Asstro Elephant

Trip Report

Images (21)

Comments (12)

Geography

Trip Reports in Idaho

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Elephants Perch

Trip Reports

Adventures in the Sawtooths

Asstro Elephant

Elephant's Perch for a Week

My Rack for the Elephants Perch, plus route description

Shang-Ra-La

Astro Elephant (via Sideline Variation)

Trip Reports

Asstro Elephant

Page Type: Trip Report

Location: Idaho, United States, North America

Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 5, 2008

Activities: Trad Climbing

Season: Summer

Page By: rpc

Created/Edited: Jul 7, 2008 / Jul 9, 2008

Object ID: 418898

Hits: 489

Page Score: 88.51% - 10 Votes

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Table of Contents

Blah, blah, blah...

Pics Essay

Images

Blah, blah, blah...

E-Perch

Long Range P2

Off-Route

Summit Ridge

Almost Summit

We 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

P10

Summit

Easy Out

Images



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Comments

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Viewing: 1-12 of 12

d_shorb

Sweet

Voted 10/10

As usual. impressive weekend. Inspiring. That long range shot gives some sweet perspective. Thx.

Posted Jul 8, 2008 4:24 pm


	rpc	Re: Sweet
	Hasn't voted	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 :)
		Posted Jul 8, 2008 4:28 pm

lcarreau

~ smiling ~

Voted 10/10

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

Nice page, Radek & Shirley! :)

Posted Jul 8, 2008 5:36 pm


	rpc	Re: ~ smiling ~
	Hasn't voted	Many thanks Larry :) ...always figured who's got time to read more than 20 words.
		Posted Jul 8, 2008 5:40 pm

Nigel Lewis

I like words

Hasn't voted

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

Posted Jul 8, 2008 6:26 pm


	rpc	Re: I like words
	Hasn't voted	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.
		Posted Jul 8, 2008 7:01 pm

Martin Cash

Looks like

Voted 10/10

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

Posted Jul 25, 2008 8:46 am


	rpc	Re: Looks like
	Hasn't voted	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 :) ?
		Posted Jul 25, 2008 11:56 am


	Martin Cash	Re: Looks like
	Voted 10/10	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.
		Posted Jul 25, 2008 3:48 pm


	rpc	Re: Looks like
	Hasn't voted	thanks Martin. are you staying local? forecast for marblemount looks iffy no?
		Posted Jul 25, 2008 3:51 pm

Deltaoperator17

Nice Stuff

Voted 10/10

Great stuff Radek....Blah Blah Blah

Posted Aug 12, 2008 4:04 pm


	rpc	Re: Nice Stuff
	Hasn't voted	I'm sorry - I missed your nice comment eariler somehow! Many thanks for checking this out :) Cheers!
		Posted Oct 16, 2008 8:03 pm

Viewing: 1-12 of 12