Jonathan Thesenga, Standard Route 5.9, Shiprock, NM

I love climbing at Indian Creek. It’s a sport-crack paradise, a stunningly beautiful place to hone your jamming skills.

Although Indian Creek is technically located in the “desert,” it is not, however, true “desert climbing.” A true desert experience doesn’t mean waiting for your turn to run TR laps on Quarter of a Man. It doesn’t mean climbing halfway up a wall, clipping an anchor, and saying, “Take! Lower me.”

A true desert climbing experience means going off-the-beaten path in search of high-end obscura, historical heinosity, hidden gems, rarified summits, and sketchy adventures on crumbling rock with ancient pin belays and no one else in sight.

Approaching Zeus. Photo: Keith Ladzinski

Indian Creek is a great spot for an apprenticeship, but if you want to call yourself a desert master, you gotta leave the Supercrack Buttress parking lot and start paying your dues by climbing desert towers.

Tower climbing is the ultimate dues-paying experience. You get solitude, adventure, and most distinctly, an actual summit. In order to reach that summit, you typically need a full bag of climbing tricks—including the ability to scratch up heinous bits of sandy aid and confidently free climb all crack sizes.

Climbing towers means you’re gonna suffer. You’re gonna go to battle. When you get to the top, you’ll feel like you’ve earned that summit.

Standing on top of an aesthetic, isolated tower is what makes desert climbing really unique. Slow down, chill, and just absorb the magnificence: the 360 views, the singularity, the silence, the summit beer.

There are hundreds of towers of all sizes and difficulties in the desert. The path to desert maestro status is straightforward and simple: get out there and start bagging towers! But don’t think you can just run a lap on Otto’s Route and call yourself a card-carrying desert climber. Paying your dues doesn’t come that easy.

After many years and many summits, I’ve put together a list of towers and routes that cater to a wide range of abilities and progression. Each of these towers offer variety, spice, adventure, and history. These summits represent worthy—and dare I say—mandatory ticks for any dedicated climber’s list.

Add your name to these summit registries, and you’ll have earned that irrevocable status of being a true desert climber.