NW Face

This audacious line starts on the left side of Tower rock and follows the obvious and major ramp which diagonals right and up. Tim Olsen has a detailed description on page 211 in his excellent "Northwest Oregon Rock" book which I will not duplicate, just buy his book. Although Beckey lists it as a grade 3, I suspect he just took Jims word as he may have felt it could have been done faster than the day and a half it took them. However, the route has not seen a known 2nd ascent in the 35 some years since it was done and most likely still has many of the loose rocks the FA encountered. Per Jim Nieland: "We did a few aid moves above the bivouac in a dirty/slimy corner. The route went 98+% free. Finding good placement for protection was a problem. You will probably want to take a small selection of pitons as well as chalks. A bolt kit for emergencies would also give some backup."

This is a very committing line that took Jim and Francesco 1-1/2 days with a forced bivi as crossing back across the ramp would have been damned difficult. The route is made much less committing by the new "Rapunzel's Back in Rehab" route that cross's it in the middle. Rapunzel has solid new stainless fixed bolts which would make it possible to bail via rappel where the NW Face crosses it. Jim also noted: "It was just a lot of loose rock that you had to dig through before you found usable holds. The diagonal ramp area high on the face had a lot of loose blocks laying about but was easy climbing and quickly passed."

The ledge, in addition to having a band of not as solid of rock and also being less than vertical, catches loose blocks. Based on Jims description, don't get on this if folks are on Rapunzel's Back in Rehab.

Nuts, hexes, cams and pitons.