Trip Report
Durrance TR

by the museum
Sunday September 14, 2008 11:03pm
  Trip Report Views: 1,561
the museum 		About the Author
the museum is a trad climber from Rapid City.

Comments
BriGuy

climber
black hills, south dakota
  Sep 14, 2008 - 11:05pm PT
Nice TR, brings back memories of the route.
Daphne

Trad climber
Northern California
  Sep 14, 2008 - 11:21pm PT
yay! Thanks for an actual trip report! Cool!
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
  Sep 15, 2008 - 12:36am PT
you guys definitely rock!
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
  Sep 15, 2008 - 12:42am PT
A classic time
on a classic climb!
Thanks
snakefoot

climber
Nor Cal
  Sep 15, 2008 - 01:56am PT
bump, nice work as usual...................
Captain...or Skully

climber
Boise, ID
  Sep 15, 2008 - 07:51am PT
Good shtuff.....
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
  Sep 15, 2008 - 07:58am PT
Nice report--it looks like you had the tower to yourself!
steelmnkey

climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
  Sep 15, 2008 - 09:43am PT
We did the same thing on August 19th. Nothing like a classic intro to a very cool formation. The best part was my wife swearing like a sailor while leading the pitch above the Durrance Crack. Took me a minute to put together it was the Cussin' Crack. :-)

Some different photo angles...
Zander

climber
  Sep 15, 2008 - 10:49am PT
Great TR Mr. Museum!
Nice pics. Thanks.
Zander
malabarista

Trad climber
Portland, OR
  Sep 15, 2008 - 11:27am PT
Hardest "5.6" I've ever done. Nice shots!
Tork

climber
Yosemite
  Sep 15, 2008 - 12:12pm PT
The Tower, Nice!

I enjoyed that route.


Hand jammies????

Nice job!

Jeff
Dick_Lugar

Trad climber
Casper the Friendly Ghost Town!
  Sep 15, 2008 - 02:37pm PT
Mal, you stole my line!! That's funny. Yeah, it sure felt harder than a 5.6 to me. I'd give it a 5.6+ for sure. Nice pics folks. Say, did you all know a giant bear made those cracks (scratches) in the Tower? Pretty cool. eh?!
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
  Sep 15, 2008 - 03:29pm PT
When I did it 35 yrs ago, I remember being most gripped by the rappel (at that point I'd only climbed things that you could walk off the back of).
steelmnkey

climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
  Sep 15, 2008 - 03:32pm PT
Couple good stories from the day we climbed it...

When you walk up the short trail from the parking lot to the paved Tower Trail, there's a sign on the left side that says something about not disturbing the coloful bits of cloth and bundles hanging in the trees as they were placed by Native Americans. So we're hiking up there (and past that sign, mind you) and a middle-aged couple is in front of us. The wife says "I wonder what those pieces of cloth in the trees are?" and the knowledgable hubbie says, "Oh, those were probably put there by the bikers."

Second story... lady in the parking lot holding forth quite confidently about how the top of the Tower is like a big dish, and it's full of water, and the water is causing the cracks and erosion in the sides of the tower.
Mike Bolte

Trad climber
Planet Earth
  Sep 15, 2008 - 03:36pm PT
5.6c for sure. I thought it was mandatory to have the ropes hang on the rappel. You missed that part.

thanks for the TR and photos. A classic route for sure.
Jingy

climber
Random Nobody
  Sep 15, 2008 - 03:42pm PT
That was cool...

I freaked out when I opened this thread to see that I was thorooughly exposed!!!!

By any chance... Was that a raptor nest you were standing in to take some of those shots?

BA for sure!!!!

(BA = Bad A$$)
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
  Sep 15, 2008 - 03:44pm PT
hooray for a climbing link!!!
steelmnkey

climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
  Sep 15, 2008 - 04:28pm PT
There were frickin' pigeons all over that side of the Tower, flying in and out of the cracks the whole time we were there. It got sort of annoying after a while. Saw a couple of hawks from long way off. Funny thing is, there were small bones all over the ledges on the route, so I'm thinking those hawks are eatin' pretty dang good... or the climbers are... :-)
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
  Nov 15, 2011 - 01:33am PT
Nice post Museum. I did not see the adopt a crag day at DT this year do you know if it happened.
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