North Ridge

Approach: Park to the SW of the towers, right before the wash where the road turns back to the left (or southeast)... same as for Washer Woman. Park on the road, but pull off the side as far as possible. Park Rangers issued us a warning about parking off the road. Parking here gives you a view of the western sides of these towers. Head up a ridgeline right north of the parking and ascend the benches to the final talus slope. My recommendation is to head for the south end of Monster Tower and then traverse up and right around the tower to the east side just down from the notch separating the towers.

The Climb:

P1 - Easy left facing dihedral leads to a ledge. Climb around a small amount of looseness and up a small and short right facing dihedral. The belay is here, right below a curving crack that will appear somewhat wide. GRADE: 5.9

P2 - Climb the curving crack above the anchor. After reaching a ledge, clip a long sling to the fixed gear and ascend the low angle wide crack to a big ledge on a pedestal. (Or belay below the low angle wide crack and separate that pitch.) GRADE: 5.10+

P3 - Move slightly left to the obvious thin crack which is a shallow right facing dihedral. Climb the thinner crack and then offwidth to a large belay ledge. A great rest appears after the thin climbing. There are smaller gear placements to be found in the offwidth sections. GRADE: 5.11

P4 - Climb blocky ledges and then a chimney. Finish on a ledge with a fixed anchor. Supposedly, another option is to climb poor rock through ledges and another chimney to the right. Either way, this pitch has the most loose climbing on the tower. GRADE: 5.8 or 5.9

P5 - Begin off a very large ledge. A variety of climbing leads up, out a bulge, slightly right and then traverses left again to a good ledge. Next, either move left to a free variation or use the bolt ladder above the ledge. We aided the bolt ladder which led back to face climbing free moves to a ledge right below the summit cap rock with an anchor. GRADE: 5.11 maybe some A0

Summit by having your partner belay the easy moves up and back down from the cap rock. Register on top. Never saw an anchor on the very top.

1 each Friends #1 to #4, 1 each Camalots #.5 to #4 (old purple #4)Aliens or other small cams for under 1"1 Set of Stoppers.

Extra #0.5 Camalots, #3 Camalots or equivalent.

Bringing gear larger than an old style B.D. #4 Camalot is up to your discretion as a desert climber.

We took one 70m rope and made single-rope rappels back down safely from anchor to anchor. Fixed anchors at the top of every pitch.