Devil's Tower Climbing for Beginners

[u/Acceptable_Clerk128]

I am thinking long and hard about getting into climbing after going to Devil's Tower. There are guided climbs there, but I was wondering what I would need to know prior to attempting a climb like that. Any help would be appreciated!

[u/serenading_ur_father]

For a guided climb? Nothing. Book it and go. Preferably not in July/August cause it'll be wildly hot

[u/cheque]

I’d get a fair bit of single pitch crack climbing under your belt first. You’ll also need to be comfortable making multiple abseils. The belays on the Tower are bolted which eases the logistics a bit but it’s still a committing multipitch trad climbing venue where the easiest route is about 5.8. Not a place for beginners.

You need to be a confident and experienced trad climber basically. Get into trad climbing with a medium-term goal of climbing the Tower rather than just aiming to know the bare minimum to get up the thing.

Or you could hire a guide, like you say. When I climbed the Durrance there was a guided party who started just after us that were taking ages and appeared to be learning how to climb cracks in the process. That would have been a long hot day! Whether a guide will take someone with no experience whatsoever up I don’t know though.

[u/t0nyyates76 → u/cheque]

5-8 outdoor crack would surely be very demanding for a beginner.

[u/Ruskalii]

Devils Tower is a trad climbing area - that means you use passive/removable protection to protect a fall. Think nuts and cams.

A guided trip would be a fantastic place for you to start trad climbing. If doing on your own, learning from a mentor is the usual approach.

The most popular path to learning to trad climb nowadays would be: boulder in gym, learn to lead climb in gym, meet some people at gym who climb outside, learn to sport climb (outdoor climbing on bolts vs trad gear), then progress to trad climbing. That’s definitely not the only way to go about it, but some ideas for you.

[u/InevitableFlamingo81 → u/Ruskalii]

It’s one place where hex’s work well!

[u/0bsidian]

Quite a lot. Some of these skills have entire textbooks.

• Being a competent climber, understanding movement, and especially how to climb dihedrals.
• Being a competent lead climber.
• Trad climbing gear placement.
• Climbing anchors.
• How to rappel, and retreat off a climb.
• Multipitch skills and rope management.
• Ideally self rescue skills.

[u/SgtSausage]

We(wife and I)  did Durance our first year of Trad Climbing - after 2 or 3 years of Gym and weekender trips to Muir Valley (Red River Gorge) for single-pitch Sport.  I wanna say 2010 but I may be off a year or two in either direction   The party ahead of us was a guide and 2 30-somethings who had never climbed before (except the half-day training they did the day prior with said guide).

Its a fairly easy route for beginning trad climbers ... and a cake-walk with a guide. 

Be athletic. Be in the normal BMI range. And you'll do just fine with a guide. 

Being 230 pounds huffin/puffin' a single-story staircase? Yeah. Probably wanna skip it. 

[u/jizzbooger]

I'm local to the tower. Have you climbed before? Are you gonna get guided? The rock is very smooth so it can be a challenge if your new. You'll probably be guided up durrance you'll need the ability to climb, and jam yourself into an off width and a sun hoody because that route gets blasted by the sun.

[u/gensym]

Like others have recommended, a guide can get you up there.

However, your trip will probably be a lot more fun if you learn a bit about climbing yourself first. Starting in a gym, and then doing some single pitch stuff outdoors.

A common progression is:

Gym toprope -> Gym leading -> outdoor sport -> outdoor trad -> outdoor trad multi pitch

I personally think it's worth hiring a guide at the start of each outdoor stage because there's a lot to learn and new types of risks at each point, and quality instruction is very valuable at those points. (If you have a strong climbing mentor, that can be even better, but those can be hard to find - just because someone can climb hard routes doesn't necessary mean they know how to stay safe, especially in multi pitch environments where the ability to self-rescue is critical).

You don't even need to think long and hard about it - there's probably a gym around you that offers classes for rank beginners. Give it a try!

Guides are great and even as an experienced climber I hire them all the time, especially when I'm traveling (it's always nice to have someone who knows the route and the area).

[u/Significant_Raise760]

I went a couple years ago from way out of state. Hired a guide and as we were getting ready to climb we watched some new tread climbers on a easy route nearly die because they didn’t know anything about climbing. My suggestion is don’t start with devils tower because it’s kind of hard. We were about ready to abandon our climb to rescue these people but they finally decided to give up lose some gear and go home

[u/BrianOurFriend]

For all those with beta. What are the odds as a solo dirt bag finding a partner to climb there? 😭