Elephantiasis  5.10 PG13

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Type:  Trad, 6 pitches, 750 feet, Grade III Consensus:  5.10 [details] FA:  Jeff Mayhew, Chuck Lipinski, Mike Ritchey Season:  Fall, Winter, Spring Submitted By:  dcohn on Nov 2, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (8) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

BETA PHOTO: Elephantiasis route line

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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: www.land.state.az.us/programs/natural/rec_permit.pdf This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment Access is via PRIVATE land and may be CLOSED! MORE INFO >>> The access for Mendoza Canyon is via the good graces of the owner of the King Anvil Ranch you pass through to get to the canyon. Update from Jeff Mayhew: 3-20-10 Mendoza Canyon access will still be open through King's Anvil Ranch from September 1 through March 1, as usual. The ranch owner, John King, is considering allowing foot access again at the original parking area, (see Approach Map,) from Sept. 1 through Dec. 1. After that he may re-post the No Trespassing sign, but may still allow foot access through the alternate parking area at the north end of the canyon's mouth, (see map.) Legally set traps are throughout the area so the suggestion is to leave the dogs at home. Regardless of this information, please obey all posted signs in the area. Access is still hanging by a thread! After talking to Game and Fish, State Land Dept., and BLM it is clear that Mr. King has every right to block access at any time... and he is ready to at the drop of a hat. Fortunately, there are only about 15 of us that even go out there, so we mainly have to worry about the random rabble-rousers, (now there's a good name for a climb!) Thanks for all the support and feel free to contact me. Jeff Mayhew (user JMayhew on this site) Update from Jeff Mayhew 10-18-10 As of 10/2010 the access along the dirt road leading from the "original parking" at the small corral (see approach map) is still signed "No Trespassing." Please respect that! The "alternate parking" shown on the map still allows foot access along an old, faint road. This eventually connects to the main dirt road before the pond, but Mr. King had said last spring that access was permitted at that point, as long as people respected the private property. Be sure to remember that fork--it can be tricky to see when you're hiking out tired... and possibly in the dark! There is still an old, hand written note in the sign-in box stating access to Mendoza is closed. This was in there before Mr. King gave "us" permission to access via this alternate roadway. Update from Charles Vernon (12.6.10): We ran into John King's daughter herding cows yesterday, on the way into the canyon. She was very nice, and we talked to her for a little while. She believes that the missing traps that led to loss of access last year were a result of hikers (climbers? hunters?) whose dogs got caught in the traps, leading to the dog owners taking or destroying the traps to free their dogs. Regardless of what exactly happened, she made it clear that dogs are not welcome. It sounds as though just heading out there with dogs, without more, could be enough to cause them to rethink access. So please, do not bring dogs to Mendoza! This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

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.

www.climbaz.com/Backcountry/page_html/page152.html

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.