Mt. Rushmore and The Needles

OK, finally getting caught up on my blogging. I had a lot of photos to go through!

After leaving Devil's Tower, I caught up with Kayte and Jay at the Wrinkled Rock Trailhead camping area for a couple days of climbing on the grounds of the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. I had fun top-roping some of the hard climbs they put up, leading a couple easier climbs, and watching Jay send Butterfly (5.12), which I didn't even bother trying to TR.

Me trying to work out the move I didn't want to commit to on The Pollenator.
I escaped left and traversed back into the climb.

Shadow of Jay climbing Baba Cool

After two days climbing at Rushmore, I totalled my car, as documented in a previous post. After buying a new car/home and taking a second day off to recuperate, Kayte and Jay left to head home, and I headed toward Custer State Park, in hopes of finding someone to climb with in The Needles.

My new car/home

For some reason, I was under the impression I might have trouble finding partners in The Needles. As it turns out, that couldn't have been farther from the truth. I drove in the Sylvan Lake entrance to the park, parked at the general store parking lot and had met climbing partners within about 5 minutes. So, I headed out for the day with John Biddick and his band of merry men and women. I'm not even sure how many people were climbing with us...8 or 10 maybe. We spent the day at an area called Moonlight Ridge, where John had done a lot of the development.

Top-roping at Moonlight Ridge

After a great day of climbing, I was invited back to Alan's cabin for the annual Sticky Ball game. This rough approximation of baseball played with a stick and a tennis ball on a wooded hill outside Alan's cabin may well have been the most fun I've ever had playing a "team sport." In the words of John, however, "Baseball is about the team...other places. Here, it's all about individual performance." Nobody will remember if you win or lose, but if you get stitches in your face sliding head-first into first, nobody will forget, or something like that. :-) So, yeah, 30 or 4o people, mostly climbers, great food and much hilarity. I had a blast, of course.

After the party, I managed to back into a ditch and get stuck, trying to turn around on a dirt road. From top of the world to frustrated and angry at myself in 5 seconds flat. I slept as much as I could, waited until a decent hour of the morning, and walked a mile and a half or so back to the Sylvan Lake store to use the phone, since my cell phone doesn't get reception pretty much anywhere outside of towns in South Dakota (thanks, AT&T!). I called my auto club and got a tow truck to come winch me out of the ditch. Man, has that Better World Club membership paid for itself.... As I left the store, I ran into Kevin, who I had met at the party the night before, and he gave me a ride back to my car, saving me another 1.5 mile walk.

After my car was out of the ditch, I caught up with Kevin, who was still waiting for other people to climb with. Apparently, people got around a little slowly the day after the party.... Kevin and I climbed Moonlight Rib, an easy romp in view of the Needle's Eye parking lot, then met up with John and others to head back up to Moonlight Ridge.

Alisha following me up a climb I can't recall the name of at the Third Area on Moonlight Ridge

The following day, Kevin, Joe, Dave, and I met up with Alisha and Amanda and hiked out to the Cathedral Spires. We decided to climb two different routes up Spire Two in two teams of three. Joe, Dave, and Alisha headed up the Conn Route, while Kevin, Amanda, and I set out to do Jan And Jane. I'm not sure if that's the route we actually did or not, but what we did was fairly fun. I started on easy climbing then pulled up through an awkward slot and set a gear belay. From here, there was a piton off to the right, and the Jan and Jane route seems to be described as going up the ridge. We didn't use the piton and, instead, stuck to a crack system. The climb is also supposed to be 5.5 but felt like 5.7+ to me. So, I'm not exactly sure what we climbed, but we made it up. :-) By the time we got to the second belay, however, with one pitch to go, it started sprinkling pretty good. Everyone was wet and cold and we decided to bail. We down-climbed to a nearby anchor and rappelled off. As we started to down-climb, the rain picked up, and the thunder was getting closer. Before all was said and done, we got some hail too. The other team, having started a little before us, proceeded to top out, and had to make 2 rappels in the rain to get down. Fun times.

View from the base of Spire 2

Kevin goofing off at the top of the first pitch

Amanda following the second pitch

On my fourth day at the Needles, I set out with Dave, Nick, and Joe to do a couple classics I had wanted to do since I got there: Tent Peg and Tricouni Nail. Both are pinnacles ending in impressively small peaks.

Joe and Nick on top of Tent Peg (taken from Tricouni Nail)

Tricouni Nail (Tent Peg is behind the tree on the right)

After that, we climbed a crack called Dakota-Illinois, and then Sandberg Peak, an impressively thin and improbable looking pinnacle.

Nick on top of Sandberg Peak

At the base of Sandberg, we ran into Paul Piana, who climbed with us for the rest of the day. Dave called a day after Sandberg, but Joe, Nick, Paul, and I headed over and climbed Bloody Spire, and then top-roped a climb on the back of the spire called Beer and Everclear. Well, everyone else did, anyway. I tried it, but fell a couple times on an early move on sharp, painful crimpers and decided I had no interest in trying again.

View from the first pitch belay on Bloody Spire

Paul Piana on Beer and Everclear (5.10hard)

After 4 straight days of climbing, and having done the classics I really wanted to do (there's plenty of great stuff I missed, but I'm sure I'll be back), I took a day in Hill City to do some blogging and catching up on email, then headed back to St. Louis to take care of insurance and car licensing business. On the way home, I stopped for a nice visit with my step-sister, Amy, and spent the night and had a pleasant visit with my dad, as well. Hopefully, I can get all my business taken care of this week, because, whether I do or not, I have to leave Friday morning to drive to Spokane to pick Eric up Saturday night and head to the Bugaboos. Woohoo!

Route List for 7/21-7/28:

• All Tuckered Out (5.10-) (TR)
• Shady Proposition (5.11) (TR)
• The Pollenator Variation(5.10a?) (led with one fall)
• Critical View (5.10) (pinkpoint)
• Dykes Next Door (5.11) (TR)
• The Pollenator (5.10b/c) (TR clean)
• Baba Cool (5.9+) (TR clean)
• Boxcars and Airplanes (5.7) (pinkpoint)
• Unknown 5.10a left arete of 2nd area at Moonlight Ridge (TR clean)
• Unknown 5.10a right side of 2nd area at Moonlight Ridge (TR)
• Unknown 5.10c left side of 2nd area at Moonlight Ridge (TR)
• Waverunner (5.8) (Onsight)
• Unknown 5.9 right of Waxing Crescent (5.9, Mixed) (Onsight)
• Waxing Crescent (5.10a) (TR clean)
• Icarus (5.10b) (TR)
• Moonlight Rib (5.4) (Followed clean)
• Purple Helmet (5.5, Mixed) (Followed Clean)
• Unknown 5.7 Trad route next to Purple Helmet/Darth Vader (Onsight)
• Pointless (5.8, Trad) (Onsight)
• Unknown 5.8 Trad Route around corner from Pointless (Redpoint)
• Jan And Jane Route?, Spire 2 (5.7ish Trad) (Onsight pitch 1, followed pitch 2 clean)
• Tent Peg (5.7, Mixed) (Onsight)
• Tricouni Nail (a.k.a. Cerberus) (5.8, Mixed) (Onsight)
• Dakota-Illinois (5.8, Trad) (TR clean)
• Sandberg Peak (5.9) (TR clean)
• Bloody Spire (2 pitches, 5.8, Trad) (Followed clean)