous deep rope gauges and gullies in the soft rock just below the anchor tree. These ruts, plus the

un-rap-friendly

nature of the tree & retrieval angle, will cause your rope to become nightmarishly stuck!...which of course, leads to the requisite tantrums and swearing! ;-)      Save yourself the hassle and just walk off.

The easiest way to find this route is to hike until the "Monolith Spire" is in view. This looks like a 70 meter tall skyward-pointed hand almost touching the canyon wall. Only the index finger of the "hand" is extended on the left side. There is no thumb and the other fingers are there only to the middle knuckle. With this image in mind, and scanning the south-facing wall on the way in on monument trail, it would be impossible to miss.  From the trail, look left of the monolith spire to a huge chimney that goes from the gound to the rim of the canyon. Perhaps only 5 meters right of this is the base of Big Bertha. To approach it, walk up the slope to the climb.

Start climbing on fingers in the left-facing corner and continue up the progressively widening crack until it becomes more of a slot than crack.  The beta is simple- if it gets too hard, turn around and face the other way.  Repeat as many times as necessary.

To descend, rap from anchors to the left of the top of the climb, more or less at the mouth of the chimney. A 70m rope was nice. A single 60m might make it. The bad webbing on the 2 good bolts at this anchor was replaced and re-enforced (2005) - it should someday be replaced with chain, but I did not have any with me.  Be prepared to work on anchors like this at any time.

I wasn't going to post this, but in reality it was pretty good and eventually will probably become a Momument classic. So, here it goes. This is a free variation to the original Gary Ziegler, Bob Doan, and Gary Boucher's 1961 aid line of the true Egypt Rock.

It took some cleaning, but overall it is of great quality for the grade. I would put this Monument adventure right up there with

Lizards and Scorpions

,

Fast Draw

, and the

Kor Route

on Kissing Couple.

Approach this five headed monster from the south. Bring some binoculars so you can eyeball up the route. You are climbing a crack system on the South Face.

P1. From the South, bushwhack up the chinmey separating the tower from the rim till you are at a stance 30 feet below a lone scraggly bramble of some kind. This belay put you directly in the bullseye for anything that comes down, so climb with caution. 30 feet of chossaneering leads to steeper and better rock on the right wall. Finally make a committing move right to gain a big ledge system.

70', 5.8.

P2. Find the line of weekness, and run out the slab 50' horizontally to the right. There is no pro, if you fall here you are going to get hurt for the second or the leader. 50', 5.6.

P3. You are now at the base of a great pitch, & I won't spoil it for you, but follow the line of least resistance up and left of the original aid line passing many ancient relics. Once at the anchor, short rope 20' to the huge platform below the five summit caps.

160'+/-, 5.10.

P4. Take your pick, there are no anchors on any of them. Figure out how to get down w/o making a mess (of the rock or yourself). 15', 5.8.

Rappel from 2 solid stations back to

terra firma

.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Monument Canyon