Portal to Paradise Pinnacle, White Mesa. Among the many fine photographs included in C. Gregory Crampton’s book Standing Up Country is one of a slender spire tritely named “The Monolith”. In the fall of 1967 Scott Baxter, Jim Whitfield and I ascended this small spire which we renamed Portal to Paradise Pinnacle from an inscription at the base dated 1927. Starting on the south side we climbed to a ledge (cunningly hidden in the photograph), traversed (F7) to the north side and ascended via aid to the summit. A single rappel brings one to the ground, NCCS I, F7, A2.

LEE Dexter, Unaffiliated