Last month I had the opportunity to fulfill a longstanding goal as a Wyoming native, climb the impenetrable black fortress known as Devils Tower. Devils Tower dominates the windswept prairies of northeast Wyoming like a sinister overlord, standing guard over the Powder River Basin. The Tower’s flanks are well guarded from all sides, there is no easy passage to the summit. The easiest route to the summit, the Durrance Route, is a stout old-school 5.6, many modern-day climbers rate it harder. Greg, Laura and I climbed several routes during our sojourn to America’s first-ever national monument including:

• Soler
• Durrance Route
• New Wave
• Assembly Line

On Saturday we topped out via Soler, then rappelled to the base and headed up the Durrance Route since there weren’t any other parties on the route. On Sunday Greg and I climbed New Wave and then the classic 2nd pitch of Assembly Line. Click the image below to watch the video of the whole experience.

A few weeks ago Greg and I headed up to Vedauwoo, Wyoming for some tooth-and-nail thrashing on the cheese grater granite, if you’ve ever climbed there you know exactly what I’m talking about.  We were delighted to see we were the first party to arrive at the base of the classic Edward’s Crack, a nice 2 pitch 5.7 route to the left of the Coke Bottle.  Interestingly, Edward’s Crack was the scene of my first ever outdoor rock climbing experience some 8 years ago with the University of Wyoming’s Outdoor Adventure Club.  Little did I realize then that my life was about to take a totally different path. 
During this most recent foray to Vedauwoo I got reintroduced to the uniqueness of this area by climbing the following routes:

• Edward’s Crack
• Satterfield’s Crack
• Caption Nemo P1
• Mother 1

For a version with larger images CLICK HERE.