Dermatome: a surgical instrument designed specifically to remove thin slices of skin.  Get the idea?

Tape up well for this one as it has feldspar scalpels embedded inside. Beginning just left of the large alcove, and jam up to the point where the crack splits in two.  Continuing straight up will treat you to a couple of possible setbacks, 2 small roofs and further up, a hairy jog to the left into a flaring pod leading to the rounded top of a large block (10c). If you go right, you are in for a gradually widening crack going from hands to fists and stacks to arm bars or a chicken wing or two, ending on top of the large block (10b). If you choose, belay here on gear or continue to the top and again, belay on gear.

The descent is by downclimbing the backside of the spire.

Dermatome

Old Dogs New Trick

Gandhi

Wrist Ranger

Spelunk Spiral

Sky Shot

Pussy Cat's Hot Licks

Grand Central Station

Condi

Paper Training

Classic sandbag.  This is overhanging, has tough sizes, and there is one hand jam 3/4 the way up.  For feet, rand smears in the crack are the way to go.  It is totally sweet.  TR it if you want, but better yet, haul out a pad and boulder it.  No, your fingers will not rip off and stay in the crack if you fall.  Go for it!  This is one of my favorite boulder problems EVER.  Really, EVER.

Gandhi is the hand and fist corner 20 feet to the right of the shaded Condi alcove. It begins with undercling jamming, followed by hand and fist jamming (crux) to the top of a block. From the top of block, left-trending hand and finger jamming leads to belay in horizontal crack (hand sized gear) directly above Condi. If this route cleans up a bit, it should be a decent outing.

Wrist Ranger is a crack worth walking for.  The crack splits a short face intersecting a dike and another crack along the way.  WR is located on the lower right (SE) face of Spelunk Spire formation (away from the spire). Climb the crack, at around 3-4 inches most of the way with a few smaller constrictions.  With my non-Scarpellian sized hands this was mostly a rattly fist crack - not a handcrack as called by some literature on the subject.  Great rock.  When you hit the top of the crack and the arete, set some bomber pro (1.5-2 inches) for your second and run it out up the easy slab to a tree atop the formation.  Scramble off to the right side of the cliff, veer a little left for the easiest decent.  This is a good line, but beware to those climbers breaking into the grade I'd recommend bringing several #4 and #3 Camalots.

Work your way into the chimney. Transition to a set of parallel cracks (the crux, I guess), then tunnel back into a slot. Follow the slot until you get bored or until it deposits you on ramps below and to the right of the spire. The view is pretty good from this point.

Finding your way through the ramps to tag the spire summit is fun.

Downclimb to descend.

The topo shows the NW face of Spelunk Spire.  It is the highpoint of the formation.  'Sky Shot' is shown as #1 on the topo.

It starts in the depths of the large, centrally located alcove and goes near vertical up the middle of the spire.  Referring to Figure 2, a faint blue line is slightly offset from the actual crack line and follows the route closely. The start (probably the crux) is establishing finger tip liebacks in a distinct thin, rising crack found where the left (east) wall and roof of the alcove join. Be prepared to slam in two or three small cams (#1 or 1.5 or equivalents) along the way as it becomes more strenuous and 'feet' seem to disappear. A surprisingly good hand jam is found as one turns the 'roof', giving ample time for a good cam placement. The difficulty eases up somewhat from here, and it goes like this:  hands to fingers to hands to near offwidth with a finish on nearly unprotected gnarly face.

Take a full rack, making sure to save a couple of #3.5 Camalots  (or equivalent) for the wide crack underlying the final face finish.  Belay at top on gear (approximately 65 feet off the deck).

The descent is by downclimbing the backside of the spire, generally trending eastward. Give 'Sky Shot' a go, it's a true Vedauwoo 'outback' experience.

This is an excellent, technical, and desperate crack. Lieback a discouragingly thin crack, find feet out left, and don't let them pop! The barn door will spit you off if you aren't careful! The crux is the first 10 feet, followed by better and better liebacks as you get higher up. If flared hand jams suit your fancy, they are an alternative for the last 10 feet.

This is a typical Vedauwoo 5.6.  The route starts left of the tree and the roofs shown in the guidebook (Rock Climbing at Vedauwoo, Wyoming).  You can see a beautiful but short open book, with parallel cracks at the left end of the wall.  Climb the open book and move left to belay under a large roof with a tricky anchor.  Note that in 2009, there was a DEATH rappel anchor set at the top (webbing around a hollow, small rock).  If you don't want to die on this rappel, I suggest traversing into the small, "slabby," flaring chimney and continue moving right after this chimney to a second flaring, wide crack until you get to an obvious topout.  Here you can head left into an arduous downclimb. Per

Tyler Knaebel

, there are now (September 2016) rap anchors to the right before the roof.

This route follows the obvious double overhanging corner via a right trending crack. The crack goes from offwidth to hands to fingers, finally becoming a flared fist-sized crack above the lip (crux). As with many Vedauwoo routes, the crux has an inobvious solution -- this in the form of some hidden edges. Above lip, angle dramatically kicks back for fifteen feet to the belay. Start by traversing into the crack from the right on a horizontal ledge 15 feet above the base of the alcove. Belay on the ledge (# 1 Camalot for belay).

This neat little pitch is moderate hands to an awkward overhanging bulge crux at the top.  It's a good route but not great due to the rock quality.  Give it about a dozen more ascents to clean up and it'll be a must when heading to the area.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Spelunk Spire