A two-season effort in the Cirque of the Towers has produced the hardest reported route in Wyoming’s Wind River Range: a 5.12+ crack and face climb up the steep south face of popular Wolf’s Head peak. Last fall, Dave Anderson and Jamie Selda climbed Canus (III 5.11c), a new line on the face to the left of the old Fred Beckey South Face route. The two tried to link their line to a striking splitter crack system left of their route, but they broke two drill bits trying to protect a crux face traverse. Anderson hoped to return with Greg Collins to complete the harder line, but early-winter storms prevented an attempt. 

In July of this year, Greg Collins and Kent McBride approached the traverse via the Beckey route and placed three bolts and two pitons on lead to protect the crux face moves, which they free-climbed at 5.12d. Above this, they climbed two pitches of thin-hand and finger cracks at 5.11a and 5.11b/c, calling their route Great White Buffalo (III 5.12d). 

Anderson said the link-up of the three 5.10 and 5.11 pitches of Canus with Great White Buffalo’s three 5.11 and 5.12 pitches is the “Astroman of the Winds…with an Enduro-like corner, a tough squeeze offwidth pitch, a really hard boulder pitch (that can be aided/pendulumed through), and some other fine jam cracks up high.” He added that “a wire brush might be recommended as gear for the first two pitches until they get climbed a little more.” 

Anderson enjoyed a couple of marathon days in the Winds this summer, setting the fastest known times for the 18-mile ascent of 13,804-foot Gannet Peak, Wyoming’s highest summit (8 hours 20 minutes), and for the Cirque of the Towers Traverse (13 hours 25 minutes), which involves 16 miles of trail and four miles of third- to fifth-class soloing over a dozen or so summits. Both times are about 90 minutes faster than previous known speeds.
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