The Sword of Damocles.... A real Beauty. P. Ross o...
Description
Classic for the Things of Beauty!! Follow nail heads to the summit block. Pete Takeda thought this summit would be too small to stand on!
Location
This tower is perhaps the most noticable weird thing from I-70. From the Mt. Garfield trailhead, walk east just above the interstate into an open area. Then follow the steep dirt ridge up to the right of the tower. About 20 min walk.
This is a fun tower with a cool summit. The last nail (or maybe second to last?) was really flexing under body weight and the bolt at the anchor was quite a ways out of the rock. The rest of the fixed gear looked pretty good, though it took me probably 45 minutes to excavate enough dirt to find the two nails on the shoulder.
A pragmatic question. I walked up to The Sword and was curious, how does one get off the beast. It looks quite thin to rap without too much stress on the summit block?
Normal rap from summit anchor.... Just think light.... Would be nice if someone took a hand drill and added a new anchor on the summit block...just a thought. By the way, if you do happen to pull off the summit block, please replace it.... Thanks.
By Jesse Zacher Administrator From: Grand Junction, Co Jan 1, 2009
Second to last spike is out. I just stuck it lightly back in the hole and skipped it with a bit of top stepping/climbing. Rap anchors are marginal. How many more ascents before this thing plummets? I knocked probably 50 lbs of shit down and assume everyone who has done it has knocked a similar amount off. The neck below the cap rock will get thinner and thinner!
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