Fun Climbs Around The World

On Sundial, King Fisher in back

The towers resemble dripping candles because rain washes the mud down the tower sides, like candle wax dripping down a candle.

After ending up at the Great Googley Moogley, we turned back and headed to my choice of formations, where we  found a well-beaten trail to the base. In fact – two trails to two separate sides. The first was in the shade, beneath a deep chimney. The second however, faced east and enjoyed some welcome sunshine. We ran back to the car to fetch our shoes and gear.

“What are you doing with that rope?” Tristan asked. “I’m going to climb unroped. It’s easy.”
Great. Now I was supposed to climb unroped.
“I’d like to take a rope because we might need to rappel down,” I suggested. The guide book clearly stated: Rappel the route.

Tristan reluctantly acceded to my argument that we might easily get up the tower without a rope, but getting back down might be tricky.
He climbed halfway up to a big ledge with a solid anchor with two newer bolts, and started to climb right past them.

“I’d like a rope ,” I yelled, as I watched him scramble up loose mud covering more loose rocks. It wasn’t the difficulty of the climbing that worried me; but the chance of the mud-covered rock coming loose, with us on it, after the rains that fell on it the past days.

Tristan took the rope and ran to the top. Soon  I reached a beautiful wide summit with gorgeous views. At our feet, another solid bolted anchor promised a secure place to rappel.

Rappelling down, I kicked off pounds of dirt and mud every time my feet touched rock. A large ledge halfway down was equipped with another shiny new two bolt anchor. Clearly, lots of people climbed this route and had taken the time to replace the worn old gear with new rappel stations.

I rappelled first, with a single rope. Tristan pulled up half the rope, to find that it wouldn’t make it to the ground, and rappelled again from the ledge. I hiked away from the base as loose mud and rock crumbled beneath his feet and showered down. I was glad not to have stopped at the ledge, because that rock would have been falling on me.

“Titan.” Tristan announced when he got down. “There it is. We should climb the Titan.”

Bryan on the Cobra