Elephants perch - Astro elephant -September 1, 2012

So I moved to Idaho over a year ago, and somehow I haven't made it to the Elephant's Perch until this weekend. Holy cow, what an awesome chunk of stone!



My friends Kristy, Reggie and I hiked in to the base on Saturday morning. We tried the Mountaineer's Route after setting up camp, but got chased off by storm clouds after pitch 4.





We were all tired from a long week of work and an early morning on Saturday, so with the much better weather forecast on Sunday, we decided sleeping in and cooking a good breakfast would take precedence over an alpine start. When we did eventually get moving we got on Astro Elephant, which proved to be a most excellent climb. The first two pitches felt like stout 5.10, and were a nice challenge. A lot of fun 5.9 the rest of the way kept us on our toes.

Here are a few shots of the climb:






From the top we had a great view of the surrounding peaks (there's so much rock up there!) . . .



. . . and also of the fire burning north of Stanley.



When we got down I busted out the secret weapon of flavor to liven up our couscous walnut and chicken dinner . . .



A little Cajun Sunshine!