Elephant Tusk

I climbed Elephant Tusk once. I am certain it will not be considered a great accomplishment in the annals of mankind, but as far as the research tells me, I am the 5th person to reach the summit. Who knows what Indian may have climbed it on his or her herbally enhanced spiritual quest many, many moons ago, or what Spanish explorer may have climbed it because he thought he would find his golden riches at the summit – but as far as what I can find that has been recorded, Gary was number 4, and trudging slightly thereafter I increased the number to 5. It was an accomplishment for me, and something I will remember for the rest of my life. By climbing standards I guess it is considered a Class 4 climb because of a 40-50 foot section that technically you should use ropes – we didn’t, but that’s because… well we were just probably stupid (and did not have ropes). I will always remember this climb because for me, it was a feat that would constitute a “life-changing event”. Most of the climb was just physically difficult, I remember both of us were pretty exhausted after the 5 mile hike from the campsite, the assent, the descent, and the 5-mile hike back to camp (which was difficult enough as it was an unmarked open desert hike). And I don’t know if it was as profound for Gary as it was for me. For me there was a specific moment, about 200 yards or so from the summit that I had more or less got stuck. I was following Gary, and he had just made his way around a ledge. I tried to follow the same path that Gary had taken, but when I did I had placed my foot on a rock that was extremely loose. The rock I was holding onto to make this move was like a big tombstone. I had to hold on to the tombstone rock, put my foot on the loose rock and swing across. There was what seemed like a thousand foot drop below on both sides. As things seem to be larger than life in these types of situations, and I’m sure it was no more than a couple of hundred feet, but 200 feet or 1,000 – to me it seemed like the depths of the deepest trench the ocean has to offer. If the rock beneath my foot had not been loose, it would have been no big deal, if the drop on either side had only been a few feet, it would have been no big deal. But the rock was loose, and that was what was presenting me my opportunity for a life changing moment. I knew what I really had to do was to get a solid grasp on the tombstone with one hand, and swing myself around the thousand-foot drop to the ledge on the other side. Needless to say, I got stuck…. Not stuck physically, but stuck mentally. Rock climbing in Big Bend National Park, is not recommended – because of the loose rocks, couple that with the fact that I am NOT a rock climber and I was not in a good place at that particular moment. I must have been there for 5 minutes – but that 5 minutes escalated into what seemed like an eternity. I knew all I had to do was get a good hand hold, and swing my body across, the fact was that I could still use my foot on the loose rock, I just would not want to put any real weight on it in case it broke loose. I had been doing this for at least the past 30 minutes; from the moment the climb became climbing and not just walking up a very steep hill. I had just not been maneuvering in this fashion with a sheer drop below and certain or probable death as a result of a slip. I guess I could have turned around and made my was back down, but that was not why I had made it to within 200 yards of the summit, and turning around at that particular point on that particular mountain was not exactly the easiest task accomplished either. I thought of a lot of things during that “eternity”, I don’t know that I really need to get into all of them here, but they were about my life, about what I was made of, about whether or not I had the strength to overcome that fear at that particular moment. All of the classic stuff you read about in a book when someone weathers a storm in a small sailboat or something like that. In the end, I did swing across the tombstone, the rock did crumble beneath my foot and fall to its painful death below, and I did make it to the summit. The rest of the climb to the summit seemed like nothing after that – including the 20 or so yards that was no wider than a floor tile with sheer drops on both sides. I was pretty elated at the top. I could not wait to get back down and back to camp to have a beer. The descent went much smoother than I was anticipating. The hike back to camp, well that is another story as it got dark, open desert hike, we ran out of water, and got a little disoriented, but all of this happened only a mile or so from camp and after looking back at it, was really more of an annoyance than anything. When we got back to camp, all I wanted to drink was water, a beer was supposed to be on the agenda, but upon our return I was not even thinking of a beer. Eventually we did have that beer, but it was not as enjoyable as it was going to be when we were at the summit. I think because by the end of it all we were pretty exhausted. We both swore we would NEVER climb Elephant Tusk again, been there, done that, no need to do it again – on the way out the park, we gave old ET the one finger salute several times, both in defiance and in respect - probably just a little more respect in a “F-you, you kicked our ass” sort of way. That was October of 2004, it is now August of 2007, and we have actually talked about climbing ET again…. Don’t know if we are just stupid, or just intrigued. I don’t know if anyone else has climbed it since then, the only record we have found regarding anyone climbing it, was that someone attempted it in ’06, got stuck and had to be rescued. I guess the only way we will know for sure is to climb it again, find the register at the top, and see if there are any other names after 4 & 5 from McKinney Texas.

Gary and Eddie at the Summit of Elephant Tusk.