September 26, 2000
To the Devils Tower Lodge Family,
I am writing this letter to you on the behalf of three other gentlemen as well as myself. We decided to come out to Wyoming this fall and attempt to summit Devils Tower. A little more than a month earlier I began looking online for information about the tower. Some where in the web site I came across the summit logbook. I scrolled through it looking for any useful info about climbing it but didn't find much. So I took it upon myself to email a couple of the individuals who had left their email addresses. Frank P. Sanders happened to be the only person who responded to my inquiry (our emails are enclosed). I have been climbing for two years now and have developed well in the sport. One of my issues was that I had never lead anything of this size, dealing with multiple pitches. The other issue was what kind of rack (protection) was needed. These were my two largest fears and so wrote to Frank hoping for some answers. Through our email exchanges he gave me some insight and answers to what we were going to do. As much as I appreciated his help, when we arrived on the 17th he went out of his way again for us. After we looked at our route (Durrance) we stopped by his home to pay him for the guide book and to thank him. We sat down and talked for a while about the climbing the tower. It was then that I guess that Frank decided to get personally involved with us. He took us out there and gave us an up close view of the first two pitches of Durrance. Frank gave us an opportunity to take a closer look at how we were going to do this. There was one distinct problem we only had two ropes for four guys. For a reason unknown to all four of us he lent us two of his ropes so that there was one in between all of us and one for a haul bag. (As well as a #4 Camalot) We rappelled down as the sun set with high hopes towards our goal for tomorrow. We began our climb at 7:30 am which started in disaster. Our bag with our water was caught, and it was on the last rope. In our stupidity we decided to cut it loose and go on without it. This was on the first pitch. Our next trouble spot was pitch three. One of our guys decided that he couldn't go on. So we clipped him to a bolt and went on. Three of us reached the summit around 1:47 pm and after a short celebration began our parched decent. On our rappel we met with the man we left behind. Just as we reached him Frank and Mary were coming up Durrance and hardly by coincidence with our water. After talking for a bit to our third man, Frank convinced him to go to the top with him and Mary. They took him with them and we continued with our decent, HYDRATED!!!!!!!! He sumitted and we waited down below for him. Keep in mind that we didn't pay him for any of his equipment that we used, or his time spent there with us. I chose to include our experiences with Frank and Mary to let you know what an impact meeting them has made upon our individual lives. When I met Frank and Mary I didn't know what to think of them. However, by the time we had to leave we it was grudgingly, and with heavy hearts. What you have in Frank is not just the owner of a local business but someone who is a pillar of your community and a part of the wonderful culture that surrounds your monument . I don't know exactly why he did help us, but I believe it's his passion for climbing, and his passion for helping others. l hope that you would put this in your file on Devils Tower Lodge.
Sincerely,
Nick Dudas, John Henry, Jim Burkwest, Joe Ubert
Also be sure to check out our friends entries in Peakware's online summit log. |
