Attempting to Climb and Sleep on a Desert Tower in Utah
When we push to our limit, sometimes we find it
When I work with close friend and now YouTube climbing sensation Noah Kane it seems we always end up getting ourselves into some pretty wild situations and this adventure to the desert was no different.
Noah came up with the idea of climbing Castleton Tower in Utah and sleeping at the top which, in theory, seemed just silly and ridiculous enough to be an amazing video idea while still maintaining an exciting sense of adventure. As you discover if you watch the video, this turned out to be a bigger adventure than we bargained for.
After some hot desert sunburns, sweaty ascents and some difficult crack climbing Noah and Aidan realized they wouldn’t make it to the top. Noah felt like a failure. He had planned this amazing desert tower camping and climbing video for a client but couldn’t deliver on his promises.
However, as most climbers know, you don’t always get to the top of every climb. Sometimes you give it your all and don’t succeed. You may not be in the right headspace, you may have brought the wrong gear or (most common in my personal climbing experiences) your physical limits prevent you from reaching the summit or you. Getting tired is part of the climbing experience and not completing a climb because you’re too tired is okay.
Doing your best is the best you can do
My edit of this video is a bit different than Noah’s (which you can check out here) which focuses more on his personal experience in this climb. Noah is a fantastic YouTube editor/creator/climber/human but I wanted to create complementary video on the experience since our experiences on this day were a bit different. I was on the ground and part of this whole journey, but mostly as a camera guy, supporter and friend.
I think we all walked away from this trip with a healthy shift in our mindset towards climbing. Noah, Aidan and I all gain a lot of satisfaction when it comes to pushing our limits in the climbing space but I think we all went home and discovered that it’s okay not to succeed all the time. Some would say we failed here but when I watch the video, it takes me right back to swimming in the Colorado river, bopping around the desert sandstone and sleeping on a beach towel in the dirt with two of my close friends - and making memories like that are some of the biggest successes of my career.
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Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.
