Access to Upper Cliffs

To gain the ridgetop that would take me to Eph Hanks Tower, I went up through here and then continued my ascending traverse left (north) to reach the red cliffs that were the last cliff band to negotiate.

The red cliffs were not terribly high but were sheer. I was able to find a way up via something between a crack and a chimney, and that was a Class 4 pitch with a spot of low Class 5.

I believe I went too high too early, for I thought I had located an easier way up a bit to the north while studying routes from below, but I kept cliffing out, and, rather than descend and then continue the traverse, I took the harder, and only, way up that presented itself to me from where I was, which was that crack/chimney mentioned above.

Capitol Reef National Park, UT-- October 2009