One of the best sport routes in Little Cottonwood.  Starts out slabby, turns vertical and then steepens for the steepest .11 climbing I've seen anywhere.

Medussa

Shelter from the Storm

Dark Star

Hell's Angel

Pandora

Bollocks

Brainless Conformants

Rezin Scraper

Heathens

Armed and Hammered

Little Hellion

Whiskey Bent & Hellgate Bound

Cause for Alarm

What the Hell

Contrapasso

The Gatekeeper

Hell Yes!

Holy Hell it's Hot

Cheap Thrills

Satan's Choice

Hell is for Children

This is one of the best sport climbs I've ever done.  Climb the arete on Tower One starting in the gully between Towers One and Two, eventually gaining a long white slab.

Rappel the route with two ropes.

A fun, stout route just right of the cave. The route on average is slightly overhanging but it's stepped, so the cruxes are all pretty steep. A bouldery crux at the first bolt, another at the 2nd bolt, and a third, more pumpy type crux up high. The 2nd crux is the burliest I'd say, an awkward bulge. I've only climbed the first pitch, it's .11d. The 2nd pitch looks like fun though.

Dark Star is a nice adventure pitch that packs in a variety of challenges in both the climbing and the protection.  Start the same as Pandora, jamming and stemming your way up the left facing corner then move right onto the juggy slab.  Continue up and right, passing below Pandora's first bolt, to follow cracks leading up the right side of the giant bulge.  Smearing on somewhat crumbly rock and dodging guano makes this section more difficult than it appears from the ground.  After reaching a good rest in a smattering of white rock, follow wild juggy cracks angling right out the roof to a fun mantel and the anchors.  Great rock on the final third of the route.  There is a bolt protected second pitch called Dark Star Too (.12a/b).

Hell's Angel is a new 5.10 sport route addition at Tower 1. It shares the anchor with Satan's Choice and climbs a fun pillar to a steep finish. Get on it and it should clean up nicely.

A 60m rope will work, but a 70m is better.

Total of 14 bolts plus anchor.

Start on low angle ramp just right of Armed and Hammered. The crux is getting over the buldge and established onto the pillar. Keep some juice for the steep finish moving right of the large roof.

3 cruxes.  Start in the easy, low angle crack, moving up the the initial vertical headwall for an awkward boulder problem with about 10 different variations on holds that never seem all that great (or are really huge, depending on what you found)  At the top of the dihedral, move right to a great rest and get psyched for the next crux.  The steep face above is why you came and sports long moves on enormous holds, with a full bag of sport climbing tricks that I didn't expect to use.  The more creative you are, the easier it gets and powering through is far less fun.  Crux 3 starts with the fist crack over left in a dihedral, clipping the final two bolts and pulling the lip to the chains.

Another tightly bolted route on good rock. Steep start (the crux) leads to very cruiser climbing to the top.

Route trends right at the start and then straight up through steeper terrain on great edges past bolts on vertical face.

The book calls this 5.8+.  I'd only agree with that if you go right of the bolt line.  Nice positive crimps/jugs the whole way otherwise.  Not a bad lil' slab to play on.

This is a great, tightly bolted route on good rock. Crux is pulling past the third bolt, followed by cruiser climbing up alternating corners.

There is a second pitch to this route called

Brainless Conformants

, 5.11a.

This route has been retro-bolted by the FA, and no longer requires gear. What was once a route that would shut down a 5.7 leader, is now decently protected.  Climb up right of the limestone "staircase" to a parallel finger crack left of a roof. Continue up the airy arete over easier terrain to the anchor. A good warm-up or cool-down with some nice views of the canyon. This is a fairly straight forward line with rather solid rock for the area.

A fun romp up surprisingly great rock.

Start up right of the corner with a long step up, then, a few moves to get to easier ground.

Solid rock and nice edges.

The Gatekeeper

is a new route on the right side of Tower 1.

A 70m rope is barely enough to get you down. If using a 60m rope, belay at the ledge with single bolt.

Scramble up the easy slab to a high 1st bolt on the left wall. Good left hand side-pulls and stemming leads over the 1st roof. Move slightly right past the roof to gain a big ledge under 2nd roof. Once again find some good left hand side-pulls then move right and continue up past a face move with thin feet.  A final section on soft white rock with a couple pockets guards access to the anchor.

***Careful of loose rocks while getting lowered on descent***

After a few years of looking at this untouched clean face, I finally decided to give it a go. Hell Yes! climbs a “pillar” up to a bulge that leads up to an exciting, steep and thin headwall. A thin crimpy traverse across the face should get your attention...

Start by surmounting a small roof past the 1st bolt and continue up on easy ground up to the bulge guarding access to the steep face. High-step over bulge to get established on the impressive headwall. Stemming or using the corner to the right is OFF ROUTE and is considered POOR FORM!

The crux is a hard clip at bolt #10 followed by a technical traverse left across the blank face ending at a great rest on the arête. (The 2 old bolts out left are off route). The crux requires good footwork and tendons of steel!

Note that you won't be able to see the leader after he pulls the bulge.

CAUTION ***This is a new route and might still have loose rock***

Lower-off from steel biners at anchor (please don’t top rope in them).

EZ and juggy with the finish being the interesting part.

This is a fantastic two pitch route that is easily combined on one long pitch.  The gear is there and solid in the dark grey compact rock and the bolts were drilled on lead in bold style.  The advantage of a route protected like this is that you can hang out and scope out the moves between bolts before casting off.  The upper pitch has really cool huge edge climbing and requires some nice body tension.  One of my favorite climbs.

If you've never been to the

Hellgate

before, or if you're new to limestone climbing, this is a good place to warm up.  The first bolt is under a small roof just right of the corner.  The next bolt is a few feet above and to the right.  Climb the slab over good rock to the anchor.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Tower One