Castleton Tower is probably the most famous desert tower in the world, and was the first major tower climbed in the Moab area. I had already climbed the North Chimney (5.9, 3-4p) and the Kor-Ingalls (5.9, 4p) routes to the top. On these ascents, we had rappelled the North Face (5.11, 4p). The steep cracks beckoned. The North Face is known to be a wild, exposed route with varied and sustained jamming.

A year later, in May 2025, I convinced a new partner Skyeler to climb the North Face with me. He had climbed it in Spring of 2023 and had led every pitch, so the plan was that I would lead every pitch and he would enjoy a toprope. We climbed in fix-and-follow method. At the trailhead we ran into a guy named Nick who was looking for his partner Cameron (Nick had never met Cameron before, so I assume it was a mountainproject partner). The minutes went by as Skyeler and I drank our coffee, and Cameron still didn't show up. So we asked Nick if he knew how to toprope solo. He did. So he joined our team, with me leading, fixing the rope, Skyeler toprope soloing, and fixing another rope for Nick. It all worked out quite well. Cameron sure missed out on a good time.

I had expected this route to be good. But it was even more fun than I had thought. The following page gives pitch-by-pitch photos from the climb. Thanks Skyeler (and Nick) for a fun day!

After climbing the route, here would be the rack I would bring if I climbed the route again (it is basically the rack we brought, but I also had a set of nuts and a #5, both of which I never used):

#6-1 (only for Pitch 3, protects a large portion of the pitch with some shameless bumping)
#3-4 (used all of them on Pitch 1, with some shameless bumping; used a few on Pitch 3),
#2-2 (I had three, but I don't think I ever placed all three on a pitch),
#1-2 (I had three, but I don't think I ever placed all three on a pitch),
#.75-2,
#.5-1,
#.4-1,
#.3-1,
#.2-1,
#.1-1,
10 24" Slings

Notes: The #6 was really nice to have to make Pitch 3 feel safe. I brought a #5 but found no use for it. I did not bring a #4 and I did not need it. After filtering mountainproject comments about Pitch 1, I decided to bring 4 #3's for Pitch 1. True, if you don't bump you might want 8 or 9 of them, but with shameless bumping, 4 of them seemed like a good compromise. I brought nuts and I never placed any - instead the #.1 and #.2 were useful to protect the final chimney on Pitch 3 (there was a thin crack on the wall) where I think others use nuts in a crack slightly further back in.