The Enclosure, Northwest Ridge, Variation. A series of corners, formed of predominately white rock, is located several hundred feet left of the Kimbrough-Olson Variation on the north face of the Great Tower. Georgie Stanley and I found good climbing there on July 25, ascending six long pitches to a junction with the Durrance-Davis route at the Tower. We followed the Valhalla Traverse to the ridgelet at the edge of the bowl, as described in the guidebook. Our first pitch climbed the ridgelet; on the next, we took an easy ramp heading right across a rib, then up the 5.8 crux crack into the main corner system. The following pitches, climbed mostly on the left faces of the corners, eventually brought us to the top of the face. Once around the Great Tower, we joined the existing route to the summit. We named our climb the Horton-Stanley Variation (IV 5.8).

Paul Horton