My good friends, Joe and Keiko, invited me to climb it with them.
“You’ll really dig this place.” They told me.
And I did. Literally.
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 The Oracle, Fisher Towers Credit: Neil Chelton |
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Joe carefully excavated a passage up the first pitch until a giant mud-curtain halted progress. With no gear to stop a ground-fall, he balanced up on sandy smears and hooked a fairly solid plate of clay.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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It broke.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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But he stayed in balance. He poked a beak behind a reasonably well attached mud-block...
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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... which disintegrated.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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He stepped down.
But slipped on some sand and began to toboggan down a mud-ramp.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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Somehow, he arrested the fall by getting his foot stuck in a crumbly crack.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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I reluctantly took over the vertical mud-swim.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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I pushed a beak into a neat constriction.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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It didn’t work.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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I placed a cam in a bomber part of the mud-curtain.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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It didn’t work. Nothing would work.
I whimpered to the ground.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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Joe and I made excuses...
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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... while Keiko zoomed up the pitch.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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And so began our journey up a gigantic pile of hardened cake-mix.
We ate some nice food...
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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... and climbed some classic pitches.
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 Bomber gear in the Fisher Towers. Credit: Neil Chelton |
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One pitch involved tunnelling through a mud chamber.
Another followed a mud-filled crack, where the mud in the crack was actually harder than the surrounding rock.
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 Everything turns mud-brown when climbing in the Fishers: ropes, gear, underwear.. And not only because of the rock-dust. Credit: Neil Chelton |
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On the crux aid pitch, Joe scratched the tip of a tiny beak into a mud-dimple. It was one of the most ridiculous aid-placements I've ever seen.
He attached his aiders and gingerly balanced upwards.
He then placed another beak tip in another mud dimple.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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And another. And another. And another. Hours passed.
He ended up climbing the entire pitch only using beaks, exhausting our almost infinite supply.
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 Credit: Neil Chelton |
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After a while, we couldn’t tell what was mud...
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 View from The Oracle Credit: Neil Chelton |
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... and what was poo.
We eventually arrived at the summit...
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 Final pitch of Beaking in Tongues, The Oracle. Credit: Neil Chelton |
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.... two days late for work.
The Fisher Towers are still standing. They’re waiting for more ascents. Adventure is guaranteed. I highly recommend climbing there, if you like getting dirty too.
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 Keiko on Beaking in Tongues, The Oracle Credit: Neil Chelton |
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Route Information: Beaking in Tongues, The Oracle (V, A4). First Ascent: Steve "Crusher" Bartlett and Dave Levine, April 1997. This is the only route on the main Fisher Towers with no lead bolts, rivets or enhanced placements. It’s awesome. Climb it.
This trip report was originally published on VDiff Climbing. Read more stuff like this: www.vdiffclimbing.com/fun
