Eldred Valley Camping Trip

The historical FCA (first chihuahua ascent) of Log Jam (V1) 

 Now that the climbing season is in full swing, I'll be posting a lot more sporadically. I work 4 days on at a Kayak place way out in Okeover arm, near Desolation Sound marine park, and camp near by. For my 4 days off I'll of course be climbing, so I'll mostly be living out of a tent for the rest of the summer.

 I was recently in the Eldred with a big group of friends on a camping trip. I learned that after several days of rain, the B branch boulders that are in the woods will still be wet. The exposed boulders were too hot, being baked in 25+ degree heat. We climbed on two of them, then headed to Goat lake to swim all day.


 There's been a massive rock slide on Carag Dur. A chunk of the wall to the right of the arch fell off, leaving an obvious dirty white scar. If you look close, it looks as if someone dragged their giant nails along the wall underneath, leaving behind chalk-board like scratches all the way down. The forest beneath was literally blown apart, and there is a massive cedar graveyard over a section of the trail. It has the appearance of a mini clear cut. The only tree left standing was a rotten dead cedar, which now has a hole blown right through it from shards of rock bombarding it. Thank god no one was on the wall or near the trail when this happened. A humbling reminder of the awesome power of nature.

Rock Scar,  scratches and debris

Carnage - The rock fall blasted a hole right through this cedar

I actually only took my camera out once, to snap a shot of the West Main Buttress' unclimbed vertical wall.  Here's a couple shots to check out. I still haven't hiked to the base of this yet, even though it's not far at all from the road. I've been on the only route on the Buttress, which is to the right, around the apron, which will open up potential to attack other lines on the head wall once it's completed. I have a feeling the vertical wall is going to yield some difficult, high quality climbing,

I'd also like to thank the group of Californians who were in the valley, and donated $40 to go towards supplies for camp! Thanks guys! A new splitting maul will be in the wood shed soon.