Climbing the North Face of Castleton Tower 5.11

Here we are, back to where it all started. You see, this is not the first time we have trudged up the world’s largest talus cone with a bouquet of #3’s. The glorious failure of a first trip out here held The North Face as one of our two oversized objectives. It was windy, real windy. And we were green, both sickly and experience-ly. So we bailed and did Kor-Ingalls (which now permanently lives in a corrupted SD card.) We trembled in our bones as we repelled down The North Face with horizontal ropes. I couldn’t believe that we thought we could climb that. Then our rope got stuck and we did have to climb it! Not to worry, John was there to belay me.
Time passed, and our abilities have somewhat caught up to our appetites, at least mine… maybe, almost? John’s appetite is ever growing. But we figured we were ready to return. The night prior we picked up a couple more #3’s from John’s first Mountain Project deal, then we open bivvied in the parking lot in gasoline drenched sleeping bags.
The next morning we slept in, there’s no need to alpine start a north facing three pitch route. We waited till the heat of the day which ended up being like 40°. We intended to climb the now normal Webster Direct start, which is two cracks to the left from the original start. I think it’s supposed to be one letter grade easier, but that splitter hand crack is just so enticing that we say we do it for that instead of admitting that we don’t want to try a slightly harder crack.
I’ll just let you see how it goes if you can make it through my panting. Thank you to John for roping up with me and to Fritz as always for his virtual spiritual guidance.
This climb was first put up in 1974 by the prolific Jimmy Dunn with Doug Snively. It was made direct five years later by Ed Webster. Since then it has been free soloed by Steph Davis and then she jumped off the top! (with a parachute) Also I heard they put a freaking car on top of this thing, but I bet you’ve already heard about that.

[@ilikecounterstrike]

best climbing channel on RUclips! Keep it up!

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

That’s quite the claim! I appreciate it!

[@dunktown]

Hell yeah Grahm, proud of you for coming back to tackle this objective! Love the vids, keep sending!

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

Thank you! Been stoked to get back on it and was even more stoked to not leave any unfinished business this time. Although Sacred Ground did look pretty mega on the raps…

[@jgn2112]

Singing Toby Keith? And was that Rain When I Die by Alice in Chains?
Once again, best climbing channel on RUclips. Loved every bit of this video.
Although my wife was next to me listening to 2 guys grunting out of breath and when she asked what the fuck i was watching I just told her it was a video about two guys going deep in the crack.

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

Rain When I Die indeed! Glad you enjoyed it all! Sorry about the grunting 🤣

[@mtoutdoors9]

Desert tower power to you and John! What a beautiful place to climb. Thanks for putting up this series Grahm.

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

Thank you! Stoked to share our trip!

[@azeemfoy9791]

That was me who dropped the water bottle like a idiot 😂
My buddy and i were repelling and chatted with you guys for a bit. You two had such good vibes.

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

Oh heck yeah! Thanks again for the pics! Yall were dope too.

[@jonfrank5113]

That climb looks soo sweet. Great job.

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

Thanks man! It’s no granite roof crack but it’ll do

[@averagejoegrows]

graham i am on acid watching this

[@grahmtheoverstoker]

WoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoW be 👁️ safe 🔴 my 💙 friend 🟩

[@johnio_lozanio]

Hell yeah man that’s awesome, strap in 👁️👄👁️

[@lebulba]

top of pitch 2 with a hell yeah from me brother

[@MatthewWright-y9t]

Nice 5.11 is hard

[@paulmitchell5349]

Sky above the tower has been sprayed.