Climbing Otto's Route: 100th Anniversary of First Ascent

Yesterday I climbed Otto's Route up Independence Monument, a 450-foot-high sandstone tower in Colorado National Monument, with my friends Eric and Lisa Horst and their two sons, 8-year-old Jonathan and 10-year-old Cam. 

This year is the 100^th anniversary of the first ascent of Independence Monument, which John Otto, trailbuilder, cowboy, and the first superintendent of Colorado National Monument, climbed via a pipe ladder in 1911. Otto laboriously drilled dozens of holes up the tower's west side, hammering a variety of pipes into the rock and hauling up juniper logs which he wedged into cracks for footholds.

After a few months of work, Otto hauled himself onto the summit and drilled a last hole on the top--for a 12-foot-tall flagpole. On Flag Day, June 14, few days later, an honor guard carried an American flag to the route base and Otto scaled the route before an admiring crowd. On top he lashed the flag to the pole. People below cheered both the grand flag and John Otto as Old Glory flapped in the summer breeze. A rain squall passed overhead as Otto began descending his pipe ladder and spectators below watched agape as he cautiously stepped his way down the slippery rungs.

Yesterday's climb was my 12^th ascent of Indy and the first for the Horst family. Starting in the morning shade, we climbed the first couple pitches, a chimney and crack on pitch one and a cruxy off-width on pitch two. Higher, we climbed pitch three, an 80-foot climb up a steep face, and finished with the fourth pitch up a slab to the route crux--sandy overhanging face moves with holes drilled by Otto 100 years ago.

The entire route, called Otto's Route, has 64 chopped steps and over 90 pipe holes, making this historic route the easiest climb up a major tower on the Colorado Plateau, a region that encompasses western Colorado, southern Utah, northern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico.

If you're going to be in western Colorado, go and climb Independence Monument. You'll undoubtedly be amazed at John Otto's bravery and skill when you consider that he climbed this huge tower 100 years ago. Way to go John--you were one crazy redneck!

Read more about Independence Monument:
John Otto Climbs Independence Monument
Climbing Otto's Route on Independence Monument

Photograph above: Lisa Horst climbing the last pitch of Otto's Route. Photograph © Stewart M. Green.