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Peak Mountain 3

Middle Gypsy-Sandstone Sandwich

FA Luke Laeser and Jon Butler fall 1993
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

The route starts on the SE side in between Middle and Upper Gypsy Towers. Go up an easy 5th class section to a small ledge below an offwidth/chimney.

P1: Climb the stout beginning and grunt your way into the chimney. It won't take long before the rock turns more into clumped together sand in the form of huge boulders stacked on top of each other. Carefully run it out over this section, taking the right option. When I was climbing this, I kept thinking about the game Jenga, pull out the wrong piece and it all comes down! (It's probably not that bad, but it was scary). Once past the rotten rock, you'll be at the saddle between the towers. There's a nice crack to build an anchor (#0.75 Camalots).

P2: Climb the obvious crack up the middle tower. The rock is nicely varnished and solid. The crack itself is one of those cracks within a crack systems, which just means fun interesting climbing in my opinion. I ended the pitch below a short OW that leads to a nice ledge (but nothing to set an anchor with). You'll need big cams to set the anchor. (#4.5 and #5 Camalots, if I remember correctly). You could run this pitch to the top, but you might have rope drag which would add to the terror of the top out move.

P2.5: Climb up the short offwidth, look for a small hole to hand place a baby angle. If you are like me, you'll wish the hole was a little deeper and the piton didn't wiggle around so much. Test it, top step, and then make one of those graceful, beached whale, mantel moves while desperately clinging for a hold that's not there. If the angle pops, or you blow the mantel, you most likely won't be walking back down to the car, it's a pretty scary move. The anchor is far to the left, best to give the rope a nice flick to pop out the angle allowing the second to safely jug up to the anchor without the danger of a huge swing.

It's a beautiful summit, rarely visited summit up there.

Location

These towers are a pain to get to. They are a cluster of 3 and half towers located in-between Ute and Red Canyon. By far the easiest approach is just drive through the neighborhood directly below them, get as close as possible and hike straight up drainages to them. But this approach requires crossing private property and there are several "No Monument Access" signs on the roads there. Another option is to head up to Red Canyon (which also requires crossing private property unless you start in a drainage from S. Camp Road, i.e. very far away) and then head up the bench and contour west to the towers. The third option with no access issues is to go to the Liberty Cap trailhead, follow that up to the bench and head on over to the towers. This way is very long! Best to seek permission to cross private property.

Protection

Bring several big cams, a #4 Bigbro was nice to have, but you'd be safe enough with out it, a baby angle, and a standard desert rack.