Summer 2014

I'm finally home after 2182 miles of driving, three nights of camping, sleeping at rest stops in the back of my car and a great week with my wonderful grandparents in Sacramento. And of course some great climbing adventures.

I started this trip in Vermillion, SD where school is done for the 2013-14 year and will pick up again in the fall. So I thought to myself, "It would be nice to climb behind Mt. Rushmore again." So that went on my list of destinations. Next I knew that it would be a treat to go by my grandparents house in Sacramento, CA so that went on the list. The nice thing was that I have a guide book for Southern Lake Tahoe. So I could stop by there and climb on my way.

So I started my trip and went to the Black Hills in South Dakota on the eastern side of the state. I stopped at Wrinkled Rock Climbing campground since I could camp there for free. Since it was memorial day weekend there were a couple of groups of climbers there and I made friends with a large group of 10 climbers from Minnesota who were on a annual climbing trip.

The next day we woke up with the sun because the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. We decided to go to Custer State Park and climb the Cathedral Spires. After getting a pass at the main lodge we went a couple miles into the park past Sylvan Lake and parked in a small parking lot at the start of the approach.

It wasn't too much of a hike in and the scenery was great. We finished our approach when we got to this spot between Spire 2 and Spire 3 and 4.

There were four of us including myself that went to climb Spire 2's Jan/Jane route. Being the first time doing a multi pitch route and trad climbing I was a bit nervous but had more excitement than anything else. My climbing partner Dave Sandel, from Colorado, led the way on the route on the left of the arête. Later I found out that dave free climbed the first pitch because he couldn't find anywhere to place pro. But after that he continued to the second anchor and placed some gear.

I started quickly up the route which is rated around 5.7. Not difficult by any means so it was just fun and enjoyable. For being a 250 ft route it didn't feel like you were that high because the exposer was very minimal.

When our second group summited, we did a two rope rappel after signing the register. We planned on doing Spire 4 but a line had formed with other climbers on route and by the time we were going to make an ascent a storm rolled in so we had to leave.

Being at the summit of spire 2 was wonderful and I will post the pictures that I took when I get my laptop back from being repaired at Apple.

But in the mean time I will be posting from my tablet. And if you are out in the black hills, a great day of climbing can be found at the Cathedral Spires.