Sentinel Spire is a 5,500-foot-elevation (1,700-meter) sandstone pillar located in

Colorado National Monument Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado ...

, in Mesa County of western

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, United States. This 200-foot freestanding tower is situated in Wedding Canyon, one-half mile east of the monument's visitor center, and west of the community of Grand Junction. It is also immediately south of Window Rock, and north of another climbing destination,

Pipe Organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, both of which 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 In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

of the summit was made May 3, 1960, by

Layton Kor Layton Kor (June 11, 1938 – April 21, 2013) was an American Rock climbing, rock climber active in the 1960s, whose first ascents and drive for climbing are well known in the climbing world. His routes included many climbs in Eldorado Canyon ...

, Harvey Carter, and John Auld via the route, ''Fast Draw''. This was the day before the climbers also made the first ascent of nearby

Kissing Couple Kissing Couple is a 5,815-foot-elevation (1,772-meter) sandstone pillar located in Colorado National Monument, in Mesa County of western Colorado, United States. This iconic 400-foot-high tower is situated on the west side of Monument Canyon, 1.5 ...

. The first solo ascent was made by Ron Olevsky in March 1976, and the first

free ascent An emergency ascent is an ascent to the surface by a diver in an emergency. More specifically, it refers to any of several procedures for reaching the surface in the event of an out-of-air emergency, generally while scuba diving. Emergency asc ...

was made by Andy Petefish and John Christenson in 1978. Some climbers refer to Sentinel Spire as ''Watusi Spear.''

Geology

This tower is composed primarily of cliff-forming

Wingate Sandstone The Wingate Sandstone is a geologic formation in the Glen Canyon Group of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States which crops out in northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Geology Wingate Sandstone is particularly pro ...

, 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 Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...

. The slope around the base of Sentinel Spire 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 The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, approximately 1.5 miles to the northeast.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Sentinel Spire is located in a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

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.

Climbing

Established rock climbing routes at Sentinel Spire: * ''Fast Draw'' – – 2 pitches – First ascent 1960 * ''Medicine Man'' – class 5.12c – 4 pitches * ''Vision Quest''Sentinel Spire Rock Climbing, Mountain Project
/ref> – class 5.11+ – 2 pitches

References

{{reflist

External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service
* Sentinel Spire rock climbing
Mountainproject.com
* Sentinel Spire photo
Flickr
Colorado Plateau Landforms of Mesa County, Colorado Colorado National Monument North American 1000 m summits Sandstone formations of the United States Rock formations of Colorado Climbing areas of Colorado

Geology

Climate

Climbing

See also

References

External links