El Matador

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El Matador

Pitch 2.

An eighteen hour drive (Montana sure is wide) made easier by a few audio books. We had this Devils Tower trip planned a few times before including this past 4th Of July weekend. Plans somehow kept on evaporating for one reason or another and we realized that it’s been a decade since the last and only time we had visited as climbers. Between that last trip to the Tower and my visit there as a child with my parents in the late 80s, I had nothing but fond memories of the place. We reserved a KOA cabin mainly so that Blondie could accompany us – she’d sit out the two mornings (no dogs allowed on monument land) well cooled by two industrial-sized fans we brought along while we went climbing and we’d all spend afternoons together. This worked well but only 50% of the time. After enjoying the famous El Matador route (5.10+, 6 pitches) on day 1, cold and rainy morning greeted us on day 2. Reassured by NOAA’s dark outlook, we packed up and drove home.

Notes

Devils Tower

Drinkable.

  • Highly approve of Wyoming’s 80 mph speed limits and low state trooper density… Oregon should take notes.
  • You miss out on some good (and some not so good) climbing if you rap off after the money pitch of El Matador.
  • Khaled Hosseini’s novels make long stretches of driving less painful.
  • Rapping El Matador from the summit is straightforward (if there’s no other party coming up): 2X single, 3X double.
  • Devils Tower KOA campground does not suck.
  • Photos

    Montana

    A quick break somewhere in central Montana (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    Devils Tower – a great basaltic middle finger raised up towards the forces of erosion (or is it in fact saluting the Midwest?).


    Devils Tower

    First view of Devils Tower (east face) from the KOA campground in the morning (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    Shirley on the short hike to the base of the west face of Devils Tower (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    The west face of Devils Tower. El Matador (5.10+) is visible (esp. the famous pitch 2) just right of center of the photo (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley starting the up the first pitch of El Matador. The famous stem box is visible just above saying “good morning” (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    More pitch 1 (very fun!) action.


    El Matador

    The tower casting its shadow down onto the visitors’ center (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley on the finger crack finish of pitch 1 of El Matador (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Into the meat of El Matador – wait…


    El Matador

    This pitch just keeps on giving…


    El Matador

    Shirley trying out the full on stem low on the money pitch of El Matador (the thing gets marginally narrower about 20+ feet above the belay).


    El Matador

    The gently rolling terrain of northeastern Wyoming as seen from top of pitch 2 of El Matador (Aug. 2014).

    El Matador

    El Matador.


    El Matador

    Shirley stemming to glory on pitch 2.

    El Matador

    El Matador.


    El Matador

    Finally the crack opens up near the top to allow straight in jamming for those who choose to (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Views west from near the top of El Matador. Visitors center is the parking lot below (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley atop pitch 2 of El Matador (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Starting up the fun (short) pitch 3 of El Matador (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Fun climbing on this (short) pitch.


    El Matador

    Shirley on the third pitch of El Matador (a nice 5.8 hand crack).


    El Matador

    Pitch 4 with a bit of sewing action through the touch of choss (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley topping out on our 4th pitch of El Matador. I thought this section in the photo was the crux of the pitch actually (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley on the pitch 5 chimney of El Matador (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    More pitch 5 chossiness (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    5.7 finishing choss on the final (our 6th) pitch of El Matador (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley arriving on the summit plateau of Devils Tower (our pitch 6 of El Matador).


    El Matador

    Views from the summit. There were rainclouds building in the near distance and dropping a bit of rain on us…so tagged the edge of the summit plateau and started rapping back down the route (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley starting down El Matador. If there are no other parties below, this is a good descent actually. Here’s the beta: single, single (not bypassing any bolted stations), double to top of P2, double to top of P1, double (?) to ground (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    Shirley on the final rap (Aug. 2014).


    El Matador

    The west face of Devils Tower. El Matador route lies between the obvious shadowy dihedral on the right and the columns with the first mid height set of roofs (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    A celebratory cold one after our climb of El Matador (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    Happy dogs!


    Devils Tower

    Blondie helping out with racking up for day 2…should’ve saved ourselves the trouble and had more beer as we’d wake up to rain the next day (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    I guess Blondie approves of the place as well (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    The girls at the KOA campground. I like the place – not very crowded and they keep the tent, RV and cabin sites well separated.


    Devils Tower

    A Devils Tower area resident (prairie dog).


    Devils Tower

    The west/northwest aspect of Devils Tower (Aug. 2014).


    Devils Tower

    A big prairie dog.


    Devils Tower

    God – it begs to be climbed!


    Wyoming

    Northeastern Wyoming – cowboy country. “Pass me that bottle of coconut-ginger kombucha, baby.”


    Montana

    A bit of honesty in eastern Montana (Sept. 2014).


    Montana

    Little Bighorn in Montana. Apparently some patriotic Americans repelled a gang of marauding immigrants here back in the day…I dunno (Sept. 2014).


    Montana

    A quick pit stop on the looong drive home (Sept. 2014).


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