Arch Tower: Dry Heaves

This tower is in a pristine remote setting, and mostly high quality rock, but does have a couple of standard desert chossy sections. There is quite a bit of wide crack climbing, but it's an absolutely fantastic adventure.  This tower, like the name suggests, is actually a huge vertical arch. You could drive a semi through the middle of this tower.

The route starts in the shade of the north/northeast face, on the left side of the tower.  Scramble up a couple of bedding seams.  The route begins well below the saddle.

P1. Climb the hand and fist crack until it fades out in low angle terrain to a nice ledge and two drilled pins next to the dihedral on the left.

P2. Climb the vertical offwidth crack in the middle of the face to the top of the first buttress. There are 2 drilled pins at the top of the crack for the belay/rap.  The crack is barely visible on the left sunlit face in this picture:

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Scramble over/around some lower quality rock to find a tunnel (the Birth Canal) leading to the big notch between the north buttress and the main tower.  The notch is a roomy and very comfortable place.

P3. Climb up to the arete on the right using beak holes to where there is a small stance. There is a drilled pin or a bolt once in a while for safety. Continue up and to the right on beak holes to the very exposed hanging belay, or continue on into the massive and comfortable chimney if rope drag allows.

If you have something like a #12 Valley Giant, you may be able to climb straight up the chimney on the NW face.  #3 & 4 Big Bros didn't quite provide the security we wanted when it forces you out, so . . .

P4. Go through the tower to the south face, and climb the vertical wide crack to the top of the buttress. Groovy 5.10 A1.

The summit is mere feet away.  The rock gets soft here.  The first hook blew out, but equalizing two should do the trick.

Descent: this part is kind of tricky. The rock is very soft on the summit, negating the ability to rap directly back into the notch. Rap off the north face from the fixed anchors. As soon as you safely can, start moving to climber's left. The goal here is to reach all the way back to the notch at the center of the tower. You may prefer to stop at the belay station before the huge chimney, but this may result in an awkward angle to rap back to the ledge. Crawl back through the Birth Canal, and rap to the base from the anchors on top of the second pitch.

Subsequent parties should feel free to transform beak holes into bolts or pins.  A fixed anchor might also be added just below the summit.  If someone wanted to bring 20 feet of webbing, it may be possible to lasso the entire soft summit block enabling a rap directly back into the big notch to the north.

From the river, hike about 3 miles up the canyon, taking the left fork when you come to a junction. You can't miss it.  You can also hike in from above.  Take the road over Black Ridge in to the Mee canyon trailhead.

A standard desert rack plus . . . as the name suggests, bring lots of wide gear. I mean lots. We took 4 #5 Camalots, 4 #4 Camalots, 2 #4.5s, 3 #3 Camalots, and a selection of Big Bros. Bird beaks or a similar piece are also required (4 or 5).

EDIT:  Per MP member struva, the beak holes are now populated with rivets, and 9" & 12" Valley Giants of course come in handy, and enable the alternate north-side pitch.