Owl Roof, Elephant's Eliminate - Free Ascents and Attempts

This is a summary of posts on the supertopo.com forum by Werner Braun, Jay Anderson, Tom Higgins, and others from 12/2004 to 9/2005. These posts also mention people who have tried but were not successful in freeing Owl Roof and Elephant's Eliminate.

Owl Roof - early attempts

  • 1972 - Tom Higgins, Peter Haan
  • 72/73 - Jim Bridwell, _________ - placed chockstone at lip during their attempt
  • 1973 - Tom Higgins, solo lead belay using jumars
    Clipped chockstone and fell, losing glasses. Tensioned back to rest point at base of roof, reattached glasses, then climbed back to lip and over it.
    source: Tom Higgins

    Owl Roof - early free ascents

  • 197_ - Dale Bard, FFA - removed stone, worked route for a couple of days, then led it.
  • 197_ - Ron Kauk, 2nd FA - worked it with Dale Bard
    source: Werner Braun (for order and working info)
    "removed stone" is from a post by "Ben Wah" which has some errors, so it is uncertain as to who removed it.
  • 5/3/77 - John Lakey, 3rd FA - worked it for up to 12 days with Ray Jardine. Apparently naware that Bard and Kauk had freed it.
    In Ray Jardine's interview by Alec Sharp in Mountain (1979), he says that Bard and Kauk did it in a single day, after taking many falls. He doesn't say whether they did it before or after Lakey in the interview, although his climbing log says Lakey and Jardine were first, and they are credited with the FFA in the guidebook.
  • 5/5/77 - Ray Jardine, 4th FA - worked it for 12-13 days.
    source: Ray Jardine's climbing log

    Owl Roof - later free ascents (exact order not known)

  • 19__ - Johny Dawes
    source: "Ben Wah"
  • 19__ - Gary Zaccor
    source: Jay Anderson
  • 19__ - Rick Piggot
    source: Jay Anderson and Dick Cilley
  • 19__ - Jay Anderson - after many attempts over years
    source: Jay Anderson

    Elephant's Eliminate

    This is related to Owl Roof because the climbing is similar (wide, flaring, difficult to turn the lip) and apparently harder. Beta on the sequence may be found in Ray Jardine's interview by Alec Sharp in Mountain (1979),

  • 5/20/78 - Ray Jardine, FA - worked it for 5-7 days

    No other free ascents are confirmed; several people have tried it. Rick Piggot may have freed it - Dick Cilley reported this to Jay Anderson, but Anderson is not sure if he confirmed it with Piggot.