Mt. Elden  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Elevation:  9,299' Lat, Long:  35.2429, -111.6048 Map Page Views:  145,628. Good page?    Administrators:  Greg Opland, James DeRoussel, JJ Schlick, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  Will Cobb on Apr 20, 2006 Make this area a Favorite What's New  Printer View Add Area  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event  Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 73° | 45° 72° | 39° 72° | 41° 72° | 39° 72° | 37°

Found this cool shot of Mt. Elden online. Furthest...

Description 

Sitting just north of Flagstaff, Mt. Elden is marked by radio towers and a fire watch tower on top and by the large burn scar on it's southeastern and eastern slopes. Composed of Dacite, Mt. Elden has great bouldering, fun cragging, and even a few multiple pitch climbs of good quality. The rock tends to be sharp and rough providing great friction and the perfect Joshua Tree training ground.

"Mt. Elden dominates many of the views from town, and as such the daydreams of many local climbers. Home to well established oldschool areas such as West Elden and Secret Canyon, it has in the last decade also brought to town a very unique style of sport climbing. The newer crags like Solitude Canyon, Red Dragon, and the One Wall boast some truly excellent pitches on priceless formations where a climber can expect to find every sort of hold imaginable.

The areas themselves are spread out across the southern flanks of the mountain with considerable distance in between them. The actual cliff aspects cover every range, so there can be quite a bit of sun/shade searching throughout the seasons, and in light years climbable all year round.

Mt. Elden was formed about 50,000 years ago in the course of several months, and is technically a 'lava dome' formed of Dacitic lava flows. There was never an explosion, rather an out pouring of flows along lateral vents. Which simply means that the crags we climb on today were once huge flows of lava slowly oozing from the mound. Evidence of these flows can be seen on top of many of crags and elsewhere on the mountain in very cool waves and fins.

There are a lot of nooks and crannies to explore on Elden, so have fun!"

JJ Schlick

Getting There 

Mt. Elden is located just north of Flagstaff. Highways 180 and 89A are used to access the climbing areas. Approaches vary from several minutes o 45 minutes.

The Classics

Featured Route For Mt. Elden

Ralph Macchio V5+  AZ : Northern Arizona : ... : Downtown

An excellent problem hidden in the woods a short 5 minute stroll from West Elden. Ralph Macchio is solitary problem on a small boulder, but it features rare sloping holds and great moves that culminate into a desperate top out. Start with a rounded left hand crimp, and a smaller right hand crimp located just above on the sloping rail. Traverse the slopers left to the prow of the rock, then execute the crux, which includes topping out with bad feet and distant holds....[more]   Browse More Classics in AZ

Photos of Mt. Elden Slideshow

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The Radio Fire on Mt Elden (1978).	Many of Elden's climbing areas can be seen in this...	BETA PHOTO: Mt. Elden topo and some of the areas.
Some Mt. Elden pockets found on a boulder problem....	Tiny Horned Toad found on the approach