DESERT TOWERS SIGNED by 13: Robbins, Kor, Bjornstad, Carter, Beckey, Dunn, Ingalls, Achey, McDonald, Garrett, Toula, Green and author Bartlett 2010 1st edition WINNER Mountaineering History Prize Banff Mountain Book Festival 2011 Short Listed as a F (Bartlett, Steve )

Item #: BK2483A
DESERT TOWERS SIGNED by 13: Robbins, Kor, Bjornstad, Carter, Beckey, Dunn, Ingalls, Achey, McDonald, Garrett, Toula, Green and author Bartlett 2010 1st edition WINNER Mountaineering History Prize Banff Mountain Book Festival 2011 Short Listed as a F
By Bartlett, Steve
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WINNER Mountaineering History Prize Banff Mountain Book Festival 2011

Short Listed as a Finalist for the 2011 Boardman Tasker Prize

CO, 2010, 1st edition. Desert Towers documents the history of climbers and their ascents of the wild and historic sandstone towers of the Colorado Plateau. The 350 pages of this book are lavishly illustrated with first-ascent photographs--many never seen in print before--and over two dozen contributed essays by the pioneering desert climbers of the last fifty years, many never previously seen in print. A must for any climber�s coffee table. New large format hardcover. Extra postage required for Priority Mail or foreign orders.

SIGNED by 13 of the many of the great climbers portrayed in the book: Royal Robbins, Layton Kor, Eric Bjornstad, Harvey Carter, Fred Beckey, Huntley Ingalls, Jimmie Dunn, Jeff Achey, Dougald McDonald, James Garrett, Tim Toula, Steve 'Crusher' Bartlett, and Stewart Green!

Over 50% of the price of the book has been donated to Layton Kor to help him with his medical bills. (This now amounts to over $5000 we have given Layton Kor to help cope with his medical bills.)

Desert Towers is about the desert towers of the Colorado Plateau, those crazy, skinny, very temporary rock formations that stand like lost soldiers, upright and defiant.

Desert Towers is about the climbers who have found the hunger and obsession to overcome their fears and scale these towers.

Desert Towers is about the images. Photographs from Ed Webster, Layton Kor, Harvey Carter, Huntley Ingalls, Bill Hatcher, Andrew Burr, Laurence Gouault, David Brower, John Sherman, many, many more. Images of wild rocks, groundbreaking first ascents. Images of fear, beauty, happiness.

Desert Towers is about the climbs. Climbs that feature the full arsenal of rock climbing challenges: loose rock, dangerously runout climbing, terrible anchors, huge approaches across awful terrain, flat tires, lightning, scorpions, snakes and, in addition, technically difficult climbing.

Desert Towers is about the stories. Stories of grit, fear, determination, searching, victory, defeat, luck and friendship. Stories etched in the harsh, clear light of the desert.

Desert Towers is about the summits. To reach a summit that few have ever visited is a rare thrill--yet a basic human urge that every child who has climbed a tree can understand.

Desert Towers is about the desert-tower climbing experience. An experience in danger of being tamed (or even vanishing) in our modern, convenient world. Long may there be a few remote desert towers guarded by exquisitely frustrating challenges, their summits only to be reached by the most brave, stubborn and highly skilled.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The original desert climbers werethe Anasazi, who, in a tradition followed to this day by some leadingdesert climbers, left little record of their ascents. The first moderndesert climber was John Otto. His amazing 1911 ascent of the400-foot-tall monolith Independence Monument set a precedent forboldness and innovation.

Chapter 2. In the 1930sthe climbing world became obsessed by 1,800-foot Shiprock. Coloradoclimber Robert Ormes made several brave attempts, but it was the 'rockengineers' from California (David Brower, Raffi Bedayn, Bestor Robinsonand John Dyer) who climbed this 'Last Great Problem' in 1939.
Raffi Bedayn: Shiprock

Chapter 3. Spider Rock.In 1956 came the next big breakthrough. Mark Powell, Jerry Gallwas andDon Wilson, three of the top Yosemite climbers of the day, ascended800-foot Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, a climb dispatched inmagnificent style.
Don Wilson: The First Ascent of Spider Rock

Chapter 4. Emboldened bysuccess on Spider Rock, a year later the same threesome, plus BillFeuerer, tackled the 'thinnest spire in the desert'--the Totem Pole.They battled ferocious winds, frighteningly steep rock, cracks too widefor their pitons, and competition from Colorado climbers for the firstascent of this coveted summit.
Mark Powell: The Totem Pole

Chapter 5. The Three BestTowers. With Spider Rock, Cleopatra's Needle and the Totem Poleclimbed, what next? In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, Californiaclimbers came to the desert and mostly repeated the same three towers.
Steve Roper: Cleopatra�s Second Ascent
Chuck Pratt: The View from Deadhorse Point

Chapter 6. By contrast,the first of the Colorado climbers came to the same desert, intent onfinding new towers to climb. Castleton Tower, North Six-shooter,Sentinel Spire: there was an explosion of new climbs.
Huntley Ingalls: The Colorado Plateau
Huntley Ingalls: Castleton Tower
Layton Kor: The Best of the West

Chapter 7. Fisher Towers:The most sensational of the early 1960s climbs was the first ascent ofthe Titan. This was a huge breakthrough. If such a monstrously rotten,enormous, terrifying formation could be scaled, anything was possible.This chapter describes the first ascents of the big Fisher Towers:Titan, Kingfisher, Echo Tower, Cottontail and Oracle.
Huntley Ingalls: The Finger of Fate
Harvey Carter: Kingfisher

Chapter 8. Harvey Carteris a Colorado original; stubborn, strong, a dedicated climber for sixtyyears. Among the thousands of first ascents he has done are some of thefinest routes in the desert. This chapter celebrates his life andachievements.

Chapter 9. The first ascent of Standing Rock. This tower, absurdly skinny and rotten, set a new standard for just what could safely be climbed.
Steve Komito: Standing Rock

Chapter 10. The Go-GoYears. Throught the late 1960s and into the 1970s, a small handful ofclimbers, Kor, Carter, Fred Beckey, Eric Bjornstad, George Hurley, andfew others, had the entire desert to themselves. While the climbingworld elsewhere focused on ever-harder free-climbing standards, thedesert became a half-forgotten backwater. For those who relished desertfirst ascents, there was near-unlimited scope for new climbs.
Eric Bjornstad: The Rest of the Story (The Middle Sister)

Chapter 11. Din� and Dash. In 1971, all climbing was banned on the Navajo Nation.Most climbers looked elsewhere, but ever since, the magnificent towersof the reservation have been a very potent attraction to climbers. Anexamination of the issues involved in climbing on the Navajo Nation,from the early days until the present.

Chapter 12. The MysteryTowers are hard to get to, huge, rottener than the Fisher Towers,invisible from just about anywhere. The summits of these formations areseldom visited, tiny and reserved for the true desert-tower aficionado.In 1969, Bill Forrest and George Hurley took on this challenge.This chapter celebrates the first ascents of these towers, and some ofthe other wild desert summits reached by these visionary climbers.
George Hurley: The Mystery Towers

Chapter 13. 1970s-1980s.The Fishers�Big Walls of Mud. With, seemingly, all the worthy summitsof the Fisher Towers summited, the push was on the develop hard new aidclimbs. Harvey Carter was in the forefront of this push. The SundevilChimney, Scheherezade, Brer Rabbit all come from this era.
Lou Dawson: Harvey�s Raiders

Chapter 14. Moses. In1972, Eric Bjornstad and Fred Beckey climbed Moses, an epic tale fromthe Go-Go years, with multiple visits, fixed ropes, extensive aid,pitons by the score. Just a few years later Ed Webster and Steve Hongclimbed Moses free in a few hours, producing an enduring classic desertclimb, Primrore Dihedrals, and showing a new direction for desertclimbers.
Fred Beckey: The First Ascent of Moses (1972)
Ed Webster: The Desert Prophet (The First Free Ascent of Moses, 1979)

Chapter 15. What AreFriends For? The late 1970s invention of camming units coincided with agrowing awareness that that the desert held myriad excellent freeclimbs in the form of incredibly parallel cracks. Wingate sandstone,particularly around Castleton Tower and Indian Creek, became a hugedraw, at first for a few climbers, like Jimmy Dunn, Earl Wiggins, EdWebster, Jeff Achey, Chip Chace, then later for ever-increasing numbers.

Chapter 16. That One�sNext! With the popularity of the Wingate came a neglect of thetraditional multi-pitch and multi-day aid climbs of the Fisher Towersand Mystery Towers. Which eventually made them even more appealing to afew 1990s climbers, among them Rob Slater, Mike O'Donnell and JohnSherman.
John Sherman: Tales from the Gripped

Chapter 17. Jim Beyer was the first to bring hard modern aid climbing standards to the Fisher Towers, with a wild collection of dangerous new routes. The challenge was later taken up by other aid climbers.
Jim Beyer: World�s End
Duane Raleigh: The Wasteland

Chapter 18. Behind theRocks. In the late 1980s, Moab became a focus of development. KyleCopeland, Charlie Fowler and Ron Olevsky uneartthed many classic newtowers. Meanwhile, even more remote areas were explored by adventurerssuch as Paul Horton, Tim Toula, Bret Ruckman, James Garrett, and PaulRoss.
Alison Sheets: Queen for a Day--the early 1980s era of Charlie Fowler, Kyle Copeland and friends
Tim Toula: Shim� s�n� do Sh� cheii (Grand Gulch Spire): A Cock and Pull Story
Todd Gordon: The Whale�s Tale
Andrew Burr: It�s Over

Chapter 19. Canyonlands National Park is the heart of the Colorado Plateau; 'the best part by far' of Utah, according to Edward Abbey. Climbing in the vast wasteland of Canyonlands has progressed (if that's the right word) in different directions to anywhere else.
Strappo Hughes: The Enigmatic Syringe
Dougald MacDonald: The Big Muddy

Chapter 20. Anchors Away: Leaving No Trace on New Canyonlands Ascents: Climbing and ascending new towers and leaving nothing behind.

Chapter 21. Free Radicals Free Climbing the Biggest, Steepest Towers.
Stevie Haston: Sundevil Chimney Free
Greg Child: Excommunication
Ben Bransby: The Finger of Fate
Jason Haas: Free Cottontail

Chapter 22. LooseCannonville: In our modern world of gym climbing, Google maps and LadyGaga, it's still possible to find desert adventures. An account of anew climb ascended with equipment and methods little changed from 1939.

Extra postage required for Priority Mail or International Mail.

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