Milk Crates From Hell

This was my first desert tower. We rolled up at the base in early March 1987 thinking that this was still unclimbed. There was no guidebook, no info. Alas, we spotted slings on the obvious sunny South Face route.  So we climbed what looked to be the second-best line on the formation, the semi-analog crack on the backside. This turned out to be a not-so-good route. But a cool summit! Three pitches.

1. Begin up a 5.4 crack that works up and right to a crack/flake system.

2. Follow this flake system past loose blocks (the "milkcrates") and a bolt to a stance at a major bedding seam. A3

3. The top pitch takes a nice right-facing dihedral. It's maybe A3- very briefly past a big loose block then easier.

This is on the northeast side of the formation. Sort of the analog crack to the original route, but perhaps a bit more left of center. The top pitch follows a crack in a prominent right-facing dihedral. Start under this right-facing dihedral.

A couple sets of cams, a smallish selection of pitons from Lost Arrows to Angles.