March 29 - April 1, 2003

Bill Mooz and my faithful Ford Escape in front of Castleton Tower.
A foreshortened view of the south face of Castleton Tower.   We climbed the Kor-Ingalls route (5.9), which goes up the obvious crack system in the middle of the face.
On the summit of Castleton Tower, four pitches later.

Bill Mooz and Terry Gill on the summit of Castleton Tower (3000 x 475 pixels)

Bill and Terry drove back to Denver while I drove south to meet Andrew Richardson and friends. This is the Wilson Arch, a formation that I passed on the way.
The famous Mexican Hat.  In celebration of Andrew's upcoming wedding, the idea was to see how many people we could get to the top.
Andrew leading up the bolt ladder on the Mexican Hat
Matt Richardson and kite on top of the Mexican Hat.  Look carefully and you'll also spot the tequila bottle.
Andrew and the assembled multitude on top of the Mexican Hat. There should have been two more of us but there was a misunderstanding about the rendezvous time.
Craig Sovka descending from the Mexican Hat
The next day Andrew and I went to sample the climbs at Indian Creek. After flailing on this climb ("Elephant Man", 5.10) we watched a cute 20-something as she effortlessly waltzed to the top.
Our  final destination was Arches National Park. This is the Landscape Arch. You can't stand underneath it because a big slab of rock fell off a few years ago.
In Arches we climbed the west face of  "Dark Angel" (5.9, A1), an impressive but rather crumbly pinnacle.
 
Some of the rock formations in Arches
(1500 x 500 pixels)

Finally... our favourite Utah beer label