A squat, bullet shaped spire with three distinct pillar "tines". It is detached from the end of a peninsula that separates the main canyon from a side-canyon that branches off to the west. The climb involves some poorly protected wide crack/chimney climbing and some very decomposed sections of rock.

Start out of the cool, narrow corridor that separates the tower from the cliffs on the north side of the tower.

P1- Chimney up between the tower and cliffs for a bit, following a wide crack on the tower itself. When the chimney becomes too wide, step over to the tower onto a shelf. Crank a hard, friable OW crux with a tipped out #6 Camalot for pro to a ledge. Chimney back into the center of the tower to a stance and 2 cold-shut anchor. The rock getting to this stance is very decomposed, be careful what you use. 5.10, 65'

P2- A fistcrack leads to a curving, smooth squeeze chimney with a drilled angle protecting the entrance. Wriggle up this strenuous squeeze for 30' or so with no further pro until a horizontal placement (#.75 Camalot) right before the exit. The rock in the chimney is the cleanest and best on the route. The chimney ends on a shoulder. Yard past a bolt and a drilled angle on the short, sandy headwall above to the summit; this stretch would go free, but would be difficult face climbing on gritty rock. 5.9+, A0, 65'.

Trident Tower--North Chimney

The Bluff Member--East Chimney aka Slotted Deep

Entrenched Meanderers

A free-standing, rather shapely tower that is only detached from the adjacent cliffs by 10' or so and blends against them from several vantages. It is perched at the mouth of the canyon, and is clearly visible from much of the stretch of 191 as it passes through Bluff. This is one of the only local towers with a viable weakness; the other prominent towers obvious from town would be predominantly bolt ladder affairs and have been left alone due to their visibility to the non-climbing public. Although this route fell at a moderate grade, it involves a somewhat convoluted approach requiring some logistical savvy, and some climbing over very soft rock and hollow features. It is best suited for true desert rats.

Follow the approach directions to a comfortable staging area (marked with modern "petroglyphs") below the north side of the tower. Some 4th class scrambling up a blocky cleft leads to the notch between the tower and the adjacent cliff and a two bolt belay anchor. From the notch, the belayer will lower the leader down the blocky chute to the south (facing town) for about 25' or so. The leader can then access the very sandy, narrow ledge that leads into the chimney system which splits the tower and begin climbing. Once the leader reaches the summit, do not pull up any rope right away. The belayer must rig a short rappel down to a stance below the chimney, where the leader can then pull up the rope and belay them up. We opted for this rather logistically complex approach, as the approach to the base of the south side of this notch requires much sketchy hiking and accessing the chimney from this side would require some very loose, sketchy climbing up the horrible Wanakah band of rock.

The entrance into the chimney is very sandy and has some blocky garbage to skirt around. Once in the security of the chimney, one can commence wriggling up the featured cleft. The first bolt is placed quite high to facilitate a decent rope-line since the leader will be belayed from the notch. However, the lower portion of the chimney is pretty mellow, albeit silty. After the bolt, there are several cracks throughout, which afford decent protection options. The chimney gets progressively less featured and more difficult, until you pop out at the notch between the lower (south) and higher (north) summits. The rock turns very soft at this notch, with some sizeable hollow loafs to treat gingerly or avoid. Clip two bolts and commit delicately to some large hollow features on the north summit. After a couple of tricky moves, the climbing rolls over onto the final slab and gets easier to the cool, flat summit. There is a register.

This beautiful splitter starts as tight hands, quickly yields perfect hands, and launches abruptly into never-ending, slightly overhung cups/tight fists with a slight off-set. Ends on a small ledge. The rock is pretty good for the Bluff Member, but has a slight grit to the crack which makes tape (I almost never tape in the desert) highly suggested.

A sustained line with physical climbing that will follow the desert mantra of hand-size dependent difficulty.

Shade until early afternoon.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Roundhouse Canyon