Peak Name: Battleship Rock

Peak Height: 5,422'

Location: Valley of the Gods, Utah

Route: Northeast Face

Difficulty: 5.2

Round Trip Stats: 2.5 mi, 600 ft

Date Climbed: 10/18/2016

Battleship Rock is a mile-long mesa in the heart of the Valley of the Gods that, not surprisingly, resembles a large battleship. While it isn't as striking as many of the surrounding curiously shaped towers and buttes, its sheer size commands the attention of passers-by.

Like a battleship, its large deck (the summit plateau) is well guarded, in this case by steep cliffs on all sides. A year ago Dominic and I pieced together a meandering route on the long northeast face, the crux coming in the form of a short 5.2ish pitch on terrible rock. At that time we used #3 and #4 cams in a crack at the base of the pitch for an anchor (there wasn't anything else in the way of protection). This time a tipped out #4 barely did the job. This choss pile's changing on a fast time scale!