Spam and Legs climbs the left Royal Tower, as seen from Pika Glacier, by the right-hand of two parallel couloir systemsthe couloir immediately right of Boomerang Buttress.

Spam and Legs

Gargoyle Buttress

The Blade

Got Lucky

Southeast Face

Boomerang Buttress

The Jester

Di's Surprise

The Chase

East Ridge

This route climbs the long, slender buttress immediately right (north) of Dis Surprise. This is the second buttress north from the intersection of the east and south faces of the Royal Throne.  

  Climb the buttress to the upper snow slopes. Rappel the route.

Probably the most popular route on the Royal Tower. Thanks to a striking line, mostly moderate climbing, and, most importantly, inclusion in Puryear's book, makes it easy to understand why. As noted, I would imagine the majority of parties stop at the top of the rock, but continuing to the summit makes for a really rewarding route. This, of course, requires carrying boots and tools all the way up there. At any rate, a very worthwhile route with very fun climbing in spots and amazing views. Easy to bail from any point. 

  Our first pitch, in late July, involved 30ft. of mixed climbing out of the moat and up a big snow "blob" to gain the rock proper. Be careful, either I just thought it up or I read of someone that witnessed this collapse. A most frightening image. The second pitch holds the routes crux (minus the blob) and is pretty dang cool face climbing over a little roof. Really short, well protected 5.10a. This is followed by an excellent, long 5.8 corner. 

  From here, we had a tough time following the topo, but had an ok time following our noses and rap anchors (plenty of them). There's a lot of 4th class. The 5th pitch (per the topo) is pretty obvious and goes out left from a piton belay that can actually be easy to miss. It is some really good climbing although a tad scary depending on how you do it. 

  A couple more pitches up there is a huge ledge with a snow patch on it. There were some slings in the right facing corner off this ledge, but we climbed up a ramp to access a full pitch of amazing, chicken headed face climbing to the right of the corner. From here, the buttress is a little more defined. Stay to the right of the arete for the most part, but we didn't really know where we were going. Just be on the look out for rap anchors.  

  We must have missed the "Gargoyle" boulder at the top of the buttress. 

  From the top of the rock, either rap, climb some broken rock to the right of the snowfield, or put yer boots on and slog to the summit. Beware of avalanche conditions.

The Blade is a one-pitch variation start to The Jester (III 5.10). An excellent thin-hands to hands flake/crack curves its way up an orange colored wall ~20' right from the start of The Jester (V-shaped cracks).

Towards the left margin of the East face of the Royal Tower is a narrow buttress that starts in a toe of clean, white rock. The obvious feature to look for is the "V-shaped" cracks in the clean rock. The Jester takes the left branch of the "V" (crux) before climbing more moderate and wandering pitches up the ridge and finally a ton of 3rd class to the summit. Many parties will probably opt to do just the technical portion of the climb (7 pitches) and rappel from fixed anchors/slings.

 Climb moderate snow slopes (40 deg) and cross a bergschrund to access the rock. Scramble easy 5th class up to a small ledge with a single 3/8" bolt (rappel equipped). Anchor in here, ditch the snow gear and switch into rock shoes (bring snow gear if continuing to summit). Tackle the left branch of the "V", up a splitter hands-to-fists crack in a left-facing corner to fixed nut anchor (95'). Up and right from here, following obvious weaknesses and utilizing some fixed gear anchors as you wind up the buttress. See Brian’s comment below for more detailed beta.

There are six main buttresses forming the east face of Royal Tower. The following route is the southernmost buttress on the east face of the Royal Tower and forms the eastern extremity of the south face.

Climb the 1500-foot east buttress of the peak. There are belay bolts for the first nine pitches. Rappel the route.

A stunning 2,500' hunk of granite located centrally on the south flank of the Pika Glacier. A number of routes exist on the various aspects of the Royal Tower, but most are poorly (or un-)documented. The most prominent feature is the beautiful Gargoyle Buttress, a 2,000' IV 5.10a rock climb topped with 500' of moderate snow climbing to the summit.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in The Royal Tower