Elephant Butte

[moab mark]

My buddy did Elephant Butte yesterday. The sand dune that you ascend to get onto the slick rock to get up to the first rappel has shifted. He said he had to do a life threatening jump to get up onto the rock.
Mark.

[jman]

Sweet!

[moab mark]

No not sweet. It's a nice family route.

[WorkBad]

Got any pics? I'm having a hard time visualizing this in my head.

[Iceaxe]

I know exactly where he is talking but I'm having a hard time imagining there is not a simple alternative method. I'm thinking a shoulder stand to get someone up on the slickrock. Once you get someone on the slickrock the rest is simple.

I have no clue how experienced Mark's friend is but this sounds like the typical problems I hear from less experienced canyoneers. I'll bet soon as a skilled canyoneer tackles the route the problem is quickly solved with a simple solution.

[Canyonbug]

I did this route on Valentines Day and it was nice. No problems, must be all the new moisture to this area that washed out some of the sand there.

[moab mark]

His climbing skills are better then mine. Which isnt much. From what he said he had to get up on a fin and jump onto the slick rock area. Said it was very sketchy. Others may not have any problem just passing on what he said.

[moab mark]

I'll see if he's got any pictures.

[Iceaxe]

His climbing skills are better then mine. Which isnt much.

Climbing skills and problem solving skills are two different things. Often one came be substituted for the other, but not always.

I was in Moab all weekend, wish I had of known and we would have walked up and looked at the problem. I really like solving this type of puzzle.

I have a great picture of the area, I just can't find it. I wasted an hour today looking for it.

[moab mark]

http://youtu.be/h4gVRFTznhM

[moab mark]

This video shows one second of the sand.

[moab mark]

Shane it shows it in your climb utah video.

[moab mark]

I called Tad. Says it's 15 ft almost straight up. It was also wet. If dry and had on 5 10s says might go up. But no way in the shoes they were wearing. He pinched his way up the left about 10 ft. Crossed out to middle on a sliver. Then had to make a 5 ft commitment jump up to get up. Penalty points high he said.

[Scott P]

This video shows one second of the sand.


Shane it shows it in your climb utah video.

I saw the video, but I don't notice anything unusual (I have done Elephant Butte several times). What is the time where the place is shown on the video? Is it at 0:39?

[Iceaxe]

I assume this is the sand hill that has now shifted? Just quickly looking at the picture without the sandhill the first thing that comes to mind is a pack toss or a couple pot shots. I also see lots of features that a happy hooker (hook on the end of an avalanche probe) could reach up and grab. With all those features a couple hooks with etrier's would probably make quick work of the wall. If skilled canyoneers can get out of 20' deep potholes while treading water a 15' wall standing on solid ground while warm and cozy should be a piece of cake.

78386

[Scott P]

edited

[Brian in SLC]

If skilled canyoneers can get out of 20' deep potholes while treading water a 15' wall standing on solid ground while warm and cozy should be a piece of cake.

Not to mention, if you don't make it, no biggie.

Almost looks like a traverse in from the left up that little fin might work? I need to do this hike...!

[Iceaxe]

Not to mention, if you don't make it, no biggie.

Good point.

If you can't make it you lose 30 minutes of your life that you'll never get back. :haha:

[Scott P]

OK, it was at a different place I was thinking so I edited my previous post.

The sand dune was there last time I climbed the butte. Here's a photograph of it:

http://images.summitpost.org/original/932114.JPG

It seemed trivial at the time and most of the obstacles were higher up:

http://images.summitpost.org/original/932115.JPG

[Iceaxe]

I've climb Elephant Butte with snow and ice before. That's a huge step up in skill level. Sweet that you made it.

[emoji106]

[Scott P]

Yes, it was kind of dicey then. My nine year old daughter, 11 year old son, my wife, Matt Lemke and I did the climb that time. Matt led the crux pitch though; it was intimidating when iced up. At the top of the crux there was a bunch of climbing gear including full backpacks, ropes, books, etc. Apparently a group tried to surmount the climb with pack tosses, but bailed out, leaving all their gear behind.

Even the descent was a little dicey in the ice. I kept hoping that the big icicle hanging off the exit rappel would not break off.

78390

It doesn't look that hard in the photo, but rappelling over the icicle was tricky and extremely slippery. The lower half of the icicle is actually hanging away from the wall.

[peakbaggers]

Wife & I did the Butte on January 25 this year. There was no problem with the sand dune other than it was frozen very nicely. Quite a bit of sand must have moved to create the problem described. The only problems we had on the route was 1. That last crux climb before you drop over for the first rappel had ice in the crack which we avoided by coming in from the left side as in Scott's photo instead of trying to go directly up the crack and 2. the little pool just before the one rappel down had a detached sheet of ice. We were able to place a foot on the edge of the ice sheet, half on the ice, half on the rock and gingerly walked across. Sheet of ice moved some but got across dry. Otherwise, route was surprisingly free of snow & ice.