Intro

Black Sabbath is a less-frequented route located on the east face of Sister Superior, just around the corner from Jah Man. It enjoys morning sun. In his guidebook, Karl Kelly calls the route Savior Free and notes that it was ascended shortly after the first ascent by another team who dubbed it Black Sabbath.

I was not aware of this route, but Skyeler expressed interest in climbing it, so I looked into it. It looked like a fun adventure. The rappel is down Jah Man, so the idea of toproping the upper pitches of Jah Man added extra appeal. I had always wanted to climb Jah Man, but when the first pitch cleaved off in January 2020 (taking the grade of the route from 5.10+ to 5.12), the route became less approachable.

Skyeler and I climbed this route on Memorial Day 2025. We had Sister Superior to ourselves. Perhaps the 86 degree temperatures had something to do with that. Despite the heat, we had a fun and adventurous day. We thought the climbing on the route was quite good, especially on Pitches 2 and 3 (which are the meat of the route anyway as Pitches 1 and 4 are quite short). The most adventurous episode was when we noticed a tower of death blocks, the largest being washing-machine sized, barring access to Pitch 2; the block teetered and smaller rocks and boulders beneath and around it slid around undermining the larger block. After some discussion, I decided to gingerly stem around it, and found a somewhat solid foothold to get me past it and onward with leading the 5.11 splitter above. When it was Skyeler's turn to climb the pitch, he coiled up the excess rope (we were climbing in fix and follow method) and also gingerly climbed around the block. Once he and the rope were safely above it, he began pushing the jenga pile of rocks. It took very little effort and the entire pile slid out and trundled a few thousand feet down the slope below. I am glad we managed to safely maneuver past the death blocks and make the route safer for future ascents.

We then toproped the upper 2/3 of Jah Man on rappel, experiencing some classic 5.10+ climbing on a route that it no longer easily accessible from below.

The following page gives pitch-by-pitch photos from our day out. Thanks Skyeler for another fun day of desert tower climbing!

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd-3rd

The approach to Sister Superior is different than the approach to the Castleton Tower group. Park at a dirt parking lot about 9/10ths of a mile past the Castle Valley turnoff (driving from Moab). Coordinates: 38°41'32.3"N 109°24'36.7"W.

Walk in following the dirt road/wash for close to a mile and a half. Look for a cain and well-beaten path up the steep talus to the base of the tower.

The approach took us 1 hour 50 minutes. The final bit was quite steep but the path was easy to follow.

Pitch 1

5.7

Climb a blocky slot/chimney to a large ledge. Belay on gear.

Pitch 2

5.11

Follow a crack that zags left. This is left of the chimney and old bolt ladder. Hanging belay from bolted anchor.

Pitch 3

5.10

Traverse left on face holds, and climb a crack from tight hands to offwidth to chimney. Belay on ledge from bolts.

Pitch 4

5.9+

Same finish as Jah Man. Climb the face past bolts (as of 2025, an old star-drive, a pounded piton, and a newer bolt) to the summit.

Top

Woo hoo!

Descent

Rappel

Rappel Jah Man. We rapped it with a single 70 in four rappels. A single 60 may work as well with more rappels but it is nice to be able to make the final rappel past the entire rock scar. Using the original 4-pitch description of Jah Man:
R1: Short rappel from summit to top of Pitch 3 of Jah Man.
R2: Rappel from top of Pitch 3 to top of Pitch 2 of Jah Man.
R3: Rappel from top of Pitch 2 to top of Pitch 1 of Jah Man.
R4: Rappel to ground (this rappels past the entire rock scar area which is now broken into three pitches).

Bonus Pitches

Toproping the upper 2/3 of Jah Man

The first third of Jah Man (Pitch 1 and the first part of Pitch 2) were obliterated when this part of the route literally cleaved off on Jan 3, 2020. The original Pitch 1 had been a 5.8+ chimney and the part of Pitch 2 that fell off was a 5.10 thin hands section. These pitches have since been replaced with 5.10-5.12 climbing. So the rockfall took the grade of the route from 5.10+ to mid-5.12.

Since the rappel route descends Jah Man, we took the opportunity to toprope the top 2/3 of Jah Man on the way down. Under the standard 4-pitch breakdown for the original Jah Man route, we toproped Pitches 2&3 of Jah Man (Pitch 4 of Jah Man is the same as the final pitch of Black Sabbath, so we excluded that from the toproping). Pitches 2&3 of Jah Man are both excellent 5.10+, evidencing how Jah Man was a classic 5.10 route before the rockfall incident. They were fun and easy to toprope without directionals.

We did not toprope the post-rockfall pitches that replace the original first pitch of Jah Man, but we looked at them on the way down (there are actually three short pitches that replace the original first pitch and a bit that fell off). The 5.10 Pitch 1 looked a bit sketchy due to a detached pillar and questionable rock quality, while the 5.11+ Pitch 2 traverse and the 5.12 Pitch 3 cracks looked pretty cool but quite difficult.

Hike Out

2nd-3rd

Hike out the way you came.

Bonus - Dinosaur Tracks & Petroglyphs

Poison Spider

After the climb, I drove to Moab to do some errands (laundry in the creek, filling water jugs and throwing away trash at Lions Park, gas and groceries at City Market) and then I went to the library to write my trip report. The library was closed for Memorial Day so I drove back to Lions Park and found a shady spot to park and worked on my computer in my car.

After this, upon a tip from a friend, I went to the Poison Spider trailhead (about 15 minutes outside of town on Potash Road) and checked out the dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs.