The underside of the Klingon Battlecruiser arch

Tom's Utah 2006 Travel's Page

After Tuolumne meadows, I headed to Utah. First I did some climbing in Indian Creek, famous for its vertical sandstone splitter cracks. I was pleased to see that I have improved my crack climbing a bit since the last time I was there, but unfortunately not enough to make the thin hands/rattly fingers feel easy. Taping up from the start also helped prevent the feeling that my hands had been sanded down, although I still lost skin on Coyne's Crack. Mostly I toproped a few classic lines on the Donnelly and Supercrack buttresses.

Next I met up with Dawn, James, and Kyle and later 2 more Tom's and a Cyndy from NABS (Natural Arch and Bridge Society) for some some arch searching and viewing in Canyonlands National Park. This was for an article that should appear in National Geographic adventure in a few months (or more). First we did some 4 wheel driving and short hikes in Horse Canyon, climbing up to the ruins and petroglyphs under Paul Bunyan's Potty arch and hiking out to see if Castle Arch was indeed a multiple arch (it was).Then we did an overnight up above Davis Canyon(carrying lots of heavy water). This was where we hunted down the "Klingon Battlecruiser Arch" It seemed like almost everywhere you looked there was another arch.

Big Arches (Castle Arch)...

... and Little Arches

Panoramic of the Klingon Battlecruiser Arch

Then Castleton Tower - spectacular. We got up pretty early to do Castleton, but it took a while to get going, and hike up to the base. There was a party ahead of us on the north chimney, so we waited around for a long time to minimize the chance of getting bombed with rocks from above. The first pitch was sustained, but fun climbing. Then we had a mini rope epic when the ropes snaked down into the crack behind some chockstones and a piece of fixed gear. One got horribly stuck and we finally had to rap down and thread the entire rope around the stuck part with the help of another climber coming up from below. Then we were back on track, delayed only by me bootying 2 cams, and waiting a bit when the route met up with the last bit of the Kor-Ingalls. It took a long time, but was quite enjoyable even though I had way too much gear (I even took some cow bell hexes). The views all the way up were nice, but from the top it was quite spectacular. We had nice evening light when we got to the base, but it was starting to get dark by the time we got back to the parking area.

Priest and Nuns, The Rectory, and Castleton Tower

Dawn and Wade under Kolob arch

The next expedition really felt like an expedition. We were going into Zion Natl. Park to try to measure Kolob Arch. Previous measurements suggested it was the largest arch in the world, however the previous measurements were not accurate enough to establish this without a doubt. For this trip there were horses taking in a heap of gear and some people, so my pack was super light. This made the 6 mile hike rather quick and pleasant. Shortly after the pack train showed up, it started raining. More of the people came in by a slot canyon, but they were well out of the slot part before the rain. That evening we scouted out the arch a bit. It was pretty big, but rather hard to get close to. After dark, there was a serious storm, with hail, rain, lightning, and thunder echoing around the canyons. The hail was bouncing under my tarp, and eventually there was some sheet flow coming under from the uphill side requiring some late night trenching operations (hail is very cold on bare feet). Meanwhile the little creek near us turned into a raging creek (at least it sounded like that). It started raining again about when it got light, which slowed our departure significantly. Seven of us were heading up to the top of the arch and one was staying at the bottom with various bits of survey equipment. Getting to the top involved a lot of scrambling and bushwhacking and 3 pitches of adventure style technical climbing (not too hard, but not a lot of protection, and some muddy and otherwise questionable holds). Most of the time I was carrying 2 ropes and some climbing gear. I was pretty dehydrated and beat by the time we got to the top.

By the time I ate some food and recovered, the others were crawling all over the top, rapping off the sides, lowering tether balls, and using laser distance meters to try to get the dimensions. The results haven't been officially published, so you'll have to wait for the details. Then we had to descend. This went faster than coming up, but it was still dark by the time we got back down. Shortly after our return, it started pouring again while I was filtering water. The next day we had to wait a while for the pack horses to come in, but this allowed us to throw sticks at various targets, practice driving pine cones with a properly bent stick, and other fun things. The hike out with a very light pack was quite pleasant despite the occasional drizzle. For more details and spectacular photos from Dawn, you'll have to wait for the article in National Geographic Adventure (it should be out some time in 2007).

I suppose this is published now... 287.4+-2 feet for the span of the arch. (compared to 290 feet for Landscape Arch in Arches - making Kolob the second longest span). Here is a link to Jay Wilbur's Article for a lot more detail and some more photos.

Jen cranks out a redpoint of Coyne's Crack

Dawn on the descent from Castleton Tower

Somewhat distorted panoramic of Kolob arch

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