[TR] Sawtooth Smackdown 8/6/2006

[John Frieh]

Climb: Elephant Perch - Various

 

Date of Climb: 8/6/2006

 

Trip Report:

Stewart Harbalski (Brock), castlecrag (Ron Kirby), pdk (Donnie) and myself made our annual pilgrimage to the sawtooths this past weekend. Donnie had never been to the sawtooths or climbed with us... little did he know what he (or his ) was in for

 

We blasted out of PDX Thursday around 9 pm...

Donnie's car hit 100k...

 

A half dozen red bulls, vile vile gas station coffee and a whole lot of hip hop landed us in Stanley, ID around 7 am. We hit the Stanley Baking Company for breakfast and more coffee:

 

Mmmm... liquid breakfast:

 

Following a packing session/yard sale at the lake...

 

we embarked on the grueling, soul crushing approach:

 

It was on this very approach a year ago that Kirby proposed to his girl Cristina... they are getting married next month! After much heckling we managed to get Kirby and Brock to reenact this special moment :

I kid only because Kirby is one of those lucky guys who found a kick ass girl (that climbs no less!)... lucky guy! Congrats to both of you!

 

Word of advice for the rest of you single turds: similar to what Kirby did propose to your future wife at your favorite climbing area... then you can say something like "Hey Honey... wouldn't it be romantic to go visit (insert location you proposed at here)? And hey... maybe we can do some climbing while we are there...?" You can thank me later

 

After a painful 2 hour hike we arrived at our destination... the elephant's perch:

 

Supposedly this feature looks like an elephant hence the name... Honestly I can't see it... maybe I need some assistance... Regardless of what it looks like this particular granite feature has 27 technical routes on it... average length somewhere around 8 pitches... basically a lot of grade IIIs and IVs.

 

After dumping our kits at the lake we headed off to climb the mtneers route. You can see a guy on it here:

 

I could go on and on about the mtneers route but instead I'll just post some photos and let you decide. I will say the mtneers route is a good representation of what the perch (as well as the sawtooths in general) has to offer...

 

They call him... Stuart Harbalski!!!

 

What the hell did I get myself into?

 

i heart idaho

 

Crap! I dropped my keys!!!

 

After the mtneers route we returned to camp a few hours shy of when we had left PDX the day prior... amazing what you can do in 24 hours huh! Kirb is a fly fishing pro and caught 3 fish before Brock decided to wade and scared them all off...

 

Thanks to Kirb we had fish burritos for dinner + some and Cheezy Poofs we hiked in. The was an especially great idea after driving all night and then hiking and climbing all day... no one was seriously injured

 

On Saturday we climbed Astro Elephant.

 

Duct tape Mohawk helps you send!

 

Kirb on pitch 7:

 

Near the top (you can see the lakes we camped by):

 

Another fine day!

 

After 3 days of excess gas, bad jokes, whining and me rapping on lead (Got some dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me?) Donnie needed a break so he hung out at the camp on Sunday. Kirb, Brock and I strolled off to climb the tusk... one of the many granite features located close to the EP:

 

Kirb on pitch 1:

shot of me leading the final pitch

 

As we were especially speedy on route we returned with enough time to hike out and catch the boat back out (the boat only comes at scheduled times). On the hike we ran into a pair of cougars (if you know what I mean ) which stalked us all the way back to Stanley. Sorry no pics as if you didn't know taking a cougars picture only further encourages them to hunt you.

 

At the Redfish Lake Lodge (where you catch the boat) they were having an outdoor concert thing complete with a garden:

 

Related to this the Redfish Lake Lodge is hosting free live music every Sunday for the next few weeks... On August 20th Josh Ritter is playing!!!

 

I honestly can't think of a more perfect trip... drive out Friday night or Saturday... climb the finger of fate Sunday, grab a 10 minute shower at the lodge for a dollar and then enjoy s and Josh Ritter Sunday evening and then drive home Monday. Roadtrip anyone?

 

Speaking of... MD and I am headed back to the Sawtooths Aug 12th - 15th. If you are interested in pooling give me a shout. BYOP (partner) as we aren't looking for a third.

 

But I digress.... We headed into Stanley for pizza and more at Papa Brunee's

 

There is another pizza joint in Stanley but Brunee's is the best in town! After pizza we pointed the car west and got back into PDX around 5 am Monday... just in time to go to work!

 

If I haven't convinced you the Sawtooths is worth the drive here are a select few pics... then again 10 hours is a long time to be away from cc.com and the Beckey route at WA pass is granite also so why would anyone even bother to drive to Idaho???

 

This particular granite feature which is conveniently located 2 hours from the boat dock has 2 15 pitch grade IV 5.9 climbs on it... I guess you could always climb Beckey on Lib Bell 5 times in a row :

 

Gear Notes:

, Cheezy Poofs, Fly Rod, Red Bull, Great Partners

 

Approach Notes/Beta:

- From Redfish Lake:

Driving Beta:

- As most of you would be coming from the east fyi Mapquest/Google Maps/Etc will try to send you over on 84 and up on ID-21. Though this works it is way faster to take ID-55 out of Meridian north to Banks, ID (don't miss the turn ) and then east on ID-24 (ID-44 on some maps) to Lowman, ID and get on ID-21 here. As you will likely be driving this at night it is worth mentioning there are lots and lots and lots of deer on all of those especially at night! It would suck to drive 8 hours just to hit a deer!

 

- Gas is currently 3.50ish/gal in Stanley and 3/gal in Meridian.

 

What else? If only I had a reason to move to Idaho...

[Alpinfox]

Awesome.

 

Nice TR John.

[Pandora]

Despite the photo onslaught of NOLSe ( he leads granite cracks, yo! ), I must say my favorite photo of the TR is this one:

 

 

Simply beautiful.

[olyclimber]

So, I just don't get why anyone would ever drive all the way to Idaho when we have rocks here in Washington State. But...to each their own....

 

 

Nice pictures John Frieh. The climbing doesn't look half bad there.

[layton]

That's some nice technical clothing guys!

And props on the green shirts. I know how it feels not to get the dress code memo. For instance: Marcus shows up for our climb in a cool red bandana across his brow. He didn't tell me we were going to be wearing bandanas!

[marylou]

That pizza place is YUM. I et there after four days in the White Clouds week before last.

 

Idaho rawks!!

[powderhound]

sweet trip guys, I am very jealous

[Weekend_Climberz]

Nice

 

That place looks pretty sweet

[DirtyHarry]

You guys did a good job drinking beer and good job doing some climbering too. You sure drive some fancy cars.

[John Frieh]

Since you mention it Donnie is a lawyer so I expect you will be driving one soon too

 

Me? My rack is worth more than my car

[DirtyHarry]

Since you mention it Donnie is a lawyer

 

Poor guy. My condolences.

[TeleRoss]

[DanielHarro]

John, Brock, Donnie-

 

Good work guys, way to get it done!! Brock where did the dirty stash go

[Mark_Husbands]

i can totally see an elephant on the elephant perch.

[forrest_m]

there it is!

[ken4ord]

So, I just don't get why anyone would ever drive all the way to Idaho when we have rocks here in Washington State.

 

Yeah I know what you meanwhy eat brie, rouqufort, gruyere, and goat cheese when there is american cheese everywhere.

 

I like american cheese.

[olyclimber]

i had some american goat cheese the other day on a pizza. it was pretty good. maybe i'll go to i-da-hoe and climb this here elephant's perch sometime too. if i'm feeling worldly.

[corvallisclimb]

[billcoe]

Ohhhhh Dammmmmmm, I've soiled myself. Hand me a Kleenex, that's some sweet Granite porn.

 

OMG Sweet!