Man on the Moon

Multipitch on Elden Mountain in Flagstaff

Four pitches of beautiful views and a variety of climbing styles and levels. There's no reason to say no. No. Reason. Just to warn you, this is an all-day thing for sure. The approach alone takes a little over an hour if you're going at a steady pace, and with the steep slope and loose rock, it's difficult to be steady. Intended pun there.

But don't let that scare you away! The climb is awesome! The first pitch is a nice 5.10b, has a difficult crux, but you can rest beforehand and do it no problem. Second pitch is a 5.7 and more of a traverse. All the girls in our group loved the second pitch, and the guys all freaked out about it. Girls rule! But seriously, each fall between clips would've been a bad swing. Plan your picnic after this pitch; it's a great open area in the sunlight. Third pitch is more of a hike, but a couple people hooked into the available bolts as they went--and we laughed at them. The last is a 5.8c with some tricky footwork.

What the start of the multipitch looks like.

View to the right of the climb - this is not the route

Then you get to the top and just soak it up. The view is everything southwest of Elden, which is basically the NAU campus and downtown. Like all views at the top of a mountain, it's beautiful. It would be a great place to watch the sunset if you feel comfortable hiking out with headlamps.

Then rappel down to the base of the fourth pitch, and from there to the bottom. Make sure the rope is even for the second rappel. Especially if you have a 60m rope, it will barely be long enough. We had some trouble with that.

Just note, we did this with 5 people, which is the maximum I would do it with. We had two ropes, fortunately. Otherwise it would have been impossible.


Access: This is not an easy route to access. But you can do it. Driving to the trailhead, turn onto Arrowhead from the 66, take a R at N West St and stay on it for a while, eventually take a L onto Paradise and follow it until the dead end. Parking anywhere there is fair game. From the dead end, there is a trail going NE, follow that down into a small valley where there is a clearer trail and take a L. Follow this clear trail until you hit yellow structure inhibiting cars from continuing. This is where you turn R onto another trail. Follow this trail for about 15-20 minutes, and eventually take a different trail headed NE. When you come to a fork in the trail, go L. Keep following this up a steep sketchy trail. 25 - 30 minutes from the fork, you'll see climbing routes, but keep hiking up until you see a wall clear of trees except one tall skinny one on the bottom of the incline. Man on the Moon begins to the right of this tall, skinny tree. Hey, it's an adventure you should render.