Regular Route

The route on Trisstin's Tower ascends the perpetually shady backside. There is a description in Bjornstad's Desert Rock IV. As promised, it is superb, on absolute perfect Wingate. EDIT: It goes clean. In 2002 I used just four pin placements; two Toucans on pitch one and the same two on pitch two, in both cases where the crack was too thin for #1 RPs to fit. Or maybe they just seemed bomber compared to the RPs? Start in the chimney, below the obvious beautiful seam. Yes, that one. Despite its anorexic appearance, it eats good wires almost all the way up. The first two pitches are pretty similar, following this seam as it arches up the face.

1. The crux of the first pitch is only about 20 or 25 feet up, promising a potential groundfall if a piece pulls (this is where I wimped out and hammered two pins). The first belay is carefully located, next to some bomber wire placements, where it does not affect the climbing. I like that kind of care.

2. After more bomber wires, the crack gets progressively thinner, till it almost dies out altogether (here's the second two pins). Just as it does so, you can reach out left into a splitter easy crack. This eats Green Aliens, then Yellow, before finally widening up to beyond 1". I tried and tried (having brought several), but only managed to fit a single #1 Friend in this crack. The second belay is at a ledge, where you could place a #5 Camalot, or else any number of bomber hand/fist-size cams just above.

3. The crack continues, easy aiding on hand/fist-size cams, to the summit, where an awkward stem maneuver gains the rap anchor. I ran the second and third pitches together. This worked fine, as I was soloing, but otherwise bring a bunch of extra quickdraws/slings to avoid too much ropedrag.

I'm guessing this had had about two previous ascents. There's no register. There is just a single faded back-up sling and the bleached, crispy original webbing. I cut off a chunk of my haul line to back up this stuff. Two ropes are needed for the raps. All in all, a fine desert adventure. Not a single bolt for aid, in three pitches and 250-odd feet. Sweet. Doubtful it can ever go free. It is admittedly not too steep (lots of top-stepping) and there are various edges for holds, but some sections seem pretty featureless. No-one's gonna be squeezing any more than fingernails into most of the crack.

Gear: Lots of wires, several sets of the smaller sizes of RPs are crucial. Offset RPs work nicely. Slider Nuts. Cams: A couple each purple and blue Aliens. Three Green Aliens. Maybe four sets from Yellow Alien up to 1.5". Two or three each 1.5" to 4" or so. One #5 Camalot is optional. Pins: a handful of knifeblades or (better) Toucans (the offset, hooked knifeblades).