Standing Rock is one of the Desert Biggies, and Kor called it A4, so we are sufficiently scared before we ever even lay eyes on the climb.

For some crazy reason we have 10 people and two dogs in our group, but only one 4-wheel drive vehicle for the drive into Monument Basin. We load the truck up with as much gear, people, and canines as possible, then just tie the rest on the roof with old ropes and start the epic overland journey. Most of us rode in on mountain bikes. Cyndie's Toyota looks like a parody of some T.V. commercial. Her driving skills (or luck?) on the treacherous Shafer Trail of the White Rim in snowy conditions, is legendary. The abuse her brand new 4x4 took was inspirational in both vehicle performance and owner tolerance. The dogs whined and drooled the whole journey, scratching at the new upholstery to get out and join the cyclists on the 40 mile drive in.

The White Rim Trail is probably one of the wildest and most scenic jeep trails in the country, and Monument Basin, where Standing Rock is located, is one of the scenic highlights of the whole trail.

Standing Rock is one of those unbelievable spires; a freak of nature and natural erosion. Looking at it makes you wonder how and why it's still left standing. All the rocks, spires, cliffs, mesas, and buttes in Monument Basin have all eroded in such bizarre and fantastic formations; the landscape conjours up thoughts of being on some other planet.

We were ready for some of the most difficult and horrific sandstone climbing we had ever done, and were pleasantly surprised to find the climbing actually fairly straight-forward, moderately safe, and really not too terrifying.

After fixing the first pitch, we rapped down to complete the route the next day. We rapped down on Marge a brand-new 10m rope, and the single rope rappel on the slick-sheathed new cord allowed for almost no friction from my rappel device. Halfway down the overhanging rappel, I was too pumped to even hang on much longer, and realized that without assistance, I'd slide down this slimy perlon spaghetti strand at warp speed and soon be a grease spot in the talus below. Luckily, someone was at the base to grab the rope and hold it tight, thus increasing the friction, and denying the AAJ's "Accidents in N.A." yearly publication a classic story.

The second pitch, dubbed, "X the kitty litter pitch," was supposed to have poorly protected free climbing on rock quality straight out of the cat box, but with a small degree of concentration and a cool head, it was soon history. The 3rd pitch was THE pitch of the whole climb. It was a long and strenuous aid pitch that goes over many bulges and small roofs; time consuming and technical, but fairly standard "big wall" jive. Only used a few pitons on the whole route too, which was a nice change from other big nail-ups of past spires.

We beefed up all the rap anchors, so the descent was totally bomber now; no messing around when it comes to sandstone anchors.

We had ropes fixed up the whole tower, and everyone who wanted to was jumaring up the ropes to party on the summit. Snacking on the summit, we relaxed before the rappels, fully content with the unique experience of ascending the legendary Standing Rock. We had dreamed about this moment for over a decade, and now we were there; glad we got to climb it for surely it won't be standing forever.