Pipe Organ is a 5,731-foot-elevation (1,747-meter) sandstone pillar located in Colorado National Monument, in

Mesa County Mesa County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 155,703. The county seat is Grand Junction. The county was named for the many large mesas in the area, including Grand Mesa. Mesa Co ...

of western Colorado, United States. This 400+ foot tower is situated in Wedding Canyon, less than one-half mile east of the monument's visitor center, and west of the community of Grand Junction. It is also immediately northwest of another popular climbing destination, Independence Monument, and both can be seen from viewpoints along

Rim Rock Drive Rim Rock Drive is a scenic road in Colorado National Monument. The drive follows the upper rim of a series of canyons, extending from the vicinity of Fruita, Colorado, in the west to near Grand Junction, Colorado, in the east, connecting points o ...

. The first ascent of the summit was made January 31, 1961, by John Auld, Gary Ziegler, Jim Dyson, and John Kuglin. Pipe Organ has a subsidiary summit unofficially named ''Organ Pipe Spire'' on the east aspect, which the National Park Service refers to as ''Praying Hands''. This 325-foot-high subsidiary peak was originally named ''Squall Spire'' in 1976 by

Harvey T. Carter Harvey T. Carter (1932-2012) was an American rock climber noted for his hundreds of first ascents across Colorado and the Western United States. He founded ''Climbing'' magazine in 1970 from his basement with $900. First ascents A partial list of ...

of the first ascent party.

Geology

This tower is the remnant of a differentially eroded fin composed primarily of cliff-forming Wingate Sandstone, which consists of wind-borne, cross-bedded

quartzose Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

sandstones deposited as ancient sand dunes approximately 200 million years ago in the Late Triassic. The thin caprock at the summit consists of

fluvial In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...

sandstones of the resistant Kayenta Formation. The slope around the base of Pipe Organ is

Chinle Formation The Chinle Formation is an Upper Triassic continental geological formation of fluvial, lacustrine, and palustrine to eolian deposits spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. In Ne ...

. The floor of the canyon is

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

basement rock In geology, basement and crystalline basement are crystalline rocks lying above the mantle and beneath all other rocks and sediments. They are sometimes exposed at the surface, but often they are buried under miles of rock and sediment. The baseme ...

consisting of gneiss, schist, and granites. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from this geographical feature drains to the Colorado River, approximately two miles to the northeast.

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Pipe Organ is located in a semi-arid climate zone. Summers are hot and dry, while winters are cold with some snow. Temperatures reach on 5.3 days, on 57 days, and remain at or below freezing on 13 days annually. The months April through October offer the most favorable weather to visit.

Gallery

File:Pipe Organ in Colorado National Monument.jpg, Pipe Organ centered with the lower Organ Pipe Spire to immediate left File:Colorado National Monument (c7bb61f8-1bc5-4ffe-b5c2-09db0ed8c088).jpg, East aspect File:Colorado National Monument (f7f15307-2b0f-40ca-af12-e3cea6f47a0e).jpg, Southeast aspect File:The Monument Canyon Trail gets hiker up close to many of the park's most famous formations. (ef59a3d6-2205-4f03-bcf2-a73ba8bbeae2).jpg, South aspect File:View from Rim Rock Drive (9f1671cb-c2c7-42a8-9eb6-52a9f044b963).jpg, Pipe Organ (left), Independence Monument (right) from Rim Rock Drive File:Pipe Organ spire.jpg, South aspect

Climbing

Established rock climbing routes on Pipe Organ and Organ Pipe Spire: * ''Southeast'' – – 3 pitches – First Ascent 1961 * ''Southwest Face'' – class 5.10+ C2 – 3 pitches * Organ Pipe Spire – class 5.8+ – 2 pitches * ''Sirocco'' – class 5.9 – FA 1976 * ''Pipe Dream'' – class 5.11+ – 5 pitches – FA 2005 * ''Aces & Eights'' – class 5.12 C2 – 4 pitches * ''Ender's Game'' – class 5.10 – 3 pitches * ''The Weird Fun'' – class 5.10 – 3 pitches

References

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External links