Climbing the iconic Castleton Tower in Utah via Kor Ingalls (5.9ish).
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Geoff had the great idea of climbing Castleton Tower via Kor Ingalls Route (5.9+) and we made the drive out from Moab to camp near by. The tower is just one of hundreds of sandstone monoliths that pepper the Utah desert and it offers a multitude of routes, Kor Ingals being extremely popular.
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| A late night sort of the gear |
The route follows an obvious corner in about 6 pitches to the summit. The climbing well protected and steady. The crux pitch has a couple of stiff moves on smooth slippy calcite that has a handy bolt to protect. No photos of the route unfortunately as my compact camera came to grief in Red Rocks.
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 | | The steep approach |
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 | | Me pre climb |
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 | | Me post climb - Highly dehydrated |
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 | | Local resident |
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On the summit we topped out with the party ahead along with other teams
topping out from other routes. It was blowing a gale and a kind man
decided to fix a single 70m abseil rope for everyone to descend on (he
himself coming down after in two abseils). This abseil was quite an
experience as I didn’t bother with a back up prussik. 70m of free
hanging abseil on a single skinny rope! By the end l could feel my grip
getting tired and was clasping the rope for dear life. I vowed to use a
prussik in future.
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 | | A party simul-rappelling |
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 | Me with The Rectory towers behind
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Great route. Fantastic landscape. Bit of a slog of an approach but hell it’s worth it!
