Last updated: June 8, 2020
Video
Climbing Devils Tower
Transcript
Every year, over 5,000 climbers come to Devils Tower; Devils Tower is seen as one of the premier crack climbing locations in the world. Climbing has a long history at Devils Tower. Starting with William Rogers and Willard Ripley and their stake ladder in 1893.Which they used to summit the Tower on July4th. This event drew spectators from all over Wyoming and South Dakota. In 1895, Linnie Rogers, William Roger's wife, was the first woman to summit Devils Tower, using her husband's stake ladder. In 1937, Fritz Weissner and his team completed the first non-ladder ascent using modern mountaineering techniques. In 1938, Jack Durrance pioneered the Durrance route, which is still one of the most popular routes on Devils Tower. In 1941, George Hopkins a daredevil parachutist landed on the Tower and was stranded for six days, Jack Durrance and a team of eight other climbers were able to rescue Hopkins on the sixth day. In 1952, Jan Conn and Jane Showacre completed the first female only summit at Devil's Tower. Today, Devils Tower continues to draw climbers from around the world. The excitement of Devils Tower, the adventure Devils Tower is traditional climbing are. A lot of climbing areas are bolt protected that's masonry fastening devices we put into the climb. We create where the path goes by putting the bolts in there. It's great, it's good athleticism, but here there's something that you connect with on a deeper level. You're climbing these cracks that are millions of years old and the cracks dictate the protection that you have so might be a little bit run out, or might be gear every few inches, but it makes it unique. Devils Tower is great for climbing because it's crack central! There's not too many places like this in the world where there's almost 250 cracks to climb within a mile walk, it's all in the same area so you can walk around in a circle and have that many amazing crack climbs available to you. So I grew up here in Crook County, half hour away from Devils Tower. The first day I climbed this was September 22, 2001. I'll remember, because it kindof changed the direction of my life. I was going to college, had a friend of mine whose dad took people climbing, and said "Hey would you like to join us to go climb behind Mt. Rushmore?" That went good, he said "Let's go climb Devils Tower in a few weeks" Went up with five other people, we were the typical go up the Durrance Route with dragging bags and a bunch of people just congesting everything. But it was done in about eight magical hours, I was also the guy with the T-shirt at the very end that said “I climbed Devils Tower" even before I hit the Tower trail. When I first climbed Devils Tower, it was in the 80's, and we came here and climbed it, and it was about making it to the summit. In subsequent visits to Devils Tower, I've sought out more difficult routes, and routes that have that characteristic nature of Devils Tower which are the cracks and the stemming. This place is just special, the unique factor of where it’s located, in the middle of nowhere, along with what type of climbing it represents really long sustained traditional pitches, just puts this in a classic category a place you can get a good climbing experience at all grade levels. If you're interested in climbing Devils Tower, make the drive out here, visit beautiful Crook County Wyoming, Check in with the Rangers, Register before you go up on the climb so you know where you're at, and they can count how many people are climbing, it's a really key part of it, and then be prepared, it's adventures climbing, its traditional climbing, you'll be placing your gear and skills like this fist cracks, off-wits, are all very much required here. You're not going to get to the top without being able to climb some sort of wide crack, so have the appropriate equipment and protection and make sure that you're well within your ability. Definitely be prepared, even though it is really accessible from the road, you want to be aware that weather moves in fast, you got to treat it almost like a mountaines weather terrain. Just the nature of where it comes from, sometimes the rock can block that off. The weather is the number one factor Always bring two ropes, one rope is just gonna get you in trouble, and bring as much gear as you have, because different routes require different things and they're long pitches. In the spring, be sure to check in at the climbing office, to find out which routes are closed due to prairie and peregrine falcon nesting. And remember there's a voluntary climbing closure during the month of June, out of respect to Native Americans who worship here at that time. Please be sure to fill out the registration form, this is important in keeping track of how many climbers we have, and who was on the Tower at the given time. Be sure to look at the back of the card, to confirm the rules and regulations of climbing at Devils Tower We welcome you to Devils Tower; we look forward to climbing with you.
Description
A brief history about climbing Devils Tower.
Duration
6 minutes, 46 seconds
Credit
PLewis
Date Created
11/30/2015
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