The desert spire that helped launch a revolution

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“I WAS STARTLED THERE COULD BE SUCH A THING,” says Huntley Ingalls, the first climber to spot the 400-foot (now) desert icon Castleton Tower. It was 1956, and Ingalls had happened upon Castleton, the Fisher Towers, and the Six Shooters during a gravity survey for the United States Geological Survey. His other impression? “That Castleton was beautiful,” says Ingalls. “It struck me as a classic.”

While today it’s a no-brainer that Fifty Classic Climbs of North America would include the four-pitch climb, it wasn’t always so easy to convince climbers. Standing atop a talus cone a dozen-odd miles east of Moab, Castleton went long overlooked, mainly because of Golden Era lore about desert rock’s chossiness. When, in 1961, Ingalls convinced Layton Kor to have a go, the ascent went down in two days, on Wingate and Kayenta sandstone the pair found surprisingly solid — their ascent helped the desert revolution gain momentum. And while Kor and Ingalls used some aid, the 1962 second ascent (Harvey T. Carter and Cleve McCarty) revamped the line into a free climb.

Castleton has since played host to car commercials (with automobiles “summiting” via helicopter), fireworks displays, BBQs, TV shows, and, in May 2008, a free solo-to-BASE jump (Steph Davis on the North Face, a 5.11-). With its Fifty Classics status, the Kor-Ingalls is a major draw in high season, with parties stacking up along its length.

To start, head east from the campground along a wash, and then follow a quad-mangler trail (1,000-plus feet of gain) up the cone. Contour south along the tower to a platform below the Kor-Ingalls, which stair-steps right through clean-cut corners. Throughout, you’ll marvel at the blobular calcite holds, seemingly wax-dripped onto the Wingate.

The first pitch takes 5.5 chimneys to a large ledge at 140 feet, while the second pitch steepens to 5.8 jamming for another 100. Regroup on a cozy ledge and look up at the crux third pitch: 5.9 squeeze on steepening rock to a ledge another 100 feet up (heel-toe, heel-toe, thrutch-thrash-pray!). From here, 60 feet of moderate climbing lead to the summit, a 30-by-40-foot platform in the sky. The La Sals to the south, the Colorado River to the north, spires, valleys, and mesas all around: take in the view, and then rap back to the red desert.

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