On our last day in Utah, we decided we had to end the trip on a classic tower climb! Castleton sounded like the best tower route. We knew it’d be busy, so we got to the trailhead at 6:30 AM (dusk was at 7:15 AM), but despite that, there were already groups over 2/3rds of the way up the trail!

We booked it out of the car, hiking by 6:40 AM, and passed one group on the trail. It took us 50 minutes at a brisk pace, and luckily we were the first ones going for North Chimney! The trail was pretty good. It continues around the left (West) side of the tower to the North ridge before ascending to the base. Some brief class 4 scrambling to get to the base of the route. Check out an awesome 3D view of the tower and climbing routes at Climb Assist!

Pitch 1 – 5.9+, 165′

A very challenging start with thin hands and feet (we both aided on a piece to get off the ground). Then, there’s endless cracks and steaming options, #3 cam was the most used but I only ended up using two #3’s. There was a second crux about 15ft below the chains at a pumpy bulge. Good gear options though. This pitch ends on a slightly cramped ledge with a bolt anchor (2 people can fit here, max).

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Pitch 2 – 5.9+, 145′

The start of this one was definitely cause for contemplation. The spinning bolt is about 15ft above, a #5 fits when you get level with the bolt. A #6 would have been worth bringing to protect the start. It was a tricky move on slick calcite feet. The pitch get easier after this, a few bulges throughout with the hardest bulge near the end of the pitch which had a mix of stemming and committing to a reach to get to the jugs in the back. This pitch ends on a slightly roomier ledge with 2 pitons, it was nice to back it up with a #2 and #.4.

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Pitch 3+4 – 5.9, 145′

45 meters combined. Definitely recommend linking these pitches, belaying are the notch at the end of pitch 3 would be hard, no great place to belay. The crux of this pitch was again right at the start. Calcite walls and cracks made for slippery climbing. After this it’s a cruiser. The step across to the right was easy, protection is sparse but climbing is easy on blocky terrain. The climbing ends on some fun face moves (5.8?) that angles slightly to the left. Pitch 4 ends on a really nice ledge about 5 ft bellow the summit with a nice bolted anchor, easy scrambling to get to the large flat summit.

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Summit

Descent

We rapped the North Face in 4 rappels with a 70m. This all went pretty smoothly, little challenging with people climbing this route but rappelling any of the other routes seemed like a recipe for a stuck rope (on the North Chimney route we did see a section of rope that had gotten stuck in a crack and had to cut). Rappelling this route gets you back very close to your shoes and packs.

Notes:

-Communication was pretty good, the last pitch was a little challenging to hear
– Sun hits the first pitch at sunrise, the rest of the pitches were shady
-Bring at least 7 alpine slings (wouldn’t have minded 8)
– Having a backpack on pitch 2 was a bit annoying
– Very busy peak, we got to the base at 7:30a and we’re first on the route, there was already people starting up Kor-Ingalls as we hiked in. By the time we finished the first pitch there were at least 3 groups waiting and we kept seeing more arriving, Kor-Ingalls was just (if not more busy). Seemed like most people started hiking at sunrise. There were still 3 groups waiting to start climbing when we rappelled.
– Expect lots of bird poo
– Rock quality was better than expected, a number of rocks had X’s on them but overall felt pretty solid.
– 3D view of tower and climbing routes: https://www.climbassist.com/crags/castleton-tower-xkwugernvm

6:40 Started hiking
7:30 Base
~8:00 Climbing
10:50 summit
12:30 Base