Cirque of the Towers, WY
Several years ago I added Cirque of the Towers to our to do
list on the fridge. I don’t think Laura even knew what it was. I didn’t know a
lot about the area either but I did know that is was a popular backpacking
destination and that the rock climbing was supposed to be incredible. The cirque holds two climbs in the “50 Classic Climbs” book, both of which we would attempt. After
several days in eastern Wyoming, climbing at Devils Tower and visiting Badlands National Park,
Laura and I set off on the 8 hour cross state drive to Big Sandy Trailhead in
the Wind River Range. 40 miles of dirt roads lead to an overly crowded parking
area and an opportunity to ask some hikers for a spoon. We forgot our silverware for the trip but remembered about the time we pulled into the lot!
We pulled up to a group of 20 NOLS students but none had anything they were
willing to part with. Eventually Laura talked a girl into offering up a plastic
fork that was broken completely off. Oh well, at least we can eat now! Upon
beginning our hike we asked one more person and luckily they offered two
spoons to us. We were thankful and set off on the 10 mile hike into the cirque
around 2:00 pm Tuesday afternoon. With relatively light packs considering we’d
be in the backcountry for 4 days, the miles passed quickly. We brought a change
of socks, rain and down jackets, sleeping bags, a tent and climbing gear along
with only enough food to last us the 4 days. The trail is mostly flat until you
reach Jackass Pass and climb the 2,000’ over and into the cirque. We quickly
found a suitable campsite and had our tent set up by 6:00 pm. I enjoy a good
dinner on night one in the backcountry so I prepared ramen with cooked kielbasa
sausage, green peppers and zuchinni. A fantastic meal considering all I add is
boiling water! As the sun faded behind Block Tower, Laura and I retired to our
sleeping bags for the evening and set a wake up alarm for 6 am the following
morning. Waking at 6 and eating breakfast, we
casually left camp at 7 am. This is way late for us but we didn’t feel
as though the
Classic 10 pitch route, NE
face of Pingora would take all that long to complete. We hiked across the
meadow and made our way to the base of the route. Second in line, the first
party was climbing and one group was right on our tail. We chatted with the guys
behind us and told them to go ahead as they would likely be faster than us on
the climb that day. Kevin and Paul were cool and Kevin was the Associate
Publisher for Climbing Magazine. We set off on the route and shared belays
until pitch 6 when Kevin linked a couple pitches and passed the group in front
of them. The climbing was excellent and the granite was spectacular. I had
prepared for polished foot and hand holds but quickly gained confidence with
perfect hand jams while smearing my feet anywhere they landed. Our plan was to
link as many pitches as possible by running the full 70 meters of the rope out
before belaying and as such we took the following rack. Single .3 and .4,
doubles .5 - #2 and a single #3 and #4 along with ½ set of stoppers and 8
alpine draws. The setup was perfect an I was never short on cams while building
belays, usually ending up with a few left over at the end of each pitch. I would probably even pass on the #4 if I were to head for the same line again. Laura
climbed excellent and we completed the climb around 1:30 pm, successfully
reaching the summit of Pingora by its most classic route!
 |
| Pingora NE Face |
 |
| Wolf's Head, Overhanging Tower, etc from Pingora |
 |
| Simu Climbing on Wolf's Head |
We relaxed and took
in a birds eye view of our route for the next day before rappelling the SE
Buttress and making our way back to camp. Once again a hot dinner was served,
although this time it was only a freeze dried mountain house meal and a snickers bar
for dessert as we once again retired to bed early in the evening. 5 am and the
alarm goes off. Today we head for the technical portion of the Cirque of the
Towers traverse. We knew we wouldn’t have the energy to make the entire
traverse so Laura and I decided the night before that we would climb Pingora
via the K cracks, climb over Tiger Tower, add in the 50 Classics 10 pitch East Ridge route on Wolf’s Head and add on Overhanging Tower before making a
decision on weather to continue on or not. Most people only do one of these
routes in a day but we do our thing and look for the linkups! Climbing the South Buttress on Pingora went quickly in 2 pitches and the K cracks variation
was amazing. IT takes thin gear and at only 5.8, this was my favorite pitch of the day. We
quickly summited Pingora and easily found the rappels toward Tiger Tower.
Landing in the notch between the two summits, the day was still new but we
would take our sweet time climbing and then getting off of Tiger Tower. Nearly
2 hours later we’re at the base of Wolfs Head.
 |
| K Cracks - Pingora |
As I set off up the narrow ridge, Laura and I simu climbed the first five pitches of the route in 20 minutes. What has taken the groups in front of us 4 hours or more, we had skipped through like it was nothing. Climbing well and being efficient, we caught several groups on the climb at the piton pitch. Three more traversing pitches with easy climbing but huge exposure and we were on the summit of Wolfs Head. An impressive route in its own right but I am not sure it belongs in the 50 Classics. Maybe I was less impressed because we were moving too quickly to enjoy the route or possibly I get more enjoyment out of less crowded areas even if the climbing is not on par with what we had just done. Anyways, we jumped in front of everyone and got on rappel in front of the groups. 7 raps later and we were on the saddle headed toward Overhanging Tower. At only 5.2, I chose to wear my tennis shoes as Laura and I soloed the route to the summit in about 30 minutes. Winds were blowing heavily and energy was running low. Laura and I chose to rappel the route and when we did we found a core shot in our exhausted rope. It was a good decision to turn back and there was no other choice now as our rope was no longer safe. We headed to the saddle and rappelled down toward Cirque Lake by 3:30 pm. Chatting with other climbers from Sweden, we make a casual descent and hike back toward camp. We soaked our tired feet in the stream and once again had mountain house for dinner. We jumped in the tent before the rain arrived at 7pm. Sleeping through the night, we awoke the next morning, had breakfast and hauled our gear the 10 miles back to the trailhead. We had a flat tire when we made it back to the Jeep but our spirits were high as we had just had a great experience over the last 3 days. I highly recommend the winds to anyone willing to hike a bit as it is a surreal area and deserves to be experienced by many.
 |
| Laura hanging out on the piton pitch - Wolf's Head |
Several years ago I added Cirque of the Towers to our to do
list on the fridge. I don’t think Laura even knew what it was. I didn’t know a
lot about the area either but I did know that is was a popular backpacking
destination and that the rock climbing was supposed to be incredible. The cirque holds two climbs in the “50 Classic Climbs” book, both of which we would attempt. After
several days in eastern Wyoming, climbing at Devils Tower and visiting Badlands National Park,
Laura and I set off on the 8 hour cross state drive to Big Sandy Trailhead in
the Wind River Range. 40 miles of dirt roads lead to an overly crowded parking
area and an opportunity to ask some hikers for a spoon. We forgot our silverware for the trip but remembered about the time we pulled into the lot!
We pulled up to a group of 20 NOLS students but none had anything they were
willing to part with. Eventually Laura talked a girl into offering up a plastic
fork that was broken completely off. Oh well, at least we can eat now! Upon
beginning our hike we asked one more person and luckily they offered two
spoons to us. We were thankful and set off on the 10 mile hike into the cirque
around 2:00 pm Tuesday afternoon. With relatively light packs considering we’d
be in the backcountry for 4 days, the miles passed quickly. We brought a change
of socks, rain and down jackets, sleeping bags, a tent and climbing gear along
with only enough food to last us the 4 days. The trail is mostly flat until you
reach Jackass Pass and climb the 2,000’ over and into the cirque. We quickly
found a suitable campsite and had our tent set up by 6:00 pm. I enjoy a good
dinner on night one in the backcountry so I prepared ramen with cooked kielbasa
sausage, green peppers and zuchinni. A fantastic meal considering all I add is
boiling water! As the sun faded behind Block Tower, Laura and I retired to our
sleeping bags for the evening and set a wake up alarm for 6 am the following
morning. Waking at 6 and eating breakfast, we
casually left camp at 7 am. This is way late for us but we didn’t feel
as though the Classic 10 pitch route, NE
face of Pingora would take all that long to complete. We hiked across the
meadow and made our way to the base of the route. Second in line, the first
party was climbing and one group was right on our tail. We chatted with the guys
behind us and told them to go ahead as they would likely be faster than us on
the climb that day. Kevin and Paul were cool and Kevin was the Associate
Publisher for Climbing Magazine. We set off on the route and shared belays
until pitch 6 when Kevin linked a couple pitches and passed the group in front
of them. The climbing was excellent and the granite was spectacular. I had
prepared for polished foot and hand holds but quickly gained confidence with
perfect hand jams while smearing my feet anywhere they landed. Our plan was to
link as many pitches as possible by running the full 70 meters of the rope out
before belaying and as such we took the following rack. Single .3 and .4,
doubles .5 - #2 and a single #3 and #4 along with ½ set of stoppers and 8
alpine draws. The setup was perfect an I was never short on cams while building
belays, usually ending up with a few left over at the end of each pitch. I would probably even pass on the #4 if I were to head for the same line again. Laura
climbed excellent and we completed the climb around 1:30 pm, successfully
reaching the summit of Pingora by its most classic route! 
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