Cirque of the Towers, Warrior I, Northwest Face. In late August Brian Edmiston and I, both from Carbondale, Colorado, freed the 60-foot A3 hook traverse on the stunning 1,000-foot Northwest Face route on Warrior I at IV 5.11R. No bolts or pins were placed. First climbed in 1970 by George Lowe and Jeff Lowe at IV 5.9 A3, the Northwest Face involves mostly straightforward jamming on stellar battleship-gray granite. I took one 25-foot penduluming leader fall on the crux second-pitch (the site of the hook traverse) and returned to the belay before heading back up to link the delicate edge sequence together. Although the climbing is otherwise not difficult (5.9 with two small sections of 5.10), and the upper dihedral is one of the most commanding features in the Cirque, neither of us could find any information about previous free ascents of this outstanding route.

Jonathan Thesenga