2 cruxes, pull on things and climb dem.

hard if you've been partying all day.

Radiation Babies

Desp-Arête

Klein's Girls

Not Bosched Up

The Shadow

Cave Man

Social Realism

From Trilobites to Lycra Tights

Falcon Corner

Fryable

Falcon Corner Variation

The Big Chill

Insane in the Brain

Deja Vu

Whiskey and Weed Power

This route makes the drive, the hike and the risk of being struck by a large falling rock in the Shooting Gallery...WORTH IT!  Continuously difficult for the rating, vertical with technical and commiting movement, complete with an airy finish and a view to remember.  The limestone is golden colored and not as compact as other routes.  There are still a few loose rocks on this route.

Exciting arête climbing that keeps coming at you.  Sure, you get a little rest atop the pedestal, but this route can be deceptively difficult.  The crux is definitely after the sixth clip (first bolt after the two pins).  Some desperate, committing moves will get you to the top, if they hold.  Relatively clean for the Hellgate.

A bold, exhilarating route up some fairly solid rock, this one may have you screaming "mommy!"

Not Bosched Up

is the test-piece moderate of

Tower Two

. Put up around the dawn of heavy, rap-bolting, the FA certainly

kept it real

.  As committing as it is bare, this line requires a solid head and creative gear placements, expect long run outs and marginal to no protection. I don't know where you draw the line between R and X, but a slight breeze my blow this one more towards the latter.

Route finding is also a crux, so here's some direction: Begin about 5-7 feet right of

Radiation Babies

on a solid, black slab. Start with a long, strenuous, run out up a small dihedral feature, and aim for a thin, shallow crack. Continue up the weakness and break left of the wall's first roof. Climb up a steep face to a small ledge and rest. Continue up the face using pockets, passing a hidden "Hallelujah" pin and work towards the middle of the upper roof. Its here where you'll find the routes best protection, so use em' if you got them! Skirt left across the slab (crux) and gain the route's final thrutch up a broken dihedral to the tower's top. The rock deteriorates the higher you go, but you'll find best climbing and stone if you continue straight up. Building a belay at the top of the tower is not recommended, set a directional and traverse left to the belay of

Social Realism

.

Multifaceted, you'll probably spend a good amount of time on this line. With difficult route finding and some questionable rock,

Not Bosched Up

is a very slow lead, bring a patient belayer and plenty of confidence.

A great little gear line that traverses the front face of

Tower 2

over fairly solid rock.

Sharing the same start as

Cave Man

,

The Shadow

breaks hard left before a bolt and into darker stone using an incipient crack system. The use of pockets and smears get you to a short section of a two inch crack/bulge (crux); place some gear here and fire the finish!

Initial gear can be tricky, but bomber placements are soon to follow, get after this because its there.

Although

Cave Man

is a step down in quality from the routes to the right (

Déjà Vu, Insane/Reality Check, and W&W Power

) because of a significant patch of choss above the cave near the top, it is the longest pitch of the bunch and it has some great movement over airy terrain. It shouldn't be missed if you got a thing for

Hellgate

limestone.

Cave Man

starts maybe 15 feet left of

Déjà Vu

on easy ground (5.8ish) protected by a few solid cams in pods, until the first bolt is reached about 35 feet up.  When we climbed it (8/5/11), two of the hangers had loose nuts which we could only hand tighten; a wrench would be useful.  Rated 11d in Ruckmans' guide, but no way.

A route that spans the ages... From old school to new(er) school, this route tackles it all. A crack, a roof, a slab, and a little bit of terror! As you climb this line you'll be unloading your passive pro and reloading your short, snappy draws (biner gates opposed, of course). Multiple cruxes await the timid choss guzzler on this thrilling, mixed climb; expect a long and wild ride. Power, finesse, gear, and quick clips; a modern time machine on rock! Its like

Back to the Future

, in reverse.

Trilobites

: Begin up a steep, pocketed face until you reach the right-side, thin, crack. Protect this sections using micro nuts and cams up to 3 inches. Fairly solid climbing, with adequate protection, this won't be the troubling part for old timers or dinosaurs. Exit the crack and work across the space towards the first bolt.

Lycra Tights

: After the crack runs out, get sporty and bold! Climb to a bulge and bolt (1st crux), work up towards the right side of a roof/crack/cave feature (optional gear exists) and locate a hidden, reachy bolt. Next pull the powerful, sequential roof (2nd crux) and end the remainder of the route up a steep and blank face. Spacious and technical, the remaining shield (3rd crux) will leave you thankful for those skin tight, pantaloons. Finish at a two bolt, shared anchor and change back into modern attire.

A neglected and delicate corner with dirty, dirty tendencies, this is easily the worst gear route at

Hellgate

.

Start up some solid rock on big edges working your way into the corner, the crux comes about half-way up as the dihedral steepens and the holds and feet disappear. A few more "heads up" moves lead into an awkward traverse, left and under a block. Join the upper crack sectin of

Fryable

. The route stops at a two bolt anchor.

Not a terrible route, the gear is good, the movement is funky, and its all there. I'd just say it favors a more specific crowd...like ones who like dirt in their eyes.

A nice mixed route with a bolt protected crux. Begin the first 15 feet using a dark runnel protected by small cams or nuts. Head up and just left towards the only two bolts, then finish in a gear protected corner. Stop at a two bolt/sling anchor.

******ANCHOR BOLTS HAVE BEEN REMOVED*******

This is a variation on falcon corner.

There are two bolts as you ascend up the lower angle part of the climb towards the falcon corner dihedral. After climbing the dihedral, pull up onto a ledge you can stand on, directly on top of the dihedral. This is actually fun climbing and not that dirty.

From there you can  escape left onto fryable as the normal falcon corner route does.

Or there is a obvious bolt that leads out onto the face, right of the ledge. It ascends the face pretty much directly above the dihedral. Three more bolts on pretty serious choss lead to its own set of anchors above and slightly right of the fryable anchors. The anchors are two nice Stainless steel bolts in solid rock.

We found the face climbing above the dihedral to certainly be the crux but we aren't much of face climbers at all. The choss and blocks coming down certainly made it feel serious. Might be a little harder than 9, might be easier, I'm not at all aware of grade stiffness at hellgate.

If you are top rope belaying someone on this, standing in the alcove is like playing russian roulette with a muzzleloader. We pulled down one chunk the size of persons head and numerous rocks fist sized. 60m rope is a must, not that anyone carries anything else.

Consistently challenging climbing on a vertical face.  Watch for loose, flaky rock just after the third bolt and towards the top.  Still, this is a relatively clean route for the Hellgate.  Don't forget to top out on this route, the view is fantastic. There is a bit of a runout between the last bolt and the anchor so be on your toes.

A great sport route on the sunny side of tower 2 that starts on the eastern part of the flat area.  Two big boulders and some pine trees give the belayer shade.  Climb up a crack, putting a cool lieback in between the first and second bolts and continue up fun rock.  At bolt number 8, angle towards the crack to your LEFT.  Ignore the two bolts toward your right.  I did this and found a dead end 20 feet below some other route's anchors.  After having followed the correct crack straight up, pull over the bulge on some thin holds and side pulls; you will now see the chain anchors for the first time, slightly off to your right.  Use at least a 60 meter rope.  Have your belayer tie into the other end.  A 60 meter rope will leave you and your belayer on your tip-toes to untie.  A 59 meter rope will leave you one and a half feet short.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Tower Two