Alpenstock's Logbook (13 ascents)

We had to wait for the weather (rain) to clear before hiking in to climb this route. There was a large, loose block just to the left of the first belay station.

I didn't find any acceptable way to protect the traverse near the top, but I did put a 00 TCU in a flaring crack for psychological pro. My buddy just rolled his eyes when he saw it!

We hiked in from the bottom to approach this climb - which was a mistake if you are interested in getting there quickly. If we ever do this one again, we'll approach by dropping down from the crest.

Beautiful splitter crack on an 80 degree incline, then nice face moves on an arete. You will experience Nirvana on this climb!!

The crux comes fairly low on this route, with a lie-back move that I protected with a red tri-cam. After that, the climbing eases off considerably. My partner led the second pitch.

Be sure to tour the cave - it goes back about 300' and maintains about 6'4" of headroom clearance. Great place to bivy if you get caught in a storm.

Perfect 90 degree left-facing dihedral that takes 1" - 2" gear at nice resting places. I started to link up both pitches, but came back down and built a belay anchor to eliminate the rope drag. For the second pitch, we veered off to the left (the piton was calling me!). Going for the hand-hold on the ledge, I grabbed a loose rock and almost fell.

I thought this was a pretty stiff 5.8, and while I can normally climb cracks without bloodying my hands, this one did extract a bit of skin from my knuckles.

Climbed this route just to get a feel for what the locals call 5.6. Really, there might only be one 5.6 move on the route. The rest is just third class scrambling. I only found it necessary (or prudent) to place one piece of pro and had no problem with the rock quality there.

This is a decent warm-up route just to get your legs stretched for the better stuff.

Another well protected crack climb with excellent rock quality.

Solid rock quality, very well protected crack in the 1/2" to 1" range.

Seconded this route with Erik Leidecker, one of the partners from Sawtooth Mountain Guides. Took the 7am ferry across Redfish Lake, reaching the base of Elephant's Perch by 9:30 after covering about four miles and gaining 1800 ft of elevation. Crossing the stream to get to the base was the scariest part of the day, because the bridge had been washed away! We crossed on 6" diameter poles that flexed beneath our weight.

I particularly remember the view from the second belay station. The exposure was phenomenal, and the view of the Chipmunks's Perch behind us was breathtaking. We were also out of range of those pesky mosquitos!

Erik did a fantastic job of leading the route in his approach shoes. His demeanor inspires confidence, and I'd highly recommend using him as a guide. The only place that I though was a little run-out was climbing the face to the left of the diamond. Otherwise, the route protected nicely.

We topped out at about 2pm, and then the weather started changing. Rather than scrambling to the summit, we took the "Northwest Passage" descent route through a snowfield.

Climbed "Great Expectation" and then rapped down and over to set a TR on "Nike Direct" with the objective of working on friction technique. Perfect height for 60m rope for this drill. After running laps on TR, pulled the rope and lead it.

Staying left under the first bolt is the easier path. The crack above is super fun!! Make sure that you have a full 60m rope, or you won't make it to the belay bolts after the crack runs out.

Used the largest tri-cam (yellow sling) to protect the short traverse left to the bottom of the chevron. Love the way this route sucks up gear where ever you want it!