Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK — On Feb. 2, 63-year-old Beaver resident, Ronald Olevsky stood atop Owl Rock in Arches National Park. While gazing below at the red rocks, after a hard-fought climb, he said to himself, “That wasn’t as easy as I remember it being.” He then savored the moment just as he had 40 years prior.
It was 1978 when Olevsky first set his sights on climbing the elusive tower. In fact, prior to that year, the U.S. Park Service didn’t permit climbing on anything that was named on the United States Geological Survey topographic map.
According to several rock climbing legends, including Olevsky, the 100-foot tall tower is named for a boulder that used to sit on top of the summit, giving it the illusion that an owl was perched on it. The rock eventually fell off sometime in the 1930s, resulting in the structure going unlabeled on an updated 1950 topographic map, and 28 years later, the ban was lifted.
When news came out of Owl Rock’s new accessibility, Olevsky said he happened to be in the area at the time, and in February 1978, at the age of 24, he became the first to legally pioneer a climbing route.
Not only was he the first to climb the tower, but he did it solo with only one and a half pitches to the summit, using a rope and aluminum nuts as anchors, he said.
“I tied a long sling around the summit as a rappel anchor, so it was likely the first desert tower climbed entirely without hammered anchors (which are now banned),” Olevsky said. “In the years since my original climb, Owl Rock has become the most popular tower climb in the Moab area, where there are literally hundreds of towers. This is due to the short approach and the character of the route. Every time one reaches up, there is a very solid hold or jam.”
Different from many rock climbers, Olevsky doesn’t look for the most challenging route to the top. He looks for clean lines, allowing for the simplest and most natural way to get the job done.
“I don’t just clip bolts,” he said. “I climb cracks where you have to use the nuances of those cracks. I also have a good eye for spotting an easy route, which has led so many people to repeat my routes.”
But, it isn’t just Olevsky who has good things to say about his route up to the summit. In fact, Summitpost.org gives his route a solid four stars and a 5.8 difficulty rating, stating that, “Indeed, the route feels steep but great holds or great hand jams appear just where they're most needed.”
In the years following his 1978 climb, Olevsky went on to pioneer routes in Zion National Park, as well as several throughout the state and in neighboring states. However, it is the route on Owl Rock that gives him so much joy.
And when he returned on Feb. 2 for his 40th-anniversary climb ascent, he may not have been able to do it solo and instead brought along fellow climbers, Sam Newman and Danny McGee, but he did want to do it all retro.
Rather than using modern camming tools, Olevsky used the same gear that he had for the first ascent: good old aluminum nuts, aka, “dinosaur eggs,” but with a new rope, of course.
“I figured I could do it the old way,” he said.
After following the same line he pioneered all those years ago, Olevsky made it to the top of Owl Rock safely.
“It was fun having that perspective,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been 40 years, but when I was up on that rock, it sure did!
For a full list of climbs in Arches National Park, [visit Utah.com.](<https://utah.com/rock-climbing/arches?utm_source=ksl&utm_medium=contributor&utm_term=climbing+arches&utm_campaign=jan17owlrock >)
Editor's note: The initial version of this story said Ronald Olevsky was 64. It has been corrected to say that he is currently 63 years old.
