Some good canyons can be found at the south end of the San Rafael Swell. They are especially good, especially fun when full of water - as we expected to find them, thanks to storms tracking across Utah these last two months.
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The Squeeze is an excellent canyoneering adventure down in Utah's San Rafael Swell. I was down at Hidden Splendor for the SUWA Roundup. The frequent storms the last few weeks suggested the canyons on the south end of the Reef would be in Splasher mode
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Canyoneering first descents are always cherished - we found a nice one down in the Swell, near Hidden Splendor. At last year's SUWA Roundup, I hiked up and scouted this little canyon with Bill Wolverton, thinking it might make a nice, easy, technical canyon for beginners.
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Ryan and I were down Hanksville way, looking for a canyon to do. A couple days earlier, it had taken me 8 hours to drive from Mt Carmel to Ticaboo, as I had trouble getting across the Burr Trail, due to flash floods from a Utah-wide massive storm.
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One of my favorite canyons in the Roost is Not Mindbender, a fork of the North Fork, or of the North-Middle Fork. A tasty one.
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About 30 intrepid canyoneers turned out for a weekend of gnats, canyons and sunshine. Many new techniques were shared, new friends made, faces connected with email names, and good times had.
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A few years ago, I stuck some bolts in the difficult, central section of Quandary Canyon in the San Rafael Swell, thinking I was doing the world a service. Oy veh!
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Had to get out of town! When the weather is consistently cold, the best way to get out is to make plans far ahead with people you don't know real well - then you have to go. So I made plans far in the future with Charlie Oliver from Boulder, who I had known for a while but never done a trip with. Since he was driving from Boulder, my chickening out just because it was too friggin' cold was not an option...
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Had to get out of town! Three weeks of cold weather and no going south makes the rat a grouchy boy. Weather reports called for cold and sunny, so it looked like staying in the sun by exploring the rugged terrain up on the San Rafael Reef would be the ticket...
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