The thunder’s rolling now, but the weather was glorious at the Needle’s Eye this afternoon. It’s been beautiful in the Needles all Spring.
The picture above shows Rich on the first 1/3 of the Larry route on Blockhead. “Five nine” says Larry. I’m not convinced.
It’s hard to switch back and forth between the Tower and the climbs in Custer State Park. The gear at the Tower is generally straightforward and the falls are clean. Needles placements are devious and you really shouldn’t fall. You always feel off-balance.
Climbing doesn’t need Title Nine, it’s got Cheryl.
Rich got to lead Sore Thumb first this year. This spire is the climbable Escher.
Dedicated to the Game 
This blog post needs a comment. Decided to check it out after you left a comment on the Sensuous Curmudgeon’s website. Even though my wife and I are from Maryland, we happen to be in Custer State Park just a few days before you posted this. We loved every minute of it.
By the way, I applaud your ability to hang from the side of rock. I’ll pass. I found that climbing 110 foot aerial ladders (I did a stint as a firefighter.) was more than enough.
Thanks Gary. The Black Hills are amazing – from a climbing standpoint, in terms of geology, in their variety of wildlife. Pretty much any way you want to look at them.
Couldn’t agree more. Like I said, we loved every minute of it. Even stopped to say “Hi” to the “begging burros”. Did you have any run-ins with any of the military / Army types while you were there? We saw them all over the park. According to one of the rangers we talked to, the Army was hosting an exercise of some type. We saw HMMWVs (“highly mobile multi-wheeled vehicles” aka “hum-vees” aka “the military loves them some acronyms”) all over the place. If you were out and about, you probably saw more of them than we did. The other thing we noticed (from our road trip at least) was we didn’t see that many pine trees that appeared to have been infested with those pine beetles. Did you see any of those from your various perches? I’m just curious. Again, like the blog. And good luck with the rest of your climbs.
We don’t see much of the Guard units. The occaisional helicopter, that’s all. Sadly, the beetle outbreak has decimated the pine trees in the Hills. From the road, it doesn’t look so bad, because the forest service has done a pretty good job of cutting the dead and dying trees. Walking up to the Spires or climbing there, it’s a different story. The ground is covered with slash and sectioned trunks.