I climbed Independence Monument in a party of 3 in the summer of 2022; here's the beta!
Welcome back to my page!
Living in Grand Junction, CO as of May 2022 opened up a new climbing territory for me on the Western Slope! Many amazing climbing areas are within a few hours of here including Moab, Rifle, Indian Creek, and the Fortress of Solitude. A local classic and one adventure climb worth doing is the Independence Monument; a 400 ft. sandstone tower. The classic route, Otto's Route, is graded at 5.8 and it was first climbed in 1911 by local legend, John Otto. The route is broken into 4 pitches, pictured below.
Recommended Gear:
A small rack of cams with a 1.5 and 2 tricam, and a #4 Camalot. About 6 draws and several shoulder length slings should do. Bring two ropes (for the rap). I descended with a GriGri.
You will need to place your own gear on pitches one and two. The anchors are bolted and updated. Pitch three comes after a short, un-roped walk through the "Time Tunnel". P3 is actually bolted, but slightly run-out. Pitch 4 is where the tricams come in handy because they fit well into the giant holes made by John Otto. That is the best way to protect the first half of P4. The second half of P4, after you have gotten to the top of the ramp (the steps of Mordor), is bolted once again. The final anchor sits just under the summit top-out, so you may want to stay on belay as you and your team climb the last couple feet to the very top.
My break down of the climbing:
In my opinion, the first pitch is the most awkward and the last pitch is the most exposed. Beware of online grading putting the first pitch as the easiest. I would say because of its awkward nature, it will feel a bit harder than 5.4 and maybe more like 5.7 or 8. The second pitch is a bit overhanging, but if you do some route finding, you will be able to sink your hands into mega pockets that were drilled in 1911. I would say online ratings for P2 are accurate! P3 is by far the easiest pitch as it is well protected, not exposed, and short. Enjoy more pocket pulling on P3!
Beware of the sandy steps on P4! Sandstone is, obviously, sandy and the ramp leading to the mushroom cloud finish of P4 is no exception. There are bolts on P4, but they do not begin until about half way up, so have a leader that is confident about being 30 ft. off the deck without any gear placed or bring those tricams along to place in the pockets! The top out appears intimidating, but actually has amazing jugs and it quite fun! Enjoy :)
Getting Down
My team carried along two 70 meter ropes to make the rap more straight forward. We connected them with an overhand knot at the anchors of P4, placed a large locker for security, and cruised down on our GriGris. We stopped at the bottom of P3, pulled rope, and walked through the time tunnel to the anchors of P2. Once we set the ropes up again, we descended directly down the cliff face from P2 and touched down a few yards over from the very beginning of the route.
Overall, this entire climb took us a few hours from car to car. The hike in is about 2.4 miles and it starts at the Monument Canyon trailhead. We started later in the day at about 1 pm and we were back to the car around sunset. Shoutout to John and Jonathan for being great partners on this climb!