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Devil's Tower Rock Climbing Trip - 1984
Matt Kohlhaas and I drove out to The Needles,
South Dakota and then on to Devil's Tower National Monument
for the climax of the trip to climb the Tower. We were
pretty green at climbing skills at the time, and wisely
hired a guide to lead us up the Durrance Route (a relatively
easy 5.6+ route) on the Tower. We hired Bob Archibald,
a fireman and rock climbing guide from Rapid City, South
Dakota. He taught us many skills as new climbers and the
trip turned out to be a highpoint in my life. I think
Matt would agree.
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Matt
and Tony in a self-portrait on the drive approaching
the Tower. Note the cattle fence behind us, which
was where they filmed Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda
Dillon seeing the Tower for the first time in Close
Encounters of the Third Kind.
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The
Tower from our campsite near the base.
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Matt
and Tony waiting at the base at sunrise, already
roped up and waiting for the sun to warm up the
rock.
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Tony
on Pitch 5 in Chock Stone Crack, which is actually
somewhat of a chimney section near the top, where
the rock shafts are more rounded.
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Matt
making the leap across "Marvin's Folly".
Funny story about that below...This route bypasses
the Bailey's Direct and offers this thrilling leap
over a 600-foot vertical drop to the "meadows"
as it is known on the Tower, and allows an easy
scramble up the last 150 or so feet to the summit.
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Matt,
Tony and Bob recording our ascent in the climber's
journal stored at the summit. Bob was climbing on
the Tower several times during filing of Close Encounters
and he could see in the movie where they blurred
out himself and other climbers so it didn't funk
up the movie plot.
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Tony
enjoying the summit with climbing shoes off. Dumb
idea, as I stepped on a cactus.
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Matt
on the first rappel down. He looks apprehensive
only because I yelled out "Matt! Look up!"
And Matt thought I yelled "Look out!"
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The above (two rows
above) photo of Matt jumping across the "gap"
is nicknamed by Matt and I as "Marvin's Folly"
only because Matt and I had met a bizarre character
named Marvin Zimski earlier that week as we were
climbing in The Needles in South Dakota, only a
few hours away. Our guide, Bob, laughed his ass
off when we told him that we met him, as Bob said
that years earlier he saw Marvin on that leap from
one ledge to the other and he was on lead, meaning
he had the business end of the rope tied onto him.
He didn't take enough slack rope with him, and when
he did what Matt did in the photo two rows above
with a short rope, he went "Boing!" before
landing and didn't make it and fell below into the
void. His belayer stopped him from falling all the
way, of course, but many a hearty laugh went out
on the Tower who witnessed the event.
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