There is no public access road provided by the BLM to the Coyote Mountains Wilderness Area. MORE INFO >>>
There is no public access road provided by the BLM to the Coyote Mountains Wilderness Area. This wilderness is surrounded by state, reservation, and private land. Permission to drive on an access road through the King Anvil Ranch property is granted by the owner during the months of September through February (access closed March through August). This access road also crosses Arizona State Trust Land. The owner of the King Anvil Ranch and the Arizona Game Fish have provided a sign in station for you to register your visit. Please sign in and sign out at the station. Furthermore the Arizona land managers require that you obtain a recreation permit to drive across Arizona State Trust Land. The application for this permit ($15/year) can be found at: http://www.land.state.az.us/programs/natural/rec_permit.pdf
Elephantiasis is a committing back country route. You will encounter loose rock, slippery grass at belay-stations, and run out climbing so make sure you are climbing strong at the grade before getting on this route. That said, this climb provides a great day of adventure.
The description in Bob Kerry's guide will get you up the route, but it was slightly off in one or two spots. I will just add information to supplement his description and topo.
1. Follow Kerry's description. There is s single bolt on top of the boulder on the right. I backed this up with a small cam. 5.8+
2. Follow Kerry's description. The finger mentioned is pretty obvious. You must build an anchor at the end of this pitch. 5.9-
3. Follow Kerry's description. His topo is a little off. It appears that you start trending left immediately after the third bolt. In fact you should continue straight up for a while. When you are about 2/3 of the way up the pitch, the triangular rock near the belay station will become obvious. Climb up to the rock using the most obvious path. There is a single bolt at the station that can be backed up. 5.10-
4. Follow Kerry's description. The crux of the route is the traverse at the beginning of the pitch. After clipping the bolt and the piton, you can place one more micro before committing. After turning the corner, there is a nice stance. Place a piece as high as possible because there is another committing more turning back around the corner and up to the bolt. It is important to have a lot of slings for this pitch to reduce drag. There are two bolts at the belay station. 5.10
5. Follow Kerry's description. This pitch has some really fun climbing on edges near the cruxes. The rock is very good quality too. There are two bolts at the belay station. 5.10
6. Follow a couple of bolts over steep face until the angle eases off. Go up and slightly right over chicken heads. Eventually you will see a bolt and a slung chicken-head. You can walk to the top from here. 5.9+
Descent: See the description for B Cubed.
Location
Start almost directly in the middle of Elephant Dome. There is a left-facing ramp that turns into a roof. Start on the ramp. At the end of the first pitch, there are two giant boulders on a ledge. The first pitch ends on the one on the right.
Protection
12 or so draws, most of which are extend-able, nuts, double set of cams to #1 camalot. Micros are useful. I could have easily left the #2 and #3 at home.
There was a lot of loose stuff, but we didn't break any of it off so I didn't think to give it a bomb. There is also quite a bit of good rock scattered throughout the route- maybe 50% is pretty good. I rated it based on the whole experience, not just rock quality.
I've done this route twice. I thought the rock was pretty good overall. (Way better than B-Cubed)
This route is a good test to see if you want to do Crater Genetics.
Crater is harder more run out, but the rock is a bit better. IMO
We did replace some of the badly drilled bolts several years ago, and did a variation to the refrigerator death block chimney pitch.
The variation busts left under the chimney past a couple of bolts with 5.10 face climbing on solid rock. You end up at the same place you would if you'd climbed the chimney. Way safer and better climbing than the loose chimney pitch.
I found the rock to be pretty good overall, meaning kinda loose, but not dangerous. Pretty fun climbing for a not hard/not easy adventure route.
By Luis Cisneros From: Tucson Nov 15, 2009 rating: 5.10c PG13
This is a great climb... I did not feel that the rock was poor AT ALL, on the contrary, thought the rock was mostly great with a few places of loose stuff that did not spoil the overall quality. Good adventure climb, with some run outs and excellent fun movement. A most do in Mendoza.
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