Mindbender March 2004 Part One

March 2004. Beautiful weather. Another weekend in the Roost.

The North Fork of Robbers Roost Canyon has many, many forks. Rather confusing really. I thought I had found the famous "Mindbender" Fork, about which Steve Allen tells an interesting story, perhaps over-dramatized; but it was not to be - what I found was a really good fork I now call Not-Mindbender.

Finally, the time had come. The release of Kelsey's Technical Slot Guide had let a lot of cats out of the bag, including one people had identified as Mindbender.

But first, a little breakfast to get the day started.

Drive off to some non-descript spot in the desert, park and start hiking. Nice Plan. Shane, Giles, Julie, Alicia, Sharon, Tom, Barb, Jeff.

Hey, over here! We found a canyon.

Really difficult entry.

Social club, lagging a bit behind.

Finally it narrows down.

The charming Julie, rapping first rap. Curious anchor we found here, for a short little rappel. An expertly placed webbing knot used as a chock. Only problem - the webbing was 9/16" "Aid Tape" - that weak, thin stuff. Yikes. Seems a bit sketchy to use such tiny webbing. We replaced it with a tied off rock under some ledge things, which was just lying there right at the top of the drop. An EZ anchor to get.

Not so narrow anymore.

Okay, then it gets narrow again.

Another day, another canyon lunch.

Sharon Talboys demonstrates excellent stemming technique.

An interesting assisted downclimb.

A beautiful, soaring wall section.

Tom takes the high road, Shane takes the low road...