The Lower Tangen Tower is the overhanging rock you pass under on the Royal Arch Trail after passing the base of the Fourth Flatiron.  Despite being near this major trail, the rock sees few ascents as it is not easy to solo up and down.

The first few moves are the crux, which is an awkward offwidth, although you may be able to find a more elegant way to do it.  Soon the difficulty eases to 4th class.  You can belay on a ledge at 60', or continue left up a ramp and continue to the summit.  The entire climb can be done in one 120' pitch.

To descend, rap 40' west into the notch between the Tangen Towers.  On rappel you may notice 2 bolts of some unknown route on the overhanging West Face of the Lower Tower.

Standard Route/Lower Tangen Tower

Pictureman Crack/Lower Tangen Tower

Unnamed Hueco  1

Stay Focused

Hoppy Birthday

Zacchaeus

South Face Right/Lower Tangen Tower

Thumper

East Face Lower Tangen Tower

DC Boy

East Face/Upper Tangen Tower

In Focus

Hop, Skip, & Jump

We were unable to find this route in any of the climbing guides, so we are listing it as a first ascent. I doubt that it has never been climbed, but based on the roughness of the crack. it is clear it has not seen much traffic.

The crack is great for jamming and eats pro.

Reach the base of the Tangen tower as described in the rock section. Walk West around the South side (left) of the rock. You will pass a small boulder leaning against the lower South face below an incipient crack (this is the South Face right route from Rossiter, 5.9), continue up past two slots (the second cleaner slot being the Roach route.)

As the face turns right around an arete you will see two thin shallow parallel cracks that fail to reach the ground. The right crack disappears after a few feet but the left crack continues to the ridge above your head.

Start between the two cracks and make a couple of bouldery moves that will allow you to reach the left crack. From there, life gets easier, work up the crack until you reach the ridge of a sloping ramp. Crank up onto the ramp and head left for some 10 feet to an easy headwall that leads to the summit.

Descent - Make an exposed short rap to the West from threaded slings.

This short crack may well have been climbed previously but it has not been reported anywhere.  The Tangen Towers are named after Ed Tangen (1873-1951), Boulder historian who took several thousand photos of the Boulder area.  He was known as "The Pictureman".

This crack lies on the southwest side of the Lower Tangen Tower, it lies between the regular route and the rap off.  There are actually two cracks, this is the left and easier of the two (the other being "In Focus").  The hardest move is getting off the ground, then enjoy 20' of fun and well protected jamming.  This crack is great but too short!

The rest of the climb is easier: continue up and slightly left on a ramp which leads to the summit (5.4 at most).  Be sure to place a stopper in the trademark slot, other than this there isn't much pro on the top half of the pitch.  Except for this lack of pro at the top this would make an excellent beginner lead.  The entire climb is less than 100' long.

From the summit area, move north to find a sling out of sight at the top of the overhanging west face.  Do a short rap to reach the ground.

This route climbs the first set of obvious huecos to a ledge with a tree. The climbing is fun on big holds.  We were going to bolt it to make it a fun warmup, but winter and the bolting ban the next year left the route as is.  There are several more viable routes along this wall and they would be adventuresome undertakings on natural gear.

The name of this climb is meant to be a play on other nearby route names as well as a comment on the game of free soloing on-sight, the way in which this route was established.

Find this route by climbing up to the East Face of lower Tangen Tower, then going South and West to the back (West) side. Between the top of the Lower tower and the bottom of the upper tower is a fern, raspberry and thimbleberry filled gully with a bit of a trail. You will pass a set of twin cracks, 8' off of the ground (In Focus, 5.10) and then a single hanging crack 4 meters further left (Picture Man Crack, 5.7).  These are seen in the attached picture. Just another 3 meters up and left is a huecoed out, shallow crack with the first pocket in the bottom of the crack at about 8' high. The crack runs for 6 feet before it ends abruptly, with a short move or two of fingercrack still higher. There is a rounded boulder just left of the start of this line, pinched in between the ground and the back of this flatiron.

Climb up (boulder) on a little slashed pocket for the left and  a pebble crimp for the right and some sloping feet to reach the first little pocket.  For the FA this sequence was the crux at 5.10. The boulder to the left was not used simply for lack of having seen it that way (there were nasty bushes over it) and then up and over through some slabs and an easy wall above. This is well done as a boulder problem.

After the first Ascent with a scrambling group nearby, Stephan G. did the second ascent as a flash free-solo. He found that stepping back onto the aforementioned round boulder brought the opening sequence from 5.10 to 5.9. So this route goes 5.9 without wandering. The bushes (thimbleberry) over it were fairly easily and non-destructively trained out of the way when I repeated the route and used the boulder. If you want more challenge, don't use the boulder to step up prior to the start. It is thin and balancy that way.

The bottom of this route is still quite lichenous but not on the holds you will use.

See Thumper for the general location.From Thumper, "adventure hike" about 100 yards north to a fern-covered, talus slope. On your left (west) will be the massive slab of the 4th Flatiron. On your right is a west-facing vertical wall containing 4 routes. This route is located at the far north end of the talus slope near where the rock forms a small cave.  Climb up the right side of the cave and clip the bolt over the roof. Surmount the roof (crux) and follow easier ground to the belay.  Walk off left (north) and scramble back to the base of the route. This route shares the first bolt of Hop, Skip, & Jump. It was climbed on my oldest daughter's birthday.

This is the rightmost route and is located near a tree (hence the name, see Luke 19:1-10). 2 bolts and gear take you to a rappel anchor.

Start on the block, and place pro in the crack.  Climb the huecos to the the left of the crack, and follow them as they wander up and left.  When the huecoes die out, head up and right to pass an overhang (crux).  Watch out for loose rock in this area, we trundled a toaster-sized block here.

You are now on a large ledge.  Head right (east) and climb a short slot to emerge on the east face.  Follow this 100' to the top (almost no pro but only about 5.5).  The entire climb can be done in one ~160' long pitch (but watch for rope drag).

This climb is pretty good but is slightly loose right at the crux.  You have to be clever stuffing cams in holes to protect it.

Thumper was bolted and climbed in Nov., 1988 before the bolting ban in the Flatirons. The recent discussion of Tangen Towers brought to mind that there were several routes we did in this area but never reported.  All routes will be referenced to Thumper, as it is a very obvious route to find, especially with the recent descriptions of

In Focus

and

Pictureman Crack

.

Thumper is about 50 feet left (north) of

Pictureman Crack

. It is a severely overhanging wall with 2 bolts, the first being about 12 feet off the ground.  Stick clip the first bolt. We were going to place a lower bolt, but winter came and we never got back.  Modern sport climbers will find this a fun outing.  The walk up to here is worth ***s!

In the spirit of climbing every east face, this seemed like the easiest way up the lower Tangen Tower.

P1.

Head up the ramp to the jug just below the big, left-trending crack. Step left onto the face, and then head straight up on steep features reminiscent of a standard east face with the kind of protection you'd typically find there (5.8+ R). Get some gear in the big crack, then find the path of least resistance to gain the ledge, and build an anchor near the tree.

P2.

Head up the water gully above. Turn left to get some gear. Then head up some sparsely protected 5.5 R to the top.

This route could benefit from some cleaning. Gear placements at the crux are tricky and often in slightly questionable rock.

This is the route in the center of the beautiful black wall and follows a small corner.  It has great moves on excellent rock.

There is no descent anchor, walk off left (north). This area gets excellent sun even in the winter.

Start from the saddle between the two Tangen Towers (a short bushwhack from the Royal Arch Trail).  The East Face is about 300 feet long, and about the only place to belay is a flake around 160 feet.  The first pitch is only 4th class or so, but the second is steeper and comprises the crux.

You can walk off the summit, then go down north of the Upper Tangen Tower, back to the saddle where you started.  Do not try to descend south of the Upper Tangen Tower (between it and the 5th Flatiron), this is 5th class.

See Thumper for the general location. From Thumper, "adventure hike" about 100 yards north to a fern covered talus slope. On your left (west) will be the massive slab of the 4th Flatiron. On your right is a west-facing, vertical wall containing 4 routes. This route is located at the far north end of the talus slope near where the rock forms a small cave.  "Hop" up the right side of the cave and clip the bolt over the roof. Hoppy Birthday (5.10a) climbs straight up from here. "Skip" up left heel hooking along the lip of the roof clipping 2 more bolts. Now "Jump" to the jug above.  Modern climbers can avoid the jump with skill!  Follow easier rock to a belay. Walk off left (north) and follow the gully back to the base.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Tangen Towers