Jimmy Newberry had been one of my most consistent climbing partners all through the 1970’s. It was not uncommon for new partners to decide that my brand of fun was not really their cup of tea after one or two outings into the backcountry, but Jimmy was always ready for more. While I liked to think this was due to his overweening sense of loyalty and adventure, it could have been that we both suffered from a pronounced inability to learn from previous experiences and recognized this trait in each other. “In sickness and in health, nanyon cries out for its self.” Regardless of cause, it led us to share many exciting mountaineering, ice climbing, back-country skiing, and canyoneering adventures together over the years.


By and by, we were led to give the Castleton Tower a go, based on the description published in “50 Crowded Climbs of North America”, plus its relative proximity to Gunnison. Late in the spring of ’74 or ’75 (my mind, like Billy Pilgrim, has become unstuck in time) we drove over to Castleton Valley and camped out in the wash leading up to this magnificent desert tower.


After a not-so-alpine start we trudged our way up the clayey slopes of the Moenkopi and Chinle Formations and approached the base of the Kor-Ingalls route on the south side of the tower. For those that have not yet climbed it, this is one of the great rock climbs at any grade in all of the known universe and we, unusually, had it all to ourselves. The weather was perfect, clear, windless, with warm spring temperatures. The first pitch went quickly enough, with clean cracks, perfect dihedrals, and one squeezy little chimney that was not such a big deal for our skinny selves (were I to repeat this climb today, getting my “more robust” self up that crack might be the crux). Likewise, the second pitch was similar in style to the first pitch, but longer and only slightly harder. Given the rack of hexes and stoppers we were using, though, it tended to be a bit run out in places and we were thankful for the occasional bolts.


The third pitch is the crux, with a long wide crack in the crotch of a 90 degree dihedral yielding a somewhat run out 5.9 lead. Every sandstone climb in the desert seems to be required, by law, to have an offwidth pitch somewhere in the mix, but I got really lucky on this one. Right where options to stem or otherwise cheat on the offwidth section petered out, the crack had developed a nice coating of secondary calcite crystals about half an inch long on one face of the crack. This allowed me to face climb on the crystals just at the edge of the offwidth crack and lean back into the opposing wall for rest stances. At the top of the 3rd pitch was a nice flat ledge for belaying and watching Jimmy come on up. A short 4th pitch scramble led to the top and glorious views all around.


After a leisurely amount of time spent on the summit, we rapped off and wandered back down the clayey slopes to our camp site. The traditional victory feast of Mexican food was enjoyed by all.