The TOWER

Saturday July 22^nd

The official 1 week mark! Whooo-hoo!

We celebrated by waking up at 345. We did this so we could pack the camper and leave the badlands by 5am as we had a very busy day planned.

We actually did follow our plan:

• Wake up
• Eat breakfast
• Pack Camper
• Say Goodbye Badlands!
• Drive 2 hours to Mount Rushmore
• Say hello to Mount Rushmore for about 1 hour
• Say Goodbye Mount Rushmore
• Drive about 15 minutes to Custer State Park
• Meet our climbing guide then go climbing all day!
• Say Goodbye Custer State Park and South Dakota
• Say Hello Wyoming and Devil’s Tower
• Pop the camper
• Eat dinner
• Prep for our big day
• Go to sleep ASAP

I was pretty impressed we were able to stick to our schedule and make Mount Rushmore prior to 7am. This is an excellent time to go as you essentially have the whole place to yourself, the faces get excellent morning sun, except for Teddy as he’s more of a late riser, and you don’t have to pay for parking. The visitor center and shops are not open, but really it is pretty self-explanatory. We walked the little 0.6 mile loop from the flags down to the base and back up to viewing area. It was a nice little walk with a few informational signs along the way. We took our pictures and we left.

Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park are both located in an area of South Dakota called the Black Hills. We just discovered how gorgeous this area is, and have since made plans to go back to spend more time to explore the area. Black Hills in addition to being home to Mount Rushmore is also home to Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument as well as more protected lands, which makes for some gorgeous scenery. We did not make it to Wind Cave or Jewel Cave this time around, but will definitely make it a point on our next trip.

We headed to the Sylvan Lake area of Custer State Park which had a pristine mountain lake surrounded by miles of climbable rocks!

We met our climbing guide, Cheyenne, with Sylvan Climbing Guides, in the parking lot of Sylvan Lake. From there we were able to get any additional gear we needed, and sign our lives away. We had a very easy 10 minute walk around the back of the lake to get to the climbing area. We happened to go on a day where the local climbing community was hosting a big social event (aka extra climbing) so there were more than the usual numbers of people around, but still gave us plenty of room to do the routes we wanted to do. Over the course of the day we got introduced to crack climbing (where you stick body parts usually hands or feet into cracks to push yourself up the wall), multi-pitch climbing (walls that are too big to do all at once, taller than 175ft and usually closer to 300ft +, so you go up piece by piece), and long pitches (a climbing route that is longer than usual. For perspective, our climbing gym at home has 40 foot walls; here we climbed 175ft all in one go). I was pretty hesitant at first as climbing outside doesn’t have the same feel as climbing inside of a gym. I was able to grow more comfortable on the walls and with getting higher than usual. Greg, of course, was a calmly excited natural who was excited to push his limits and get on top of the highest walls around.

Cheyenne was incredibly helpful and well worth the money. As a climbing guide his job is to put “gear” in the wall so that he can attach the rope to it and safely move up the wall. Then ensure that we also get safely up the wall. Gear typically involves cams and nuts, which are just fancy equipment that you shove into cracks in the wall that can hold 500+lbs. We needed him to place gear as there were not just bolts, metal circles you can attach climbing equipment to, on Devil’s Tower. With a guide it is actually easier to climb up the wall for several reasons, however one of my favorites is that with him belaying us from above we could not fall any significant distance, and could start exactly where we fell, which takes a lot of the fear out of it. Once you trust your equipment and your guide all you have left is to trust yourself, your strength, and your skill.

Overall we had a really good day of climbing, and got to climb lots of interesting rocks which provided some spectacular views.

We finished around mid-afternoon so we could drive on to Devil’s Tower to be ready for the next day. We stopped for groceries along the way. We got the camper all set up and essentially decided we were too tired to function. Thankfully our campground, Devil’s Tower View, also served hot food. So we headed inside and grabbed a burger and fries. With our stomachs full, we got all of our gear ready for the next day, as it was going to be another long tiring day.

 

Sunday July 23^rd

Devil’s Tower Day!

We had been looking forward to this day for months now. We had been going to our rock climbing gym usually 3 times a week for the last couple of months to get in physical shape and get our climbing skills up.

We woke up at 255 as we were meeting at the parking lot at 330 dressed and ready to go. Again shockingly, we made it on time. We had everything we needed: helmets, head lamps, camelbaks, snacks, harnesses, climbing shoes, and camera. We set to getting to the base so we could get started. There is one main reason to get started so early, heat. Once the sun shines on the wall in the middle of summer it can get up to the mid to upper 90s which can be brutal especially if you are full on exerting yourself. The other, lesser, reason for getting started so early is to be the first group on the wall. Most of the guides essentially take the same route to the top as it is one of the easiest ways up, so guests have the highest likelihood of being successful at summiting Devil’s Tower.

We didn’t think about it, but there is quite an uphill walk to get from the parking lot to the base of the tower. Not a big deal, just a little surprising when you are half asleep and not expecting a 15 minute workout. We got to the Tower, we were, in fact, the first group to the base. So we got started.

Cheyenne would climb up first, followed by myself, and then Greg. The first one or two sections, “pitches”, required us to have our headlamps on, but by 5am the world was bright again. It took 5 very long sections to get to the top of the 550ft Tower. We made it to the top by 730am or so. We were able to catch our breath, grab a snack, and explore the summit. You could see where there were lightning strikes throughout. There was also still evidence of where a 1940s stuntman had parachuted on top of the tower, and had gotten stranded for 5 days until the country’s leading rock climbers could stage a rescue attempt all because his rope got twisted up on the way down. We could only see about 10 miles in each direction, if there had not been smoke from fires in southeastern Montana, then we also could have seen for about 30 miles in each direction.

The next step was repelling down. This was something I had learned how to do the day before and was still nervous about. Greg has been doing it for years and feels very comfortable, and is therefore able to go down much quicker than I had. It took 4 sections, again first Cheyenne followed by myself and then Greg. We were back on the ground by 10am. The other park patrons were very impressed by our feat. We took some victory photos and headed back to the cars. We said goodbye to Cheyenne and parted ways. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a climbing guide or teacher in Colorado, Black Hills or for ice climbing in Vermont. Ask me for contact information if you are interested.

We headed back to the camper, showered, and napped for a very long time. We basically just relaxed the rest of the day.

A lightning storm started rolling in that evening. Since the land was so flat we could see it slowly heading towards us from over 30 miles away. We were able to get some awesome pictures. We ended up falling asleep inside the camper before it hit us.

Next up is Ten Sleep!