Free Climbing The Finger of Fate, Sorta – Part One
“Maybe it hasn’t gone free,” Chris pondered as we hiked out from the Titan in the dark on Sunday night. Hmmm, that would have been a nice thing to know before we started. But, then again, it probably wouldn’t have affected my decision earlier that week.
“Wanna go free climb the Finger of Fate?”
That was pretty much the extent of the inquiry Chris emailed me on Monday morning. I trust Chris and his judgment, so with no research or consideration of my lack of Fisher Towers climbing experience I agreed.
Chris excitedly emailed me links, photos, and anxious messages from that point on for the rest of the week. My inbox seemed to be perpetually full with “Adventure Climbing With CVL” messages and I began to seriously wonder if I might get in trouble for using my school email account to this degree.
I knew little about the Finger of Fate, except that it was first done by Layton Kor, Huntley Ingalls and George Hurley in 1962 in a climb sponsored by National Geographic. Ingalls had taken pictures of the Titan on a reconnaissance mission and shared them with fellow Boulder climbers one evening where the consensus was that climbing in the Fishers would be too dangerous and it wouldn’t even classify as climbing. Ingalls was approached by National Geographic to do the climb and Kor reluctantly agreed to the climb. Remember that Kor was the original “choss master,” but he was afraid of the Titan and at the base of the tower he danced and sang, “boys, we’re going to die up here!”
I had a busy week so my research yielded little information, other than Stevie Haston had tried to free climb the route but backed away on the upper pitches and that it was aided at A3 or C2 or C3 or something like that. A google search for “free climbing finger of fate” yielded nothing. Surely, something as classic as the Finger of Fate would have some information about free climbing, like a blog entry, trip report or free climbing beta.
During the week we added Bob to the team that had affectionately earned the moniker, “Team Danger.” When Bob and Chris showed up at my place on Friday night we headed to the “Man Land Gear Room” for some final preparations. Chris excitedly pulled a number of sawed off angles from my wall along with a number of large tri-cams. “You guys haven’t hand stacked pins before? Man, you’re gonna have a hoot when you’re free climbing above a series of these!” Free climbing above what? I thought to myself. Chris assured us that the majority of the free climbing was 5.10 with sections of 11 thrown in for good measure. The whole issue of rock quality didn’t seem to occur to any of us.
On Saturday morning we hiked in, already talking about plans for another climb, such as Phantom Sprint or something in Castle Valley on Sunday. At the base, armed with a topo drawn by Chris McNamara we prepared for the first pitch. It didn’t look too bad and the second and third pitches almost looked less than vertical. Chris started us off on a pitch that the topo described as 5.8 sustained hand jamming. Should be a cruise, we thought. When Chris started sewing the pitch up with gear and taking longer than expected we began to wonder. When it was our turn we discovered why. The rock was barely rock and the 5.8 hands was just one section, above which was some solid 5.10 climbing. I made the mistake of climbing behind Bob, only to receive a constant pelting of sand and rock.
On Bob’s lead, our hopes of free climbing the route quickly withered away. Bob, although a strong free climber, couldn’t commit to the sandy, loose rock with funky gear in pods that had been awkwardly flared and widened by years of hammered pitons. Reverting to some French free technique proved difficult as Bob had little to no aid climbing experience, particularly on a pitch of this nature, rated in the neighborhood of C2 or harder. The gear mostly consisted of tri-cams and awkward cam placements in the wildly flared pods. Keep in mind that Bob had never placed a tri-cam. Coming up second I quickly reverted to grabbing gear as I was perplexed by the wide, flared pods with which I was supposed to stuff my fingers and insert my toes. Chris made a gallant effort on top rope, falling just once on the pitch.
On my first lead, the third pitch, I could see the free moves but couldn’t commit to the insecure free climbing above a small offset nut in sandy rock. Stepping on slings for aid I was able to move upward but took time with the funky placements in the widely flared rock. I’ve spent a fair amount of time on moderately hard clean aid climbing in Zion but this was a different kind of show here. Eventually I found my groove and was even able to do some free climbing where there was a nice crack. I gradually became more at ease with the placements and the rock and finally commented, “hey, I’m starting to have fun!” With that realization my motivation surged and drove my upward. When I reached the anchors, the guys had already made the decision to fix lines and rap, thus returning in the morning to finish. With my newfound energy I was all game.
A view of the Fisher Towers, including Cottontail Tower and Echo Tower, from the Finger of Fate.
Coming soon, part two……
In the meantime, we’re on spring break. Yesterday we finished climbing Desert Shield, a classic big wall route in Zion. I’ll have photos and a story from that soon, as well, if I’m not too busy climbing, which I probably will be!
















