The Inferno Burns Up the Garden

Last Wednesday afternoon, November 18 , Nathanael Hansen made the first free ascent of Ryan’s Inferno on the Middle Tower of the Tower of Babel in the Garden of the Gods, Colorado. The route, the first pitch of an old aid climb called The Inferno, rises sharply above a ramp to anchors below a small roof 60 feet up. Back in 1999 a group of local climbers— the late Ryan Sayers, Dan Russell, Jeff Russell, and Brian Shelton—thought the overhanging prow would go all free so they rebolted it and worked on it. After Sayers was killed by double lightning strikes in the Wind Rivers in 2004, the project sat untouched until this year when another gang of young Colorado Springs climbers began working the moves.

Than Hansen was the first to dial the beta out after working on the route for four days. On the fifth day he went for the complete free ascent. On his first attempt he plummeted off the first crux, a long dyno from tiny crimpers to a sloping rail, and lowered to the ground. After a short rest he then climbed the route all the way to the last move—clipping the anchors—but his strength failed and again he fell. Than took a long rest and on his next try hiked the route and casually clipped the anchors. Ryan’s Inferno was a project no longer and is now the hardest route in the Garden of the Gods with a possible grade of 5.13a. Great send, Than!

Photo left: Than Hansen crimps the final moves on the first free ascent of “Ryan’s Inferno.”
Photograph © Stewart M. Green