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| Canyoneering | 2.73 Miles |
1,511 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 2.73 Miles | | | |
| 1,511 ft AEG | | | | |
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| | Intermediate Canyoneering - Difficult or dangerous; Tech Climb; rope reqd; descent anchor; exit technical; | | B - Up to light current; wading/swimming; possible wet/dry suit | | III - Normally requires most of a day |
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| no partners | | It was terribly gusty as we hiked up the approach for the canyon. So gusty in fact, that I had to stop periodically to avoid being blown off my feet. Patches of ice coated the slickrock near the top. But did we let this stop us? No way!
The last bit of the approach is truly steep, but once on top we dropped into the mouth of the canyon, put on harnesses, and approached the first rappel. In addition to copious down climbing in this canyon, most of the rappels can be down climbed by the skilled. But our approach to the first anchor revealed that rappelling would be the norm today. Far more water than any of us had ever seen here flowed down the canyon, and ice coated every surface near the flow. Bonus challenge.
Stuffing that rope into the bag after the first rappel was truly one of the worst experiences of my life. We hadn't anticipated wet ropes, so the only course of action was bare hands to avoid wet gloves. The water was cold enough the anywhere not flowing was ice, which meant a rope soaked in water just this side of freezing with bare hands in strong wind. Pleased to complete that unpleasant task, we rapidly made our way down canyon, hoping that the loss of elevation would lead to warmer temperatures, or at least some protection from the wind. The second rappel in this canyon is one of the nicest, down a beautiful slickrock wall, and proved to be somewhat protected from the gusts plus not directly in the water. 
After this, we got to enjoy some serious bush-whacking. With ice near the water, temperatures too low to tolerate being wet, and water flow high, we had to skirt around lots of places where one normally proceeds straight down the water course. On the plus side, the long period of full body bush-whacking really warmed us all up. Nothing like fighting the trees and shrubs to get the heart pumping! We sat down and ate lunch in what little direct sun we would see all day, and then straight back to bush-whacking. And more bush-whacking. The lower part of the canyon, where things change over to more bare slickrock, came as quite a relief. Yes, there was a lot of creative climbing up, over, around, and then down on ledges and shelves, but at least the trees and shrubs were gone. Finally, the last couple rappels, and we were down and out. |
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| "Let it ride / Let it roll / Let it go" |
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