Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 5, 2008
Activities Activities: Trad Climbing
Seasons Season: Summer

Blah, blah, blah...

Elephants PerchE-Perch

Astro ElephantLong Range P2

Astro Elephant (sorta...)Off-Route

Elephants PerchSummit Ridge

Astro ElephantAlmost Summit

Elephants PerchWe Oot!

Given that Idaho climbing was kind to us two weeks earlier, Shirley & I headed back to the spud state over the 3-day Independence Day Weekend. Our intended climb was the well-reputed Astro Elephant (IV 5.10-) route on the Elephants Perch. We wanted to do this climb three years earlier but after talking to a party (fresh off the climb) in camp, we chickened out and did the Sunrise Book instead. The talk of thin and run-out face climbing high up on the route was still on our minds as we ate dinner in camp the night before the climb last weekend. Armed with AJones’s great beta and having read other TR’s online (cascadeclimbers one and Brad’s TR), we figured that at least route finding would not be an issue.

As Shirley has been leading stronger than me lately, we swapped leads all the way. Indeed, I believe Shirley got the toughest technical pitch of the route (pitch 2, where my fat ass fell on TR) while I got the chest-hair-promoting lead up higher. The climbing was sustained in the 5.9 range with occasional spikes in difficulty. The rock was perfect all the way. Maybe I relaxed a bit too early (or maybe I’m retarded) but I screwed up route finding just below the top (where one should not really mess up) which cost us an additional 2 pitches, some C1 sections and an A0-penji to regain our line. There are likely other mentally deficient climbers like me out in the world as I found some fixed gear on my little deviation. We topped out though our time was nowhere near as fast as AJones & GCutforth mention in their nice TR.

On the third day, we woke up at the ass crack of dawn to catch the 9am shuttle boat and in turn to make Portland before 7pm to pick up Blondie from the doggie motel. A great line and a great weekend was had by all (…well, except for Blondie who was stuck at the kennel with her gimp paw).

Many thanks to AJones for great beta & for mailing us some older published material a while back.

Pics Essay

Elephants PerchIn camp the night before.
Astro ElephantP1

Astro ElephantP1

Astro ElephantP2

Astro ElephantP2

Astro ElephantLong range shot of us on pitch 2.

Asstro ElephantP4

Astro ElephantP5

Astro ElephantP6

Astro ElephantP6

Astro ElephantP6

Astro ElephantP7

Astro ElephantP7

Astro ElephantP7

Astro ElephantP8

Astro Elephant (sorta...)My screw up on pitch 9...penji-ing back onto route proper.

Astro ElephantP10

Astro ElephantAlmost on the summit.

Astro ElephantSummit

Elephants PerchHiking down the summit ridge.

Elephants PerchHiking out.
Mount HeyburnEasy Out


Comments

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Viewing: 1-13 of 13
rpc

rpc - Jul 8, 2008 4:28 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Sweet

Thank you very much for the visit & the kind word.

EDIT IN: Was hoping the battery on the camera would last longer till we got up higher but oh well - it died after this shot :)

lcarreau

lcarreau - Jul 8, 2008 5:36 pm - Voted 10/10

~ smiling ~

Blah, blah, blah ... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!

Nice page, Radek & Shirley! :)

rpc

rpc - Jul 8, 2008 5:40 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: ~ smiling ~

Many thanks Larry :)

...always figured who's got time to read more than 20 words.

Nigel Lewis

Nigel Lewis - Jul 8, 2008 6:26 pm - Hasn't voted

I like words

Hey Radek, I enjoy the words. Great pics, more words!
N

rpc

rpc - Jul 8, 2008 7:01 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: I like words

Hi Nigel - thank you for the good words on the photos. Next time, I'll get more detail-oriented in my writing (inspiration to put down more was just not there now :)
Take care.

Martin Cash

Martin Cash - Jul 25, 2008 8:46 am - Voted 10/10

Looks like

another sweet climb on this formation. Thanks for the great pictures and good job.

rpc

rpc - Jul 25, 2008 11:56 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Looks like

Thanks Martin. a great route for sure! How's the new house treating you guys (did you get used to blasting music full volume already :) ?

Martin Cash

Martin Cash - Jul 25, 2008 3:48 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Looks like

Its been great, really loving the space and privacy.

Headed out into the hills tomorrow for the first time in almost a year, can't wait. Have a good weekend.

rpc

rpc - Jul 25, 2008 3:51 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Looks like

thanks Martin.

are you staying local? forecast for marblemount looks iffy no?

Deltaoperator17

Deltaoperator17 - Aug 12, 2008 4:04 pm - Voted 10/10

Nice Stuff

Great stuff Radek....Blah Blah Blah

rpc

rpc - Oct 16, 2008 8:03 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Nice Stuff

I'm sorry - I missed your nice comment eariler somehow!
Many thanks for checking this out :)
Cheers!

AJones

AJones - Mar 22, 2009 11:52 pm - Voted 10/10

I just found this TR

Hey Radek - I missed this TR last summer; as I couldn't bring myself to look at SP, when I couldn't climb (lame, I know). Loved reading the report and laughed out loud a couple of times. I love that you took the same sitting rest as Greg on the offwidth pitch (about pitch 4). I also laughed that you got off-route, after you had climbed the pitches that people get off route on (i.e. the traverse crux pitch). Sounds like you had fun anyway, and it is a stellar climb.

rpc

rpc - Mar 23, 2009 1:10 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: I just found this TR

Aaron - thanks for the nice word & great beta for the route. It was indeed a very very fun climb.
"I couldn't bring myself to look at SP, when I couldn't climb (lame, I know)" can't say I blame you - if I can't climb, I'm not really into reading about climbing that others are doing...call it f..ed up but that's just how it is, so I can relate :)
Cheers!
radek

Viewing: 1-13 of 13

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