Here is a classic photograph of Layton Kor leading up the gaping Honeymoon Chimney on the first ascent of The Priest, a 330-foot-high Wingate sandstone tower perched on a narrow ridge east of Castle Valley. Layton did the first ascent of Honeymoon Chimney with Harvey T. Carter, Annie Carter, and Fred Beckey on September 16 and 17, 1961.
This ascent was a few days after Layton and Huntley Ingalls made the first ascent of neighboring Castleton Tower, called Castle Rock on USGS maps and by local Moabites. On the morning of September 16, Layton and Fred were supposed to meet up with Harvey and his new bride Annie at the base of The Priest. As the pair scrambled up talus slopes, they heard a distant tapping of a piton hammer coming from somewhere inside the bowels of the tower. It turned out that Harvey couldn’t wait so Annie and he started climbing and were already on the second pitch.
The next day, the climbers, minus Annie, set up the climb. Layton led above the deep chimney, stepped across an airy gap and slammed a ladder of six ¼-inch bolts up the airy face to a sloping stance. As the trio began the last pitch, a howling thunderstorm whipped across Castle Valley, stirring dust and spitting rain. Layton and Harvey sped for the summit, leaving Beckey behind. Eric Bjørnstad writes in his original Desert Rock book, “Carter reports being hit by lightning and passing out for a few moments, seemingly without lasting injury.”
Since only Kor and Carter stood on the summit on September 17, the next day Layton and Fred repeated the ascent. They nailed a variation aid pitch at the start left of the regular route flake.
During that September week in 1961, Layton Kor established the first ascents of a couple of the Utah canyon country’s proudest towers. It’s hard to think about climbing those big towers back in those days, armed with a rack of soft-iron pitons, a handful of skinny ¼-inch bolts and homemade bolt hangers, goldline ropes, and Austrian kletterschue. But those tough guys did. My hat’s off to them!
Thanks for this great story Stewart! Wow!
Good story, Stewart. When you start up Honeymoon Chimney, the offwidth that is the standard route, look to the left of the chimney and you can see the crack system and pins scars from Layton’s climb with The Fred.
Stories like this – along with the photo – are just priceless. It’s so cool to have a site to go to, for precious nuggets from the past to remind us all about those who came before us, allowing us access to our own climbing passions. Looking forward to more stories, more pics, Stewart. Great stuff…