Happy Birthday Glenn!!! (Day 6)

Monday was Glenn's birthday! Happy Birthday Glenn!!!

We celebrated by having a full day climbing Bear Lodge/ Devil's Tower National Monument. Glenn has been looking forward to this particular adventure for months, and carefully preparing so we had the skills, gear, and knowledge to accomplish this feat! 

We chose to climb the tower via the Durrance route which is the easiest route to the summit, but not at all a gimme. Our alarms went off in the morning and the stars were still brightly shining, so we checked the weather, geared up, and made our way to the base of the tower. When climbing big routes like this one, you climb sections of the wall one at a time, termed "pitches," to get higher or progress onwards. As we started the first pitch, dawn was breaking and the view was beautiful: 

Glenn led us up the whole tower: placing trad "traditional" gear to protect us and route finding. Cassie would belay Glenn from the anchor below until he was safely at the next anchor. Then Glenn would belay Cassie from above until we had both completed a section and were higher than we were before! And so this continued ~7 times.  There were some snafus, such as not seeing some of the anchors, but we talked about the situation, made alternative plans, and kept each other safe. Glenn rocked the climbing, was calm, collected, and confident, using all those trad climbing and leading skills. There were a few of those moments, but here is a summary of how Cassie felt after most pitches: 

Cassie made sure we drank the water we had lugged up and we re-fueled regularly with our snacks, even if they had gotten smushed up against the rock. (Oh well, you get up the wall however you must!) At long last, we made it to the summit! We celebrated by enjoying a luxuriously cold thermos of Coke and signed the summit log book.  Here we are at the top of the tower, where you can't climb any higher, lol. 

More summit pics:

Then we very! carefully rappelled our way down and sometimes scrambled down where needed. We touched back down at the base around sunset, and though we had our headlamps, we were glad to be walking home by then. We had camped our tent at the Devil's Tower Lodge, and the folks there had a full, warm plate of dinner ready for us when we made it back weary and hungry. We were super grateful for that meal, the ice cream, and got to enjoy speaking to visitors of the Lodge who hailed from the UK, Switzerland, and Germany! Then it was off to much a needed sleep!

Many thanks to our dear pal Mal for lending us your Rocky Talkies so we could communicate easily when far away, and your Garmin Satellite communicator to have on hand in case of emergencies. Thanks to all our friends who we've had the joy of climbing with and have learned so much from! Thanks also to the YouTube climbing videos that Glenn so appreciates! Thanks to us as a team, for taking care of each other and making adventures like this possible, safe, and fun!