Cloud Tower, Direct Finish w/ JSJ.
5.12- A0, ~1000'

(NOTE: No camera, no photos. Google an image search for "Cloud Tower Red Rock", or take a peak at the Mtn Proj entry and you'll get plenty of visual stimulation.)

After a great winter of bouldering, and at the culmination of my training cycle, I was itching for a classic long route as payoff for all the plastic pulling and hangboard drudgery. Having done Levitation 29 a few years ago, Cloud Tower seemed to be the next logical step. Commonly called the "Astroman of Red Rock", let's consult Jerry Handren's excellent guidebook to see what we're in for:

"With everything from tips to offwidth, on superb splitter rock, this in one of Red Rock's finest crack climbs. The pitches tend to be long and sustained, and are very well protected...."

That'll do.

So the partner search started in earnest. My bro Chris was all tied up in a relocation, new job and new home, and wasn't in shape for it. Hmmm, I know who will be psyched and fit, JSJ. Having been up it twice before, but with falls on the crux pitch, he was game and he was psyched.

A little crack climbing to tune up a bit and try to gain some endurance seemed like a good idea, so I spent five or so days in the two weeks prior running laps in Joshua Tree. Wangerbanger, Heart of Darkness & Gunsmoke, Scary Monsters & Waltzing Worm, and Presupposition all got a day with 5-10 laps. Ready or not, it's time.

We figured a weekday would eliminate any crowding, and J had the trick beta...do the Direct Finish to the top of the buttress, adding a few pitches, which would allow us to take a single 70m rope and rap Crimson Crysalis (knot your ends on the 3rd rap, it's a flip upside down, clip the anchor at full stretch and downclimb affair). And while the guide calls for a monster rack including something like five #3 camalots, triples in tips and smaller, doubles to fists and a 4" piece, JSJ convinced me that doubles to #3 and a single big gray fisty piece would be sufficient. With the slimmed down rack, one cord, no helmets, and no pack, we probably cut 15lbs off the weight many parties carry up this thing.

6:15am we meet up in the last little strip center on W. Charleston and get this show rolling. Now JSJ and I have never roped up together, but I know his reputation and have no doubt that he is the perfect partner for this route - strong, confident, and positive. While the guide calls for parking at the Pine Creek trailhead, J comes through with more trick beta and we park at Oak Creek instead. Wise choice indeed, as the trail is better, distance is probably shorter, and there is less unnecessary up and down.

The forecast calls for 72F in Vegas and my car reads 49 as I leave the hotel, but as we start the approach, it's 38 at the trailhead. But soon enough we are shedding layers, sweating up the hill and passing the base of Crimson where the first party of the day is racking for this renowned moderate classic. As we pass by, it sounds like voices down there, shit! We've been scooped by a party of three who are just racking for the first pitch. No worries, one of the beauties of this route is the belay ledges, big and spacious and no hanging ordeals or cramped stances. JSJ is a coworker with one of the other party so there is no posturing or bad vibes and they are not planning on doing the extension pitches, so it should be fine.

Our plan is to link 1&2, do 3,4, link 5&6, do 7, link 8&9, and topout the buttress for p10, cutting the route to 7 pitches. Unfortunately the party of 3 were a bit slow and between the cool temps, shade, and waiting around it was hard to stay warmed up for the hard climbing to come.

Soon enough, JSJ took off up the chimneyish feature linking the first two 5.8 pitches as one. We belayed on the higher ledge atop this pitch, which required about 10' of simul climbing with our 70m, although you could stop on an even bigger ledge 20' lower with no simul climbing (recommend you go to the higher ledge, the simul bit is about 5.6 for the follower, and the higher belay is better positioned for the next pitch).

The most memorable part of these first two pitches was blowing on my hands after every move to thaw my fingers and getting some mild screaming barfies at the belay as they warmed back up. Pretty standard Red Rock 5.8 crack, a few jams and lots of incut face holds.

I started up the next pitch, called 10a, which starts with a touch of scrambly face, then the meat...a bit of steep tight hands, followed by perfect hands and finishing with some route finding through a sea of edges and dishes as the crack ends and you traverse left about 15'. Not much for gear on the traverse, but there is some to be had if you really want it or need to protect the second.

JSJ joined me and we waited a bit for the party above to clear the pitch. The downtime waiting was tough on the psyche because it upset the rhythm and ensured that you were starting the pitch cold. Where typically a few pitches of easier climbing would allow you to get nicely warmed up for the crux, this wasn't happening for us. Nevertheless, JSJ started up and did one of the smarter pieces of tactical climbing I've seen. I think it was 3 or 4 years since he was last on the route, and this pitch is hard, technical, and sequency. He moved through the funky little balancy 5.10 face bit and arrived at the corner proper.

Now, if you've never seen this pitch, it's a right-facing, right-leaning dihedral with a 00TCU crack that gradually opens up to fingers at the top and has some face holds on the overhanging left wall for the tightest section. Up to place a piece, retreat to a stance, up to suss out a hold or sequence, back to a stance. After a few iterations of this, J had managed to get bomber gear in and work out the sequence for the crux then milked the stance one last time. Smart, tactical. I could sense a little reluctance to leave the stance and commit and encouraged him, "you gotta want it!". And he did want it. Punching through the crux he got a tips lock, some horrendous stems, worked in another piece and realized the pump clock was winding down. Go for it and send, or place another piece and have to take. Cranking and keeping his composure he made it to the actual bomber fingerlock and soon a good foot. A hand jam showed up and it's in the bag. SENDER!

I followed, using slightly different sequences and got through the crux, had a little trouble cleaning one piece, getting pumped, but got to the thin tips lock that meant two moves to a rest...c'mon, the jams only get better, c'mon!...shit! And I'm on the rope. A quick shake and I finish up. Next time I'll be a little smarter and use similar tactics. The guidebook gives this pitch 11d, which felt like a horrendous sandbag. 12- seems to be consensus and despite Red Rock's reputation as having soft grades, this one would get 12- anywhere IMO. Nice job J!

Next pitch is a long one, I planned to link the 140' 10c hands to fists pitch with the ~40' chimney and tunnel-through action to belay on the west side in the sun. Before starting I was wondering how this thing would go down with a single fist-sized piece to cover about 50 feet of fist crack. It appears steep and a tad intimidating, but absolutely gorgeous.

I climb about 10' off the belay to a 5' roof, place a piece in the back wall, lean way out and place a cupped hands piece at the end of the roof then back-clean my lower piece to keep the rope drag under control. Sink a jam and huck my meat around the corner hoping there is a foothold somewhere over there...and there isn't! Just crank on a couple of jugs and jams until you can get a foot in the crack. I ran it until the last place I thought a #3 would work, placed it, ran it another 15 or so, then placed and pushed the fist piece for another 10, and left it behind. There was nothing to hit, but it was going to be a long ride if I came off. Luckily, as the crack widens to OW, a perfect 1" crack appears inside and eases the nerves. If you plan to stop and belay rather than link this with the tunnel, take extra 1" gear for the anchor. Some 5-easy sideways chimneying and a crawl through a little hole under a chockstone deposits you on another big ledge at the base of a gorgeous, Indian Creek-esque handcrack in a corner. Some slung blocks with rap slings and either .75 camalots or 0 TCUs will work for an anchor here.

As J joins me, the sun just starts to peek over the wall to the southwest and it goes from jackets and beanies to roasting. This pitch gets an 11c rating but he cruises up, bumping and backcleaning gear to ration for what is a fairly long and consistent sized hand crack and is soon clipping the chains, making it look about 5.8. Several waves of bulges make this a super cool pitch and using high feet make the bulges casual...until the final one where it narrows to really tight hands and a long crank to a fingerlock. I reach the final bulge and get crossed up, have to awkwardly switch jams about 3 times and starting to pump out latch the fingerlock and pull over. Woo hoo! Cloud Tower!

But our day isn't done, we've more pitches ahead on the Direct. The next pitch, a dirty, rotten, bolted, purposely pinned-out overhanging corner gets 12d. I head up, put in some gear before the bolts start, and get into it. After a couple of hard moves it's obvious I have to lieback off this horribly flaring, sandy tips scar, with stemming on nothing. I half-heartedly try to crank on the scar but I ain't got it. The next two moves would be similar before it relents, and between the choss, heat, and desire to move on, there is no motivation to work it. So I stand in a sling and A0 up the bolts until they end and mandatory free climbing starts again. Gingerly, I navigate this vertical litterbox and soon reach low angle clambering over blocks. If you intend to free this pitch, start the regular route early and try to get there before it gets in the sun. I'd also aid it first and then brush the sh#t out of it and pull off the loose bits. If the rock were better it would be fun and cool movement, as it stands it's just dirty junk.

J told me to try to link this one with the 5.10 OW pitch above, but by the time I reach the ledge at the base of the OW, the rope is running through a pinch and I can barely pull up rope at all. So I bring him up and he asks if I want the OW. "It's all you" I say.

He doesn't seem psyched, having led the pitch twice before. The guide calls it 10c OW, and it looks basically unprotected after about 1/3 of the way, with a 40' ledge fall for a penalty if you come off high. No wonder he ain't psyched on it! J tells me "It's a little spicy, but gets easier toward the top". So I ask "how hard, really?". "In the Valley it would be 5.9". Aw hell, I'll take it. The rock looks good, crux looks low enough that it's protected from ledging out. I arrange my junkshow all on the right side and start up. A couple of awkward deep hand jams get me six or eight feet up when I casually plug another, jam a foot and start to stand up when "HOLY SH#T!", my foot blows, the other foot isn't on anything and I go full weight onto the jam, all before I've placed any gear. My heart rate spikes and I overpower to get established. Deciding a piece of gear would be a good idea, I fumble around with and finally place a good cam. Focus, dude! I get into a little pod, place my sole fist piece and get ready to commit. The crux moves exiting the pod at least have good chickenwings, but not much for feet with a smooth face outside and some bombay action inside.

A fleeting thought goes through my head "I might not have this". But I stop going through what's not there...no feet, no gear, and focus on what is...bomber chickenwings and the promise of easier ground higher. Small movements ratcheting up my wing and gastoning the edge soon gets me a bad foot, a couple more get me a nice pinch and progressively better feet. Soon I can get my chest in, heel-toes, and then jugs start to show up. I even find a deep placement for a #3 that will keep me off the ledge if things go pear shaped and soon am topping out on a ledge. A strategic placement right at the exit keeps the rope from walking the #3 deep into the crack, but adds to the soon to be hideous rope drag for the linked pitch to the summit.

As I finish linking the last pitch, traversing the gorgeous black varnish to the top, the rope drag is so bad I'm stopping, pulling on the rope as hard as I can to get about 20' of slack, and climbing with a loop in my hand. Not liking the look of the big boulders on the summit, I forgo slinging any of them and instead place the three smallest pieces on the rack for an anchor. JSJ makes quick work of the wide, liebacking and staying outside of most of it and after a summit high five, we start the many raps down Crimson. A quick snack at the base and an hour later we're back at the car...but not before we both get nailed by some prickly desert flora in the twilight.

Many thanks to JSJ, a great partner and all around good dude. He climbed the route in perfect style and did great on the crux pitch, and I managed a one-hang ascent, which of course gives me a great reason to revisit this classic.

Four hours and one stop at In-n-Out Burger later, I was home and crawling into bed at midnight. A little bleary eyed at work today, but not as sore as I expected. This is a fantastic route, the best I've done in Red Rock and one of the best anywhere. Comparisons to Astroman seem a bit of a stretch, but this is certainly one of the super classic free climbs of North America.

Gear & Beta Notes: 2x 00 TCU/C3 - 3 camalot, 1x 0.75 camalot, 1x gray fist camalot (old 3.5/new 4), small wires, 1x 70m rope

Approach from Oak Creek trailhead, approx 1hr 15m.

Link 1&2, 5&6. Belay 3,4,7, individually. For the Direct finish pitches, linking sets up really bad rope drag, belay individually.

On the pitch ratings and rack: Everything except the tips corner felt a bit soft for the grade, whereas the tips corner felt undergraded by a letter or so. I felt the rack we took was perfect, as it was better to occasionaly bump or push a piece rather than carry a lot of extra weight and bulk up the route. Extra gear won't help you on the Direct OW pitch unless you carry a wagon wheel up there, but an additional fist piece would probably get placed on both that pitch and p5.