Fang Spire, East Temple IV 5.9 C3

Zion National Park, Utah, USA

Currently 0.0/5

Avg time to climb route: 1 day

Approach time: 1 hour

Descent time: 1-2 hours

Number of pitches: 6

Height of route: 600'

Overview

FA: John Middendorf and Kyle Copeland, 5/22/88.

One of the finest Zion towers. The route up the south face is challenging. Expect to make exciting free moves out of your stirrups and use most of the tricks in your bag to climb this one. Pitch 2 goes through some stacked loose and dangerous rock as with most tower formations found throughout the desert. It’s recommended that parties do not choose this route as one of their first forays onto Zion aid climbing terrain. Climbing to the summit of the Fang in a day is an attainable goal for many. However, due to the intricate nature of the some of the climbing, most parties opt to fix and fire.

Rack: 3 ea .33- 1”, 2 ea 1.25- 3.5”, 1 ea 4”, 2 ea micro nuts, nuts, small tri-cams, 2 ea hooks, 2 ropes (60m helpful).

Descent: do two rappels from the summit to the belay above the huge exposed roof. Rappel down over the roof to the vegetated ledge 165 feet. Down climb and located a bolted rappel station above a bolted splitter offwidth. One more rappel brings you to the ground.

Climber Beta on Fang Spire