I was shocked when my buddy Joe Hettinger, with whom I’ve not climbed for probably 6 years or so wanted to meet up with us to do this climb! Joe was going to Kentucky for a wedding so it was easy for him to do a stop-over at Rapid City, South Dakota, just a couple hour drive from Devil’s Tower. We planned to meet up at the monument on Wednesday 09/29/04 and climb the next day.
Neither Joe or I are big on excessive communication, and I figured we had everything planned after a single 30-second discussion over the phone, which went something like this:
Phone rings, Bill answers.
Joe: Hey Bill, Joe. What day did you want to climb Devil’s Tower?
Bill: Oh, sometime around the 28th to the 30th… what works for you?
Joe: How ‘bout the 30th?
Bill: OK, let me know when you’ve made your flight reservations.
Joe: I’ll do that as soon as I hang up.
Bill: OK, see you there.
Joe: OK, Bye. (hangs up).
However Joe started looking at weather reports a few days ahead of the climb. Noting that rain was predicted for the day of our climb, Joe decided we should try to climb on Wednesday and sent emails (which I was unable to check) and finally called on Tuesday evening. Unfortunately, Diane and I were still on the other side of Wyoming, in West Yellowstone. By the time we got showers (hadn’t had one for a couple of days) and dinner, and made it through the park via traffic delays to Cody Wyoming, it was 10:00. We finally made it to Devil’s Tower late afternoon on Wednesday, too late to try to climb.
We woke the next morning to total cloud cover, with light sprinkles. However, it looked like it could dry up, and there were no signs of lightning. So we went for breakfast, then decided to go up and at least do the approach and maybe the first pitch. The approach included some exciting exposed scrambling, but we noted a rappel station above the exciting part, so at least we could avoid descending the worst of it. By the time we got up there, things were looking at pretty stable, meaning it was dry, not raining, and the clouds were high, with no signs of lightning. So, we decided to take the risk and do the climb.
We decided we would carry one pack between us, and that the second would carry it. Joe lead the first leaning-column pitch and I did the second ‘Durrance Crack’ pitch. We both agreed that both pitches were harder than their 5.6 ratings, but maybe that’s just because we’re both big wussies. Nearly every pitch involved lots of off-width grunt climbing. The scariest part, though, was being startled by the huge flocks of pigeons that would come unexpectedly flying by. Joe linked pitches 3 and 4, then we did a traverse onto the “Meadows” which is a big grassy area near the top, followed by a 4th-class scramble to the top.
It turned out that the weather was perfect the whole time, and the view of the surrounding landscape was absolutely gorgeous. We signed the summit register, wherein Joe noted that he had declared 20 years ago that we would some day stand on top of Devil’s Tower, and now he had done so. He turns 45 on October 2nd, so maybe that makes it that much more special for him.
Diane took all of these great pictures from the paved trail at the base of theTower with her new digital SLR and 300mm telephoto lens. What a great camera! ;-)