Climbing Devil’s Tower & The Wind Rivers Range
Climbers: Franck Greaux & Mike Palic
Like most climbing trips, I believe this one started over a pint or was it a bottle… Regardless of the beverage, it had the makings of an adventure, to which later we would add the word “epic”.
Days 1 & 2:
We left Chicago-land on a Friday evening with plans to drive to some place in either Minnesota or South Dakota for the night. We found a small motel about 11:00 p.m. The following morning I introduced Franck to one of the great American road-trip staples, Perkins. I described it to him as an “upscale Denny’s”. After our bellies were full of what most likely was bacon and eggs, we sent out west across the great state of South Dakota, one the longest and flattest states I’ve ever driven across. At about 2:00 p.m. we started to roll though the town of Sturgis. Even though it wasn’t the time of the infamous rally there was still leather and bikes everywhere.
♫ His eyes began to flash, He was leavin’ Rapid City mighty fast. ♫ - Dwight Yoakam
Yeehaw! We finally rolled on in to Wyoming with our first stop at Devils Towers.
About 4:00 p.m. we found a camp site close to Devils Tower, then headed on up to check out the Tower. While in the gravel lot, we met two other climbers up there from New Hampshire (and I thought we drove far…) who were racking up for a climb. Franck and I looked at each other and went… why not. We grabbed our gear, checked in with the ranger and hiked up to check out our main objective, the classic Durrence route, and our backup climb, El Crack Diablo. We racked up and managed to find the start of the Durrence route and get a couple pitches in. We rapped off and headed to the KOA Diner for some sandwiches and beer. (Call me crazy, but I swear the closer you get to Colorado the better Fat Tire tastes.)
Day 3:
The following morning we geared up and started up to the Durrence route, and to our surprise, we found no one… This climb is known for its lines to get up it, we lucked out. I think it was due to the predicted temperatures for the day, high of 95. We are used to climbing in the 90’s and sometimes even the 100’s down in Southern Illinois, so I don’t even think we thought about it. We just opted to leave a little extra water at the base for when we got back down.
♫ Rock 'n' roll, know what I'm saying and everywhere I look there's a Devil waiting ♫ - Beck
If I recall correctly, there are a total of six pitches on the topo including the 5.4 approach. The first pitch was the leaning column pitch. There is a “warning” down at the climbers check-in station that says the column can sometimes “wobble”, but I didn’t feel it move. I think it would take a lot to get this fourty five ton block to shift it, but I still didn’t put any pro in it; I stuck to using wall.
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Franck made good work of the second pitch, the Cussin’ Crack. The Cussin' Crack has a hand crack on one side and parallel to it an offwidth sized crack. Great climbing, though ones right ankle can get a bit cut up.
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I linked pitches three and four together and took a “fall” where my whole body cammed in the squeeze chimney. I say “fall” because it wasn’t a fall really, my feet slipped and I just happened to be as wide as the crack and boy did it take some cursing to get out of that predicament.
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Once you get to the “top” of the Durrence route there is an easy class three to the top. However… we took the more fun way, up a 100 foot squeeze chimney. We learned later that this is the Durrence Direct route. Franck wiggled his way up through the chimney.
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I was seconding with the pack, which made for much more creative climbing on this pitch. I would use face holds, when time came to clean a piece I would fanangle my way inside, clean the piece and the climb back out on the face.
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The summit was pretty um… well it was a stick in a pile of rocks that was swarming with bugs. We sighed the register, spent a few minutes taking pictures, waved to people down below (climbing this tower you feel like part of the attraction, sometimes fifty people would be looking up and pointing). Once we had our fill of the summit we rapped off.
While on the way back to the car, we where greeted by a number of people who asked the typical questions. What’s it like up there, how long did it take, are you guys mentally sane. Typical stuff. Later that evening we where heading westward towards the Wind Rivers…
♫ Goin' places that I've never been. Seein' things that I may never see again and I can't wait to get on the road again. ♫ - Willie Nelson
Day 4:
The drive to the Wind Rivers from Devils Tower was mostly on two lane highway though small towns. These are the kind of drives I love, not miles and miles of straight road with the odd truck stop but though small quirky towns with local diners and helpful people. We stopped in the small town of Ten Sleep Wyoming at a place called “The Crazy Woman” for some breakfast. I would highly recommend it if you’re on your way though Ten Sleep - population 304.
There are about thirty some miles of dirt road that you have to drive before you even get to Big Sandy’s Opening, the main trail head to the Cirque of the Towers.
I don’t know any other way to describe the trek in but, ten miles, up hill with fifty pound packs being eaten by mosquitoes.
While hiking over the Climber's Pass (this is lower than the normal “Jackass pass” that typically backpackers take) Franck put it all in to perspective. “Think of the climb as a painting and the approach as the frame, one is not complete without the other.”
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About 7:00 PM we got to what looked like a nice place to camp, at the base of the majestic Pingora and Wolfs Head. Once camp was set up, and most of the mosquitoes went to bed we cooked our first dinner of cous cous and pasta and passed out.
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Day 5:
We spend the following morning hiking, getting acclimated and finding the start of our two main objectives, the North-East face of Pingora 5.8 and Wolfs Head ridge 5.6. Pingora was mostly dry, but the approach route and decent of Wolfs Head was so wet it would have won a wet t-shirt contest.
Day 6:
After a hearty bowl of oatmeal, we geared up and went for the North-East face of Pingora. Even from our prime campsite, it was still about an hour approach to the rope-up ledge.
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After racking up, tying in and getting the pack set (which we had six liters of water, food, shoes and our second rope (next time I’m climbing with twin ropes)) , Franck set out on the “fun” and exposed 5.8 traverse.
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Falling here would have been taking a ride down the cheese grater ride at Disneyland (it’s a side ride on the pirate ship, just trust me on this one). Once past the traverse there where several pitches of great dihedral climbing.
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At pitch 5, I didn’t feel so good. I got to the belay station feeling dizzy and going to puke. I’m still not sure why, but I think it was a combination of altitude and lack of hydration, even though I had already drunk about 1.5 liters of water and consumed a few packs of Gu. After talking it out with Franck, we decided it would be best to bail off the climb before the situation got any worse.
Rappelling felt like it took hours; I must have checked the anchor and my ATC five times before each rappel because I knew I was feeling under the weather. Once we got to the bottom there was the long hike back to base camp. On the way, I tried shaking it off by humoring Franck with some easy bouldering and river rock hopping.
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Once back at base camp, I crashed in the tent and passed out for hours. It was just about dusk when I came to, by this time Franck had filtered me a few liters of water and started dinner. Still not feeling so well when dinner was finished cooking, Franck took it upon him self to make me eat. Having managed to stomach the cous cous, I took a shot at plain pasta. That was much harder to take down. Franck didn’t protest when I passed up our dessert of chocolate bars, because he swears he's made up of 40% chocolate.
At about 9:30 - 10:00 p.m. we saw two lights off in the distance coming down off Wolf’s head. The two reached our camp and we heard their tale of Wolfs Head and offered them some extra chocolate we had. This is when we learned that the approach and decent of Wolf’s head was very wet and very snowy. Later we decided not to attempt it and instead focus on the K cracks on Pingora.
♫ Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl ♫ - Bob Dylan
Day 7:
I awoke feeling much better, a good night sleep and plenty of fluid will do wonders for one's body. We geared up and headed up to the South Buttress of Pingora. On the way up we ran into another party going for the same route. It worked out well actually. We took a very direct way up. The other party pretty much stuck to the classic route. We unknowingly went on this fun looking 5.9 variation. It was about 140 feet of stemming and lay back, topped off with a huge flake/offwidth. We had a small snack on the ledge before the K Cracks and then Franck set on up. The crack system was the most fun I’ve had on a crack. We did the left variation and it got pretty thin near the top, but Franck kept as cool as a cucumber placing ball nuts and the smaller TCUs for pro.
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We made quick work of the class three scramble to the summit and then enjoyed the views. Wolf’s head looked very impressive in the backdrop, this large exposed razor backed beast, saying "climb me, I dare you." (Next time...)
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After a protein bar and lots of pictures, we said farewell to the summit of Pingora and rappelled off. Scrambling off Pingora's “toe” was pretty exciting. Don’t fall, or you’ll be rolling for a long long while…
Back at base camp we got the idea to start our ten mile trek out. I was feeling pretty good and we had reserved the following day (Friday) to hike out and start the drive home. We thought, hell, we could at least make Big Sandy Lake, the halfway point between the Cirque of the Towers and the trail head. We packed up, said farewell to our friends that we’ve made and started out.
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The next five miles of trail where Hell. Two hours later, almost 7:00 p.m. when we reached the lake, filled our water up and made the crazy decision to go for the trail head. The last half of the trail was relatively flat, but cover in mosquitoes, more than in the Cirque. We knew we were getting closer to the car, and I swear the bugs knew it too. We picked up the pace to almost a light jog. The sun was setting, and once at the car, we high tailed out of there.
The adventure wasn't over, we still had 36 miles of dirt back roads to drive, in the dark. Wild life was everywhere as was live stock. The cows refused to clear a path and one even bumped the front of the car. Finally... paved road. We found a Flying-J and a motel near I-80 around midnight and had some food. The following morning, back to Chicago.
♫ Baby dont you wanna go back to that same old place, sweet home Chicago ♫
