Before I start with the approach, might I suggest you bring two ropes for the rappel even though we only took one. This was not recognized until we parked the car. At that point, we kind of moved in slow motion to the tower and threw caution to the wind (literally as it was a windy day). Can’t say that was the smartest move, but we made it work.

Proceed south up a maintained trail to the base of Ashtar Command Tower (Tower). This trail really breaks away in the sand at places, but the park appreciates climbers using the same path versus just charging up the hill. Once on the eastern side of the Tower, the Ashtar Command route follows a two pitch line straight up the eastern face and then traverses right to a closely bolted varnished face. Feeling Minnesota is to the right following the corner on up for one pitch. Ground Control is around the right corner.

Route Description

The first pitch requires gear up an obvious crack to the second set of anchors out onto the wall. Bypass Feeling Minnesota’s anchors to the right. This will not be the most comfortable stance while belaying the 2nd and/or 3rd. Get a comfortable stance. The two pitch route is rated 5.9, but while the first pitch is closer to 5.8, the second pitch is much closer to 5.10 and is a fairly challenging lead.

The second pitch is well bolted as you venture out over the varnished face to the right. Traverse right and up for an absolutely full pitch of a 60 meter rope (every inch). Mount Spry and East Temple are in excellent view as you ascend. The traffic below (possibly stopped waiting on a RV going through the tunnel) can be a distraction. You acquire quite the captivated audience doing this route. As you start following the bolts straight up, it becomes more of a smearing campaign. Therefore, this two pitch route is quite diverse.

Once at the station on the summit of the tower and done with your belays, if you have two ropes, simply maneuver south a bit and you will find a bomber rappel station that sets off above and to the south of the first pitch. However, if you are foolish enough to be up there with one rope, like my crew, you will have to go to the far southern corner. It is slanted, so belay down to the edge and you should find relatively new (2005) runners on three really old stone nails of some sort. This still is not a one rope rappel. We were not sure exactly where it would take us as the wind was catching our rope aggressively and we could not see the angles below. If you are using this station, really pay attention to where your rope comes of the lip of the corner. This is a free air rappel from the get go. We stayed to the right side of the lip and it took us down to a large rock stuck between the tower and the wall behind.

I don’t recommend the following procedure to anyone. We then swung out to the right (from the rappel facing the tower) and lowered on rappel until we could swing into the “chimney like” feature below the independent rock feature between the tower and the main wall, jamming our bodies as far in as we could. We then lowered ourselves until at the end of the rope and came out of the system and then stemmed the rest of the way down, moving further into the crack to keep the counter force working (photo).

Of course the problem with this was the last climber did not have the leverage to pull the rope. Therefore, we took an hour making a very long rig out of a tree branch and eventually got the rope pulled despite the wind working against us. This was a hairy rappel to say the least, and not the brightest of my climbing moments in Zion.

Essential Gear

Two 60 meter ropes. Full set of cams, a few nuts. Climbing shoes. Sandstone colored chalk. And some sense if you have any.

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