by StewartMGreen » Sat Mar 23, 2013 4:15 pm
Interesting thread. There are actually 3 summits that comprise the Tower of Babel...The Tower of Babel on the west; Middle Tower in the middle--Triple Exposure AKA Snively's Route climbs the main face; and East Tower, which as far as I know has no established route. I would have to go through Harvey Carter's log book to see if he climbed it, probably he did. The Tower of Babel on the west features the route Anaconda as well as the South Ridge (5.7), a good route that I plan to retrobolt this year and also put new anchors on the summit. The Middle Tower has a 5.8 R route on its southwest side that begins in the Briar Patch AKA Hidden Valley behind the 3 towers. The East Tower, as I noted, does not have an established route and it is composed of very soft rock on the backside. Each summit is distinct from the others, with two notches, both about 80 or so feet deep, separating them. I'll try to get out there in the next couple months and get GPS readings and an accurate summit elevation as well as base to summit elevation from the Briar Patch for the 2 summits... Looking at photos I think that the Tower of Babel summit on the west is the highest of the trio.