Blog

Abbey’s First Tower

• April 2009
• Climb Fly

Mammut partnered up with the Big City Mountaineers, a nonprofit organization that takes city kids into the outdoors, by doing a fundraiser called Pitches With Pros. Basically, they raffled off their athletes to raise money for BCM, and I was lucky enough to be won by Abbey Leroux! 🙂

When I got the email about Abbey, I recognized her name immediately, because Abbey had written a couple of letters to me on this website over the last year or so, and I felt like I already knew her. So I was really looking forward to meeting her in person for our climbing day.

Abbey drove out to Moab with her boyfriend, and she was most excited to climb a desert tower. When we made our plans a month ago, Moab was having a little early spring heat wave. (The same heat wave that tricked me into planting tomato plants which all promptly died in the next freeze, just like EVERY March). But the temperatures dropped, and it was actually snowing the day they arrived! So we hoped the weather would clear, and decided we needed to be in the sun. The Kor-Ingalls on Castleton is the perfect climb for when sun is a priority, especially if you start a little late. That sounded perfect to us 🙂

I always love going to Castleton when there is some snow on the ground. We had to kick steps a little bit up to the final ridge below the tower, which is a real treat when you are entering the so-called spring season in the desert.

So getting in the sun was definitely the ticket. Abbey had not really experienced chimney climbing before, and enjoyed wiggling around the squeeze sections on the Kor-Ingalls. This was extra comfortable on this cold day, since we had on puffy jackets!

I always really like climbing the Kor-Ingalls. Climbing it makes me think of Layton Kor and Huntley Ingalls, the real desert pioneers, walking up to that imposing spire with no idea of what would happen up there, carrying all that heavy, rudimentary equipment, and having the skill and boldness to get to the top. I find that really amazing! And I also appreciate the ledges on the route, because they are in just the right places and very comfortable.

There had been a party a few pitches above us when we arrived at the base, but we got to the top of Castleton and were all alone (they had rappelled off the North Face while we were climbing.) Abbey checked out the summit register and was charmed to see that the two climbers had signed it and made their ascent in honor of their mom’s 70th birthday. Right on!!

Castleton has such a beautiful summit, especially when there’s snow all around. We soaked in the views, felt glad for our hats and puffy jackets, and decided to start rappelling.

Rappelling always makes me think how much fun it is to jump Castleton 🙂

But there is a certain amount of satisfaction in arriving to the base, back to your packs, and retracing your steps down the trail, especially when you have company to enjoy the final moments of the climb you made together. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful climb. Abbey and I are both so glad that Mammut came up with this great idea to help out BCM–we ended up on the summit of Castleton together, thanks to them!