ElisifHarro Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 (edited) Trip: Sawtooths - Chockstone Peak - Beggars Can't Be Choosers (FA) Date: 7/19/2007 Trip Report: Summary : Chockstone Peak - Beggars Can't Be Choosers 5.9+ Grade III+ - Nick Dolecek and Elisif Harro - July 19th, 2007 Note: To the best of our knowledge and research this climb is a first ascent. I'm still waiting on hearing back from a few inquiries to cover all of my bases. Feel free to chime in if you've heard anything as well The Route The Trip: A Team Harro planned vacation had to get batched due to Daniel's Fire Academy for the entire month of July. Unfortunately, this left me with either a week's worth of time to either get to know myself really well or divide up the team. I chose the latter and made plans with an old friend from OSU, Nick, to do some climbing in the Sawtooths. I climbed in my trusty Subaru and drove all night to meet Nick in Lowman Wednesday morning. After the requisite gear sorting, we headed to Stanley to catch the boat. The quintessential approach shot: Hiking in we had tentative plans to do a route on Warbonnet. My tank was already pretty empty from being up for 24hrs accompanied with my solo 8hr bender of a drive , so as we stopped for a break during our climb up to Alpine Lake after the trail junction we looked across the Creek gully and thought hmmm...that looks like fun We set up camp at this sweet campsite by the creek and though didn't get any climbing in that day still ended up having quite a good time. dStigz5eLWk The next day we crossed the creek and started our climb at the left base of the granite dome following an easy approach. We started off soloing about 80 meters of fun 4th class climbing and then started our first belay past a large Lodgepole Pine. Some highlights were an exciting face traverse on pitch 2 and some great, clean-granite moderate climbing on pitch 3. Some challenges of this lower dome was just the large amount of cleaning that needed to be done in order to get to the crack systems, which probably is what led to us taking such a long time on this lower section. However, once unearthed there were some amazingly fun features to be had. 4th class Nick on 2nd pitch before 5.9 traverse into dihedral Nick on traverse out of dihedral - 3rd pitch This entire granite dome (1st 5 pitches) could be potentially bypassed by hiking up Chockstone Basin, although I'm not sure how one would get to the base of the West Face of Chockstone Peak this way. (The established routes I have found thus far are on the East Face of Chockstone). Take home message: While a bit meandering in places and requiring some cleaning, I though it was worth it to do this bit To get to the Peak (Pitches 6-9) from the top of the dome we scrambled across a boulder field to the base of the West face. The Goods on pitch 6 Pitch 7 has a fun tunnel Coming around to the East face for the last pitch The last pitch has a fun chimney and then a sweet traverse Yay Summit The descent was about 10 double-rope rappels down the Iowa Gully on the East side, which unfortunately the last two were done in what could definitely be classified as the dark. Luckily, there was a surprising amount of bolts and other asundries to help guide the way. Then a hike, fondly known as bushwacking down Chockstone Basin, back to the creek, and then back to the trail. This alderfest might have been better in the daylight. Oh well, gives me some fun scratches to pick at We slept in the next day, then some more fun in the creek, followed by a hike out to some great beverages and bluegrass music at the lodge and then some hotsprings soaking Who loves Idaho? Gear Notes: We took a set of doubles which we are glad we had for the epic rappel descent. 2 x 60meter ropes are definitely mandatory if you want to get down in a timely manner. RPs are also useful for some of the crack placements. Otherwise, pretty standard, pm me if you want specifics. Approach Notes: Drive Drive Drive. Get gas, go to the bathroom, drink redbull. Repeat x 1. Recommended: Have a driving buddy so you don't start to go crazy on the way back home:crosseye: or deaf from rocking out too much. See the attached topo for specific approach and descent notes. Edited July 26, 2007 by ElisifHarro Quote
olyclimber Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Nice job Elisif! That water slide looks sweet! Quote
ElisifHarro Posted July 26, 2007 Author Posted July 26, 2007 If you thought the pics of the waterslide were cool, I finally figured out how to post a video. Check it out, just make sure that you decrease your volume and/or mute it to deafen my annoying screaming when I thought I was going to hit the rocks at the bottom Quote
powderhound Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 That water slide looks awesome. I am so ready to get my ass over there. Nice work, looks like bomber rock. Quote
dan_forester Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 nice work, thanks for the sawtooths stoke Quote
GP3 Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Nice Job, the only other route I know of starts lower on the ridge and may share some of the final pitches, but it is rarely climbed. Well done. Quote
ElisifHarro Posted July 26, 2007 Author Posted July 26, 2007 I totally spaced mentioning earlier, a big thanks to Mr. John Frieh for helping me plan my trip out there in the first place, you rock Quote
skyclimb Posted July 30, 2007 Posted July 30, 2007 This is a good route on good granite. The first pitch on the upper peak is 55 meters of pure joy...fingers, hands, ow, chimney, mantels, face...Two tunnel pitches...fun...moderate goodness. It also was really fun, because the first 5 pitchs are slabby climbing, and the upper 4 pitches are steep jug-fests. Elisif was a joy to climb with, and kept her spirits up even on the night time raps and bushwacking into the unknown. If anyone else wants to come get some send me a PM, schedule is flexible. Cheers, Nick Quote
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