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Relics III 5.10 C2, Grand View Spire, Colorado National Monument November 2008 David Hoven (’06) and Kyle Davis Kyle and my ascent of Relics went awry before we even got to the base of the tower. Rapping into the canyon via Grand View Point, Kyle mistakenly went down the wrong way. He was dangling over 100 feet down, rapping off a huge overhanging capstone before he could see that the end of the rope was about 80 feet short of the base of the canyon. The poor guy had to jug back up to the rim and we readjusted the ropes to hit the saddle between the rim and Grand View Spire. We scrambled our way down to the canyon floor and finally got our first look at the route at about 2pm. The first pitch consisted of spectacular 5.10 desert crack climbing that offered everything from off-width to perfect hands to scary lie-backing. In lieu of starting the long C2 pitch an hour and a half before nightfall we fixed a line from the top of pitch one and decided to return the next day. Thinking we had a casual day of climbing we did not make it back to the base of the route until 10 am the next day. Even though the climbing went well we did not reach the summit until after the sun had set. On the summit we set up a tyrolean to the canyon rim. (We had dangled a piñata donkey head from the center point of the Tyrolean rope to entice the many on-lookers). Kyle set off first but as he reached the center point between the two anchors his Gri-gri somehow got jammed and he was more or less stuck, hanging between summit and rim in the middle of the cold, cold night for well over an hour. From the summit, all I could see of Kyle was the small white light from his headlamp. Kyle was dangling in black space much like the piñata donkey head while I sat and shivered on the small summit. Employing my arKyle Davis with the Pinata. Both have a creepy, yet happy look.—D. senal of rope work trickery Hoven along with a grueling effort from Kyle we were finally able to get him back to the summit of the tower where we rapped down to the saddle. The summit was attained, but not without a heavy handed lesson in humility.
-Dave Hoven