This audacious line starts on the left side of Tower rock and follows the obvious and major ramp which diagonals right and up. Tim Olsen has a detailed description on page 211 in his excellent "Northwest Oregon Rock" book which I will not duplicate, just buy his book. Although Beckey lists it as a grade 3, I suspect he just took Jims word as he may have felt it could have been done faster than the day and a half it took them. However, the route has not seen a known 2nd ascent in the 35 some years since it was done and most likely still has many of the loose rocks the FA encountered. Per Jim Nieland: "We did a few aid moves above the bivouac in a dirty/slimy corner.  The route went 98+% free.  Finding good placement for protection was a problem. You will probably want to take a small selection of pitons as well as chalks. A bolt kit for emergencies would also give some backup."

This is a very committing line that took Jim and Francesco 1-1/2 days with a forced bivi as crossing back across the ramp would have been damned difficult. The route is made much less committing by the new "Rapunzel's Back in Rehab" route that cross's it in the middle. Rapunzel has solid new stainless fixed bolts which would make it possible to bail via rappel where the NW Face crosses it. Jim also noted: "It was just a lot of loose rock that you had to dig through before you found usable holds.  The diagonal ramp area high on the face had a lot of loose blocks laying about but was easy climbing and quickly passed."

The ledge, in addition to having a band of not as solid of rock and also being less than vertical, catches loose blocks. Based on Jims description, don't get on this if folks are on Rapunzel's Back in Rehab.

NW Face

Ben's Route

Rapunzel's Back in Rehab

This route starts on the broken lower slope of the Tower and angles right via bolts and small cams for 120' or so. Ben asked for the first lead as he was raring to go, and I consented, that's why I call it Ben's route, cause he did a great job taking his time to make it better for those who follow. Knocking loose rocks off, pulling tufts of grass and general gardening as he went. The bolts are drilled into good rock.

It's main reason for it's addition here is to pitch it out to the young studs and studettes looking for a bold (relatively) new route adventure. We wanted a ground up adventure for us, you can do as you wish. You see, Ben and I were heading up to the obvious feature which splits the center left part of the face for 300 feet. That feature starts @ 100' up as a thin crack which turns into succession a hand then fist crack, offwidth, squeeze chimney then wide chimney. The wide chimney looks to be 6-8' wide when viewed from the top of P3 of Rapunzel, but from the ground looks like a squeeze chimney. Between Ben being a responsible new dad and busy with other things as well, and my bad shoulders (that is the combination fat, old age and shoulder surgery's on 5 tendons plus some other stuff in both shoulders which wasn't 100 percent successful that made this line a more interesting proposal to me) we didn't finish the best part which was what we were gunning for to begin with.

That is for you, gentle reader, to choose your own style if you wish to take it on. It will be a magnificent direct free route to access Rapunzels end of 4th pitch anchor. The P1 anchor is still a little short of the start of the crack, feel free to move it where ever you please. If you want me to head up and point out things, just invite me along and we'll get it done.

Description

Protection

Routes in Tower Rock