I was finally able to convince Crisco to go back down to Moab with me again. Neither of us really relish the camping experience and it’s not something we would choose to do if we didn’t have to, so we just went down for a day trip. The plan was to climb an easy, fun tower. We’d seen and admired Dark Angel on previous Arches trips and it looked pretty awesome, so we decided that that would be our objective.
Beta:
It took us an hour to hike there. I led the first pitch. It was slightly sketchy 5.7 to a sweet 5.9 finger crack. I tension traversed off of an old bolt and made it to the belay. I fixed the rope and Crisco jugged up. I led the second pitch, too. It involved some funky beached whale moves over a large block, which were followed by a 7-bolt bolt ladder. I aided past the first few bolts and then freed it to the top. The last 30 feet or so was easy (maybe 5.5ish) but completely unprotected. Definitely a “career ending” fall. The anchors at the top were solid (3 bolts? Maybe 4?) and the slings in ok condition. The rap down (doable with a single 60m rope) was free hanging and enjoyable.
Rack:
Take a set of cams to #3 (with an optional but recommended #4) and a set of nuts, plus a bunch of slings/draws.
Dark Angel is the solitary tower on the left.
A closer view of Dark Angel. The route goes up the back side.
Me starting up the first pitch.
The anchor at the top of pitch 1–two drilled angles.
Me snaking my way past the start of pitch 2.
Me on top.
Me on top, getting ready to rappel.
Getting ready to rappel, part 2.
All in all, it was a great day trip. It’s a pretty chill climb without any major difficulties. It was fantastic to be back int he desert. And it was tower 25 or 26 for me, and maybe ~10 for Crisco.