Cirque of the Towers

Back­pack­ers and day hik­ers love the Cirque’s dra­mat­ic land­scape, with gran­ite spires in a high alpine wilder­ness set­ting. This is not a des­ti­na­tion for the novice hik­er. Vis­i­tors choos­ing this as their des­ti­na­tion should be expe­ri­enced hik­ers in good phys­i­cal con­di­tion, accli­mat­ed to high ele­va­tions and steep, rocky ter­rain. Adven­tur­ers have many resources at their dis­pos­al and maps, guide­books, and online research spe­cif­ic to this area are high­ly recommended.

Much of the area sur­round­ing Cirque of the Tow­ers is above tree-line and thus exposed to some­times extreme weath­er pat­terns. Be pre­pared for storms, espe­cial­ly mid­day, and be well off of any peaks or high spots before the storms roll in. The ter­rain is very rocky and uneven. Hik­ers should exer­cise cau­tion at all times when cross­ing boul­der fields or areas of low main­te­nance to pre­vent injury.

The Cirque attracts tech­ni­cal climbers from around the world to ascend the sheer gran­ite walls and spires. It is an inter­na­tion­al­ly known climb­ing area with many qual­i­ty routes. Appear­ance-based names like Shark’s Nose, War­bon­net, War­rior One, Wolf’s Head, Pin­go­ra, and Lizard Head add char­ac­ter to this pic­turesque play­ground. Pin­go­ra is the cen­tral and most promi­nent tow­er in the Cirque. Tech­ni­cal rat­ings range from 5.2−5.11, and Pin­go­ra has one of the eas­i­est approaches. 

The north­east face of Pin­go­ra is list­ed Steve Roper’s book 50 Clas­sic Climbs of North Amer­i­ca. War­bon­net has a knife-like sum­mit and sheer gran­ite faces on three sides, with tech­ni­cal climbs rat­ed 5.6 – 5.11a. The approach is steep and boul­dery, and ves­tiges of snow remain most of the year. All of the climbs in the Cirque involve mul­ti­ple pitch­es of tech­ni­cal climb­ing, com­bined with long sec­tions of exposed, some­times unroped scram­bling to reach the sum­mits. It is impor­tant to begin ear­ly, and an alpine start of at least 5 AM is rec­om­mend­ed by sea­soned climbers. In the climb­ing sea­son, reg­u­lar after­noon storm cycles lash the tow­er­ing walls and faces with dan­ger­ous rain and light­ning, and all climbers should be well off any peaks before the storms hit.

Camp­site loca­tions are rather sparse near and in the Cirque, and pri­va­cy is min­i­mal due to the alpine set­ting. Because of the frag­ile land­scape, vis­i­tors are asked to prac­tice min­i­mal impact camp­ing tech­niques. With­in the Cirque itself, camp­ing is pro­hib­it­ed with­in a quar­ter-mile of Lone­some Lake to pre­serve this ecosystem.

The sea­son to vis­it is spring to late sum­mer. Spring brings few­er mos­qui­toes, but the risk of a snow­storm. Sum­mer brings bet­ter weath­er, dry­er con­di­tions, and wild­flow­ers, but more pesky bugs. To ful­ly enjoy this area, it is sug­gest­ed vis­i­tors plan a min­i­mum three-day and up to a week-long visit.