Overhanging Tower and Shark's Nose

Published on 2025-8-15 by Michael Stanton

Part the First - bad weather...

Steve and I drove over to Pinedale and spent the night in the city camping area (which is fantastic!). Then we looked at the weather. Hmm...a front is coming in. So we spent the next morning climbing at an area called Lizard Rocks. It was only so-so. First a 5.7 route where an important hold had fallen off, then we top-roped a pretty nice 5.9 route, however we simply couldn't figure out the crux moves at a roof and had to pull on a draw. We tried a few more things, but it was rather tough. Then it rained hard, almost hailing. We drove out to the Big Sandy Trailhead and slept for the night. But first I hiked over to the Big Sandy Lodge and ordered a burger for dinner.

With Vermont Mountain Girl, excellent cook at the Big Sandy Lodge who I last met in Pie Town, New Mexico, when she volunteered to help at the Toaster House!

It was great to run into Vermont Mountain Girl there, who I'd met on the CDT in 2022 when she was keeping things organized at the Toaster House in Pie Town. She had just started the job, and made me an excellent veggie burger with fresh mushrooms. Fantastic...I hope we meet again on our second trip in there.

Dad's Lake on our first hike in

Steve hiking above Dad's Lake

We hiked in with 5 days of food and our gear, which felt pretty heavy! The scenery was amazing though, and I made sure to rest every hour or so and take off shoes and socks. Steve pulled ahead, and I found him at a great campsite by Shadow Lake. I took a nap as it rained in the afternoon, but enjoyed sitting out by the lake for the evening looking at the peaks. I'd last been here in 2023 with Cory. Steve and I discussed the weather. I emphasized that I thought it was important to be positive about the next day, but he was a bit grim on our chances. Turns out -- he understood the weather better than I did! Anyway, we planned to get up at five and climb the Tower Ridge Route on Overhanging Tower (simulclimbing to 5.5 or so, according to the guidebook).

Getting closer to Shadow Lake...

Amazing Wind Rivers scenery

Our rather somber view from Shadow Lake

A similar scene...

Our camp by the lake

However, it started raining again at 2 am, and kept up until dawn. Big sigh! So much for our weather window.

In a pause between rain, we decided we'd hike out and wait a couple days until that blue-bird weather arrived a few days later.

We did this, and I got two nights at the Jackalope Lodge, where I'd stayed before with Cory. There were a number of CDT hikers there, also bikers. It turned into a fun evening with wine and beer. The wine came from a Canadian doing the bike route, and the beer from an interesting fellow named Randall who hiked the CDT every year and did trail maintenence. Many great talks. Also, Steve and I met a Polish couple hiking the trail and planned to meet later for climbing at the City of Rocks.

This passage spoke to me about life.

A small party at the Jackalope Lodge

Great conversation with this fellow, Randall Carlson

New friends from Poland, hiking the CDT...

Part the Second

So...we tried again. This time the packs were a bit lighter.

A much better view!

And again...

The view from camp looking back west

We hiked in, set up at the same place (the lake was less crowded now) and went to sleep after a great sunset.

Steve hiking up to Tower Ridge

In the morning, we made the approach and chose a line on Tower Ridge, a buttress that appears detached from Overhanging Rock from below. I led up for about 60 meters and set a belay at a point where we wanted to traverse around to the right to gain a ridge crest.

From here, Steve went around a corner and up a fun crack climb with good protection, then continued climbing a long ways to a point where the sun was only a short ways further. I led a couple of shorter pitches over small breaks in the ridge, at one point climbing up an awkward crack (5.7 or so) on the crest, for which I set a belay. Then Steve climbed over a tower to another stance, then continued leading a bit down to a notch that marked the end of the route.

Steve on a long simul-climbing pitch on Tower Ridge

Finally got to some sun on the route...

Near the summit of Tower Ridge, below Overhanging Tower

Here we had an important discussion about points of style and some assumptions (mostly, but not entirely wrong) we'd been making about our respective motivations and preferences. It turned out to be a great communication that healed some divisions that were growing over the past several trips (highly successful trips, it should be noted).

As older fellas, we're dealing with the fact that climbing has been a very important part of our lives, but in different ways across the nearly twenty years we climbed apart (aside from a great trip in 2016 when Steve and Ever came to the Dolomites). We'd specialized into different areas. We also both came to value all these other parts of life that are amazing, and are naturally inclined to be cautious in order to preserve all of those parts. There isn't the strong need to do this or any other particular climb any more, though at the same time, we know that without some aggression in the direction of the goal, we might overvalue comfort in a way that ultimately diffuses that joyful concentration of energy that climbing often provides. Finally, all of this "thinking" about where we are in life incorporates the other (your partner) as a mental model, and includes assumptions about what your partner may or may not be thinking. It just gets complicated!

We are men who have been gifted with much life, and much joy in that life. Knowing this, we have some reasonable fear of loss. If we fail to face that more complex internal terrain cheerfully, and together, we end up with a distorted picture, in which private doubts loom larger than they should. We're more complex than we were. But we can still move as one, and with confidence. This, we re-learned!

And so!

We decided the best thing to do was run over to Shark's Nose on the ledge system that wraps around Overhanging Tower and do that climb first, now that Tower Ridge was done, since the NW Buttress of Shark's Nose has a variety of complexities, including 7 or 8 rappels to get back to the starting point. We'd then finish up with Overhanging Tower on the way back if we weren't too worn out. It was easy enough getting over to the start of the buttress, via 3rd and 4th class scrambling. Steve sent me out for the first pitch.

Steve at the first belay for Shark's Nose

There were some thin moves (low 5th class, no protection) to get started, then it was a romp past a couple of rappel anchors to stand in a gully at the transition between the north and west sides of the peak. I took off again, straight up a crack to another rappel anchor, then for a traverse to the head of the gully, and some easy 5th class terrain above. Steve said he'd heard a rock move from the rope scraping across a ledge above him. Argh, I'd made an error: the rope could knock off some big rocks on him. So I downclimbed most of the pitch, unclipped from the rap anchor and reclimbed, making sure the rope was clear of this dangerous ledge.

I brought Steve up, and took off again, this time for an enjoyable 5.5 pitch up a face with a moss-filled crack on my right. I belayed from a pod with good cracks for an anchor just below a crack that would wrap around to the south side of the peak. For the next pitch, I headed up this slightly alarming crack, which kind of pushed me out with a lot of exposure beneath! Clipping into a rappel anchor on the south face, I was unsure of what to do, first climbing up to the crest and looking around the corner to the left -- that doesn't look good! I came back to the rap anchor and brought Steve up. Two guys doing the Cirque Traverse were climbing a 5.9 finger crack to my right. The key now was to go over there, then follow a ledge at the base of this crack around the corner to a belay at the base of what I'll call the "5.6 crack pitch." Though it looked tougher than that!

A few pitches up...

A similar shot

Steve at the belay before sneaking around to the south side

Traversing to the base of the 5.6 crack

Indeed, the first moves felt hard -- a finger crack went vertically up, then angling further to the right/east before heading straight up again. Here, I saw a piton up a crack to the right, but it turns out that is off-route (5.9 terrain). I committed to a long slab without protection, then clipped two old ring pitons at a headwall above, and made a few more moves to a rappel anchor with the slabby summit pitch directly above. That had been a very interesting pitch.

Steve took off for the last pitch, improbably finding two good gear placements on the slabby face as he climbed. He tagged the summit, then came back down a few meters to a belay at the highest rappel anchor. I was glad he led it, as the slab was quite steep -- or maybe it was the huge air below!

Atop the 5.6 crack pitch

Again...

Steve on the slabby final pitch to the summit

On the summit!

I stood on the summit and thundered my advice to the valleys below, then returned to the anchor. Wow, what a climb...

My view from the summit to the final belay just below

Another look down

Abseiling down...

Steve volunteered to lead the abseils, which was great. There are several points where the route goes around a corner. In fact, the very first abseil presents a choice: should you balance on the ridge crest, or go down to a ledge, then walk out to the belay? (we walked) The next abseil was straightforward, if steep, but the third abseil raised some doubts. We know the next station was far out on the ridge to the west. Should we lean skiers right a long ways? But we can't really see down there, and the terrain is smooth, so the rope won't preserve you in your ideas to be far off of the fall line.

In the end, we decided to go straight down, then simply walk out the ledge to the west. This was a good decision, turning a fraught abseil into an easy one.

Descending the upper part of the 5.6 crack pitch

Me hanging out up there...

Here is the 5.9 variant, stepped around to reach the 5.6 version of the pitch

Soon we were coming back into the shaded north side of the peak. For the last rappel, I ended up half-climbing on a traverse to get back to our shoes at the anchor point. Now we could put the rope away and make plans for the summit of Overhanging Tower. We were pretty tired, and hadn't had any rest at all. We decided to scramble up the ledges on that peak, then sit and eat something at the point when the scramble route for that summit leaves the ledge trail.

This was a good idea -- 10 or 15 minutes of stillness gave us a LOT of our energy back! We left the rope, and just scrambled to the summit, initially with some 3rd and 4th class, then walking, then a final (let's say) 5.2 or 5.3 pitch in a nice crack/dihedral. It was great to be up there and look over the edge!

A look across to Overhanging Tower. Note the guys descending

A similar shot, showing Steve on rappel

Steve descending to the start of the route on Shark's Nose

Scrambling back up the ramp on Overhanging Tower, Shark's Nose behind

A similar shot

We reversed the route, picked up our gear and followed a cairn'd route to a point below the Wolf's Head / Overhanging Tower saddle. From here we followed our noses down to the point where we started climbing Ridge Tower, which felt like a thing we'd done years ago! It was a very long descent. Never difficult, but you always have to pay attention amid the sliding rocks, dirt, scree, sharp edges of various kinds, tumbling boulders, etc.

Steve peeks over the edge on the truly overhanging tower!

A good day!

Scrambling down...

Now on familiar ground, we quickly reached the lake and (for my part) wheezed mightily at every remaining bit of uphill travel getting around the lake to our camp. It was exactly sunset. Steve repaired to his tent, and I drank a gallon of water and ate dinner in the dark, looking up at the peaks for the last time.

As I smoked a cigar under the stars, I saw two headlamps around the elevation of the saddle, but a good ways off left. Later, we decided this was the abseil route from Wolf's Head. Only, they may have had trouble moving off towards the saddle in order to descend to the cirque. The lights were on there for an hour, and I fancied one of them was swinging wildly, as if on a rope. Maybe? Or maybe an illusion. Off to bed.

In the morning, we hiked out in pleasant weather. We spent a night in Pinedale, where surprisingly it rained. Then we drove home. Thanks to Steve for a great trip...thanks to God for weather, good judgment and solid granite everywhere.

Our peaks in the sunset...

Last night in Pinedale...