A day in the Needles : Trip Reports : SummitPost

Totem Pole

My brothers Pat and Dan, some friends from Salt Lake, and I got together for a couple of days climbing in the needles. Pat and Dan drove down from CO and we met their friends Matt and his brother Pete. Pete works for BD in SLC and said he had not been out for a while, but I think he got a good tour. We met at the Totem Pole at about 7pm.

Totem Pole is rated at 5.7 in Piana's guidebook and has been upgraded to 5.10c in a newer guide book. I wonder what Fritz Wiessner would have thought of that rating when he did it first in 1936. Regardless it is one of the toughest 5.7 most people will ever do. This one is also gaurenteed to draw a crowd as it is a 100ft spire right on a bend in the road with a great veiw of the Cathedral Spires. One hint is not to be afraid to take the wide gear as it will seem more fun than scary. We did Tricouni Nail the next morning and then moved on to tent peg.

The view on top is awesome.

Tricouni Nail on Cerberus

Tricouni is a Needles Classic that starts out with three pitons in a thin seam. It then moves to the shoulder where you can place some gear or a sling and then small nuts before moving on to a steeper face. I believe there is then a large ring bolt at which point you move to the right and pass another bolt to a steep finish. You end on top of the spire and simul rappel off opposite sides of the spire between a set of three camel humps. This gem was done by Royal Robbins in 1964.Matt and Pete rapping off.

Tent Peg

Pat and Matt both lead Tent Peg by the long route on the down hill side of the Spire that hooks up with the normal route. Dan is on the top of Tricouni in the background. The route is about a 100 foot crack with a 20 foot runout to the top.

The gear looked a little spicey, but they said it was only about 5.7. This was also a Robbins route done in 1964.

Nantucket Sleighride

My brother Dan(Seen at left following Eyetooth on an earlier trip) decided he wanted to step it up a little this time out and did Nantucket Sleighride a Pete Delannoy route put up in 1981.

It starts out with 40 feet of thin crack with a 5.10 crux moving to the first bolt. The route then follows a beautiful face to the top passing 4 more bolts.

Tee the Ball

We then moved on to Tee the Ball which I believe is on High Point just down hill from the start of Tricouni. I don't know the FA info on this climb but it is very fun and a long pitch. It starts with a short corner and then traverses to the left on slightly runout funky trad gear with bigger exposure as you traverse. This is Pat at the first bolt.

You then get to some good crack which takes you to the first bolt of about eight maybe more for about 100ft.

This is a long pitch and you need two ropes to get down.

Dakota-Illinois

It was then off to Dakota-Illinois where my older Brother Pat did a nice lead of this Bob Archbold route put up in 1977.

It is quite wide to start but not too long. All in all it was a good 24 hours in the Needles. I drove back to Spearfish that evening with that great feeling of sore feet, cramped calves, and a bunch of fun memories.

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