Climbing the Cathedral Spires

Spire Four The highest of the Cathedral Spires and the one that started our addiction to the area.			Spire Two One of the easier Spires to climb, Spire Two was our second Spire.
Spire Three Big and intimidating--we finally got up the nerve to climb this in 2005 via the International Chimney.			Spire One The Spire that didn't want us to summit!
Station 13 Who says thirteen is an unlucky number? We had nothing but good luck on this spire.			Spire Five One of our more adventurous outings. There is little written about this complex Spire.
Balcony Point A fun spire next to Spire Two with a very steep handcrack!

Angela and I first hiked past the Cathedral Spires on our way up Harney Peak for the first time in 1995.  Of course at that time we weren't climbers, so we just gawked at the sheer beauty of the place and didn't even consider what adventures might lie within.

While we returned to the Hills each year, we didn't start rock climbing on our own until 1999, and it wasn't until September of 2001 that we actually worked up the nerve to climb in the Cathedral Spires area.  You see, being fairly new climbers, the Cathedrals were very intimidating.  While climbing near Rushmore we had overheard more experienced climbers recounting harrowing tales of run out climbing and falls onto seemingly ancient pitons!  On top of that, the information in the guidebook tends to be sparse at best.  The words "wander", "ramble", and "obvious" seem to appear in way too many of the route descriptions!  Very much is left up to the imagination.

Eventually we realized that the climbs might not be as bad as we had imagined--or perhaps we had progressed into climbers who were capable of taking on the climbs we had imagined.  Either way, on September 11, 2001 we found ourselves hiking into the Cathedral Spires with our good friends (and fellow Black Hills junkies) Will and Alison.

For the rest of the story, follow the links at the top of the page.