KAVU Day Off

By Steph Davis

By KAVU

March 1^st, 2022

Castleton Tower is an unforgettable rock pinnacle here in Moab, and one of my favorite times to visit is winter when it’s quiet and temperate. This winter is a little different than most, because Ian and I are building a house with the help of our good friends Jake and Lance. So there’s been lots of concrete slinging, digging and doing math, but we also need to get out and play, and we couldn’t let the winter go by without at least one fun Castleton day.

So on a beautiful sunny morning, we laid down the wheelbarrows and screw guns and packed up ropes, parachutes and some dog treats and headed out to Castle Valley.

I always like to climb as quick and light as I can when the plan involves jumping, and we decided that with a team of (4), we needed to deploy some logistics for efficiency.

You don’t want to take too long on the hike and the climb, because jumping is usually best in the morning when the winds are light. We left town at 8 and found we’d be having the tower all to ourselves on this fine winter day!

Castleton Tower sits on top of a thousand foot talus cone, and it took us about an hour to get to the base of the climb and get organized to go up. Kor Ingalls is my favorite winter route up the tower because it gets full morning sun and has very comfortable ledges for each of the 4 pitches.

Our plan was for me to lead up on a thin rope and then, belay Lance to me while I hauled my BASE rig up on a super-thin rope. When he reached me at the anchor, he would clip off a doubled-up thicker rope that Ian and Jake could jumar at the same time with their own BASE gear. Meanwhile, I would start up the next pitch. This plan worked great—it reduced the amount of hauling required and kept us from wasting any time at the belay stations.

The view from the summit of Castleton has to be seen to be believed, and it’s wildly beautiful.

To the north, the Rectory, the Priest, Sister Superior and the Convent line down the ridge, with Parriott Mesa just to the west, and the Colorado River snaking around behind them. To the east, you can make out the dirt towers of the Fishers, including the Titan which at 900 feet is the tallest freestanding tower in North America. To the southeast, Adobe Mesa sits at the foot of the snowy Lasal Mountains, and to the west is Porcupine Rim, encircling the basin of Castle Valley. We took it all in for a few minutes, because this is not a view you can ever get tired of!

After enjoying the summit, Lance headed down on rappel to meet up with our dog, Cajun at the base of the route, while Ian, Jake and I stashed the thin ropes and the climbing gear down our pants and got geared up to jump.

Ian jumped first: almost exactly three years ago, he’d launched a small paraglider from the hillside below the tower in slightly marginal wind conditions. Unexpectedly dropping out in a turn, he crashed into the talus. He broke bones in his feet, legs and lower back, and it’s been a long and demanding recovery and return to sports over the last three years. This was Ian’s first time back to Castleton since being airlifted off the talus that winter day, and for him to be able to hike a thousand feet up the hill, climb up the tower and safely fly down under a wing was just about the best KAVU day ever!

Watching Ian fly.... Jake and I could see him floating over small ridges to catch lift while staying in the air for a really long time, so we knew we were in for a wild flight down.

I took off next and waved at Lance and Cajun as my parachute opened and I flew out from the tower. Castleton can really create some lift, especially in winter, because the south facing talus cone bakes in the sun, and today was an incredibly big lift day—for a while it seemed like I’d never come down!

Jake hadn’t jumped Castleton before. So, he followed pretty close behind me, and was all smiles at landing. We didn’t have too long to wait before Lance and Cajun made it down the trail to us. All in all, a really great day out in the desert!