United States: Climbs in the Pacific Northwest

Stein’s Pillar, Oregon. Stein’s Pillar is a spectacular rhyolite monolith located in central Oregon. One reaches it by turning off U.S. Highway 28 near the upper end of the Ochoco Reservoir, at a point about ten miles E. of the town of Prineville, and then following a gravel road for seven miles up the Mill Creek Valley. A visitor arriving for the first time need have no concern about identification of the Pillar. When it suddenly bursts into view around a bend, he knows that he has found it. Having once spent the better part of a day with a party of four in gaining 30 vertical ft. on its walls, I believe it to be the most incredible single pinnacle I have yet seen, with the possible exception of one or two sandstone spires in the desert regions of the Southwest.

On 18 July 1950 the first ascent was accomplished by a party of five climbers from Oregon City: Donald Baars, Leonard Rice, Russell Johnson, and Floyd and Glenn Richardson. They made the climb in three sessions, extending over a period of two years—a fact which gives some indication of the amount of work required. Pitons are of little use except near the bottom, because the spire is virtually without cracks. Progress must depend on extensive use of expansion bolts. The 400-ft. walls overhang on all sides to such an extent that the crest, according to the climbers, has an area half again as large as the base. The Pillar leaves a distinct impression of being upside down.1

Fred D. Ayres

1For a complete account of the climb, profusely illustrated, see the article by Donald Baars in the Mazama Annual, December 1950, pp. 27-33.