Photos by chossmonkey

This is my new profile pic. My wife is swooning because we are on top of Devils Tower after doing a new route and I'm her hero.

Brent_e getting into the business on a man made M-route.

This is looking down from the top of Lord of the Flies. The rappeling climber is just about to touch down on the ledge. This photo is intended to help those looking for the route. It also gives some perspective on how steep the route actually is.

This is another picture of our wall. It's pretty distorted from the wide angle lens but it shows the whole wall.

C.C.K. is probably one of the best routes to take photos of the leader without having a third person. It's also a pretty fun route. We ended up doing it twice this day because I screwed up the photo taking the first time. I think the sun was in a much better position this time anyway. Since this was her second time leading this route, the same morning, she was more comfortable with me messing with the camera. I think with a third person we could have took more and better photo's.

This is our (chossmonkey & granite_grrl) home wall. It is about 11 feet by 12 feet. The ceiling is only 7 1/2 feet high so the wall is pretty steep at about 60 degrees.

Formerly the aid route "Comrades in Slings". "Lord of the Flies" climbs a huge hollow flake up to the dihedral where a short finger crack leads to desperate (understatement) stemming. This route is similar to Narcoleptic Epic at Shovel Point, but overhanging. Racking on a gear sling is essential, as you need to scum your body into the diheadral on all sides at some point on the route.

Rockin' the fruitbootz and bustin' through the crux on a new tard mixed root.

Granite_Grrl attempting a route on the Sunshine Wall late in the day.

Throw the book in the trash, or at least ignore the grading. There's nothing like a route being graded for the easy part up higher instead of for the the hard start down low. We pretty much wandered around just climbing what looked good, finding if the route was hard or not by doing it. A bit like using the guide book but less confusing because you aren't trying to find anything specific.

This route is a fun introduction to Black Hills crystal pinching.

This is a picture of me. It is my profile picture. It was taken by me. It was at Devil's Tower.

Sunset from the base of the Old Woman at the Hidden Valley Campground.

Granit_Grrl leading Toe Jam. In the short time it took to second this route and rap off, a squirrel chewed through the bottom of my new pack in multiple spots to get a granola bar still sealed in it's wrapper.

Here is Granite_Grrl soloing Sinker, at the Cracker Jack Cliffs. Sinker is a great first lead or skip the clips for a fun solo.

Chris Richardson cruises another lap on The Melon Patch on a beautiful January afternoon.

Chossmonkey climbing one of the many fine boulders at Mecca. Many, even better boulders wait to be discovered.

If you don't like tourons watching you climb stay far away from this tower. From the top you can almost spit on passing cars. I took my little sister and her boyfriend out climbing. Neither are climbers but they were in Tucson the same time I was and they wanted to go. My sister made it up with just a little help (she didn't have climbing shoes). Her boyfriend was to scared to try after trying a little climbing earlier on the practice cliff across the road.

A self portrait of Chossmonkey climbing on the Campground Boulder. You can almost park your car right under this one. While not in the Forest Service Campground it is just a short drive away. Only a couple of days before this was taken the ground was covered with snow.

Chad Berger climbing the "Jug Haul" problem on the 30 degree Wall.

One of the few face routes on the Tower. I remember it having spooky 1/4" bolts, hopefully they've been upgraded since this picture was taken (7 years). A fun two pitch route to finish out the day on.

Slightly chossy but still fun traverse at Area 51. Photo snapped by Randy Martin on Nate's crappy little camera. Film developed by Walmart One Hour Photo:)

Nate enjoying a self guided tour on one of the many fun roof problems at Hueco Tanks outdoor museum.

Self portrait of Chossmonkey plucking a great line from a sea of boulders.

Chossmonkey climbing Birthday Girl on Mt. Lemmon more than a few years back.