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Carter's North Chimney

The summit ridge.

Carter's North Chimney

The summit ridge.

Sunset in the Fishers

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Gear!	Phantom Sprint	"Fixed Gear"
FA Bolt	Steep	Summit

Gear!	Phantom Sprint	"Fixed Gear"
FA Bolt	Steep	Summit

Overview

As climbers began to take higher interest in the Fishers, the major towers were slowly climbed. Although Laytor Kor put up the classic Finger of Fate on the Titan, he never returned to the area. Harvey Carter took charge, and over the years became the first person to climb all the other major towers in the Fishers. After putting up the CO NE Ridge on the Kingfisher, Carter turned his attention to its sheer neighbor Echo Tower. Over several days, Carter and company put up a tenuous route up one of the prominent chimney systems. This route faded into obscurity after aid hard-man Jim Beyer soloed his way up a nearby crack system and patched together a way up the "best crack system in the Fishers". The new route was named Phantom Sprint and at 5.9 C2+, quickly became the new "standard" route on Echo. The tower slowly developed several other lines, but all involved thin nailing on poor rock. Echo Tower remains a seldom visited tower that offers spectacular climbing to a thrilling summit.

Carter's North Chimney

The summit ridge.

North Chimney

Summit Ridge

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Getting There

The Fisher Towers lie about 20 miles east of Moab on Hwy 128 and good directions can be found on the area's main page. Getting to the base of Echo Tower is pretty straight forward and an easy-to-follow trail meanders from the parking lot to the tower. The key is leaving the main trail just below the Cobra and following the lesser-traveled climber's trail up between the Kingfisher and Echo. Getting to a specific route can be another matter and can involve hard to follow climber's trails to various places on the tower. I will leave the particular path up to you depending on what brings you to Echo.

Fisher Towers Trail and Tower Identification

Nice map courtesy of Scott P.

Red Tape

There is currently no red tape to negotiate in the Fishers as it is BLM land. Still, there are a few things to be mindful of. Avoid trampling on the cryptobiotic soil as it is a very delicate organism and is easly destroyed by a careless footstep. Also, several of the routes on Echo involve nailing but the "standard" route, Phantom Sprint, is considered a clean route (it has gone free!). I do not want to open the debate of whether or not to nail on certain routes as the conditions can change all the time, so please just be very thoughtful of whether the hammer is really needed or not to be safe, or if you're just in over your head on a particular route. Creative clean placements (tricams, hand-stacked pins, hooks, etc.) combined with a bit of bravery can go a long way in making an ascent clean versus pulling out the hammer.

Camping

There is a small camping lot with assigned sites at the parking lot. It is on a first come first serve basis and is often full. More info can be found on the BLM site.

Guides and Other Info

There are some good resources on Echo Tower and the Fishers in general. Here are a few...

1) Desert Rock III: Moab To Colorado National Monument by Eric Bjornstad

2) Excellent info can be found on mountainproject.com.

3) Good trip reports on Echo are few and far between. Here are a few...
ColoradoClimbers.org

Routes

Here are some of the notable routes:

North Chimney -

Phantom Sprint - 5.9 C2+

Iron Chef - 5.7 A3+

Sidewinder - 5.7 A1+

Have fun out there!

Gear!	Phantom Sprint	"Fixed Gear"
FA Bolt	Steep	Summit

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tables...

For a discussion on winter climbing, see the "When To Climb, Ski, etc." section below.

Routes Overview
Route Name		Difficulty	FA	FA Party
Cardiovascular Seizure		III 5.10	1973	Vern Clevenger & Keith Bell
East Buttress		III 5.8	1937	Bob Brinton, Glen Dawson, Richard Jones, Howard Koster, & Muir Dawson
East Face		III 5.6	1931	Robert Underhill, Glen Dawson, Jules Eichorn, & Norman Clyde
	Direct Crack Variation	5.8	1953	John Medenhall
	McKusky Variation	5.6	1996	Patrick McKusky, Tony Padilla, & Jeremy Georgelos
	Shaky-Leg Crack Variation	5.7	1936	Morgan Harris, James N. Smith, & Neil Ruge
	Ortenburger Variation	?	?	?
Direct East Face		V 5.9 A3 or 5.10d	1959	Denis Rutovitz & Andrzel Ehrenfeucht
Great Book, The		IV 5.9	1974	Gary Colliver & Chris Vandiver
Hairline		V 5.10 C2F or A2	1987	Bruce Bindner & Alex Schmauss
Left Wing Extremist		V 5.11a	1991	Galen Rowell & David Wilson
Mountaineer's Route		Class 3	1873	John Muir
North Slope		Class 2-3	?	?
Northeast Ridge		III 5.10	1982	Galen Rowell, Glaude Fiddler, & Vern Clevenger
Northwest Rib		5.7	1988	Galen Rowell
Peewee's Big Adventure		III 5.9	1986	Joel Richnak & Mark Carville
Rotten Chimney, The		III 5.8	1973	Vern Clevenger, Mark Moore, & Julie X
Southeast Face		III Class 5	1941	John Mendenhall & Ruth Mendenhall
West Slope		Class 2	1873	Charles Begole, Albert Johnson, & John Lucas
Whitney-Keeler Couloir		Class 5 A?	1964	Jim Servais & John Mendenhall
Whitney Trail, The		Class 1	?	?

Images