Fun Climbs Around The World

Elephant’s Perch with Saddleback Lakes in foreground

After we climbed the Mountaineer’s Route, and a rest day, we headed up to Sideline. This route is basically Astro Elephant, with an easier start that avoids the first two difficult pitches.

Though the description for  Astro Elephant  states that the climb is 5.10-, I’d been told by three climbers (who climb harder than me!) that it’s hard 5.11. To back up this claim, when ryan and I went to the store named Elephant’s Perch in Ketchum to get topos and recent informaiton,  one of the people who works there said,

“Oh, Astro Elephant is 5.11c”. Why, when the general consensus names is 11c, it remains in the books as 5.10 is beyond me, but that’s the prerogative of first ascents - call it what, and how hard, you like.

Sideline started with a pleasant, short 5.8 pitch to a comfy ledge, that I led.  Ryan led the next 5.9 pitch, with a face-climbing crux,  to another good ledge. We found amazing  face climbing on incut solution pockets and small, incut edges, unlike any I”ve seen on granite elsewhere.
After that , he ran together pitches 3 and 4, to the big ledge that traverses half the face. Two traversing pitches followed , to get us up to the crux pitch - seven. Ryan, who’d shown himself to be our face expert, started up this one. It’s inobvious, and we had one wrong start before traversing first slightly right, then up a thin layback flake, and then left. This traverse left provided some excitement - it’s hard for 5.9+ (never trust 5.9+; we both thought it had 5.10 moves) and would engender a pendulum  for the second. Luckily we both made it across, to another good ledge.

I led the supposed 5.8 off-width to chimney pitch and struggled at length. After placing every piece of large gear we had with us, I belayed partway up this pitch, letting Ryan lead the  next section of hard, semi-runout, face to yet another good ledge.

We reached the top in good time - about 6 hours, and descended the gully in good light.

Myopia with climbers in the shade on the left-facing corner
Next day, we watched two climbers start up Myopia, a 5.11  up prominent corners. It looks like a great climb, and one I’d like to come back to when I’m strong enough!

“It’s way too hot to climb there now!” I heard this morning.

Weather, temperature, and the presence or absence of rain become frequent preoccupations among traveling (or even stay-at-home) climbers.

Here’s a great site for weather in the United States:

Climbingweather

They don’t yet post weather outside the United State.

The weather site helps to avoid spring snow showers.

That’s my tent, buried under the snow!

Below the “diamond” on the Elephant’s Perch

The Mountaineer’s Route followed the right-facing corner that runs left of the large “diamond”. It took us 4 pitches, over 600 feet, to reach the base of the diamond!

The “Triple Roofs”

I’m not sure whether the “triple roofs” are the lower, more prominent, of the two roof features , or the one above. I’d been so worried about climbing the dreaded “triple roofs” -   I’m bad enough at climbing one roof, let alone three of them! And then we bypassed them on gentle face climbing to the side!

I passed the lower of the roofs on pitch four traversing left below the roofs and then turning the corner to ascend on or near the arete to the left.

Ryan passed the upper roofs on pitch five, traversing left on the face and then again following the arete up.

We got lost on pitch six - stayed too far left and added an exciting variation to both pitch six and then traversing back onto pitch seven - some of the hardest climbing we did.

We reached the top of our  in about five hours, hiked around the back, and scrambled back down the descent gully.

Saddleback Lakes below Elephant’s Perch

Above you see the view we woke to!!

Our tent perched on a granite outcrop directly above the lake.

Looking down at Saddleback Lakes from the Mountaineer’s route

The three Saddleback Lakes rise  one above the other. We camped by the lowest, and smallest of the three, a very short hop below the middle of the lakes. From this climb, two of the lakes show up. All three become visible from the summit of the Perch.

We saw people trying to fish, and catching very small fish (6″ - 7″ at the largest), but saw no big fish at either of the lower two lakes.We hiked in on a Sunday, avoiding the crowds, and climbed Monday, rested on Tuesday, climbed a second  route on Wednesday, and then hiked back out on Thursday. By Thursday, we saw several groups of climbers hiking in for a long weekend.

Ryan reading on our rest day
Our weather luck was perfect — not a drop the entire time we were at the Perch, but it began to rain 10 minutes after we reached the dock!

Ryan at the dock with our big packs

We hired the shuttle boat to take us from Redfish Lodge on Redfish Lake, at 6,547 feet, across the lake to the Redfish Inlet campground, a 7-mile hike had we walked around the lake! The shuttle charges $15.00 for a round trip, well worth not hiking 7 miles with heavy packs, I thought.

On the lake’s far side, numerous campers stayed at the Redfish Inlet campground, which costs $10.00 per night. We hoisted our packs and began our hike to our campsite at Saddleback Lakes at 8,380 feet, a 3-mile hike up along Redfish Lake Creek.

Sibylle hiking toward Saddleback Lakes

The first two miles followed a drainage and sloped uphill gently. Then, on our left, we saw Elephant’s Perch and the drainage that led to Saddleback Lakes. From here the trail steepened considerably, and continued at a challenging angle, requiring scrambling and pulling up on trees at times.

Our first view of Elephant’s Perch  made the grueling uphill slog worthwhile. Above us towered a monolithic cliff of  orange granite. The main feature on the left side, an enormous diamond-shaped rock hundreds of feet tall and wide, was capped by an overhanging piece of stone like the brim on hat, only sculpted in solid granite and hundreds of feet wide.

Elephant’s Perch with the prominent “diamond” on the left side

To give you an idea of the scale of the gigantic diamond - it took us four pitches (for non-climbers, a pitch is a rope length and  runs 100 - 200 feet) or about 600 feet of climbing to reach the base of the huge diamond.

The “diamond” on Elephant’s Perch

Sore and tired after carrying my pack, we headed to Saddleback Lakes to set up our tent  and explore our campsite.

For more info:

Rservations, camping:

877-444-6777

435-245-6521

I’ve returned form one of the best climbing trips this year  - to the Elephant’s Perch in the Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho. The Perch rises over 1,000 feet above a postcard-perfect alpine lake. We climbed two excellent routes and to top that off - we had perfect weather for five days! Anyone who’s climbed much in the mountains knows how rare, and how very valued, it can be to climb all day without worrying about reaching the top before the thunder and lightning roll in.

Last Sunday, we drove to Redfish Lake and rode  the boat shuttle across the lake to the hiking trail up toward the Elephant’s Perch. The shuttle cost $15., which is well worth the seven-mile hike it saved us! Our packs were quite heavy, with ropes, rack, tent, cook stove, food for six days, clothes, extra clothes, and a toothbrush.
From the dock at the far end of the lake, another three miles of hiking took us to one of the more beautiful camping spots I’ve ever stayed at. We perched our tent atop a large, fairly flat boulder next to the lake. Only one small detail reminded me that we weren’t in paradise: the mosquitoes here bite! I’d left behind our bug spray, thinking that since we hadn’t been bitten at Redfish Lake, there’d be no bugs at the Elephant’s Perch.

We arrived in time to set up our tent, cook dinner, and stroll around the lake talking to the two other climbers camped here. They had climbed the Mountaineer’s route that day, one of our objectives, so we were eager to hear their description of the climb.

We originally planned to start on an easier climb - perhaps the Chimpmunk arete on the Goat Perch, across fro Elephant’s Perch. Neither Ryan nor I had ever climbed in the Sawtooths, we  didn’t know the rock quality, we were unsure of the weather (would it stay dry, or would storms roll in every afternoon)? Even more important, Ryan and I had met in the City of Rocks, but had never climbed together.

After looking at the Perch, Ryan was clearly smitten by the swooping line of clean granite,  and  suggested we forget our initial modest plans and instead head up to climb the Perch.

We decided to get up early the next day and head up the Mountaineer’s route.

From the start of Skyline, we stepped about five feet right to the start of Fall Line,  a spectacular 5.10 face climb that heads up and slightly right on the face to the right of Skyline. Tristan led this route, but it’s possible to toprope the climb from the anchors at the top of Skyline.

Lauren enjoying the superb edges on Fall Line

To climb Fall Line, head up and slightly right on excellent crimps and great edges, following the line of bolts. Lauren liked the climb so much, she climbed it twice!

Lauren on Skyline

This fantastic route, in the City of Rocks in southern Idaho,  features varied face holds, flakes, edges and cracks on extremely solid granite. In the back (lower left)  Redfeather, an excellent climb on small edges (at 5.11, somewhat harder than Skyline) goes up to the right of the dark streak.

IN the very back, near the horizon, Steinfells Dome barely shows behind Lauren. We climbed a 5-pitch face climb on this dome, which I’ll show later.

A climber high on “Skyline”, on the Incisor (aka Morning Glory Spire)

On our first morning, we headed to the aptly-named “Skyline” on the Incisor. Our first taste of City of Rocks stone in a few years, and my first time on granite this year, rewarded us with clean stone, great position, and bomb-proof nut placements.

From the parking lot (at Parking Lot Rock, of course) a quick 5-minute walk took us to the base of the Incisor. The classic “Skyline”  starts in any of three possible places.

At the lower start, two cracks on the right or the left, converge before  a traverse left below an overlap. An upper start traverses in from a ledge directly  below the bolted Fall Line, the climb directly right of Skyline.

The lower starts offer very easy climbing on gently-sloped rock and were a good way to get used to the feel of rubber on rock again (after the long drive to get here).

Andrew leading the arete on Skyline

All starts converge at a delicate traverse left, below a small roof, to the arete — the crux of the climb. From here, we followed big holds, good cracks, and nice jugs along the arete to the summit.

High on the arete of Skyline

Looking down form Jackson’s thumb

Toward the City of Rocks