After last year’s debacle, seemed like doing something more reasonable for our annual Saturnalia day out would be a good idea.
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Guest Rave by Steve Ramras; all the good pictures by Ramsel Adams. It doesn't happen every year. Usually about every 4 or 5 years. When it does, I can't resist. It happened to us the first time, in the early 90's. We descended Middle Echo, one May day, finished the short raps and came smack into a walls of ice. For the next 2 hours, we dangerously weaved our way through the snow and ice...
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Guest Rave: Steve Ramras. Indecision reigned. It was the Christmas day traditional insanity time. Who would go? Many of the past participants felt the reality of the danger of the thing. They waxed eloquently on it foolhardiness. In the end, the same people as last year filled up this year's permit. Where would we go?
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Canyoneering in winter - be careful! I was looking for one more "full day" canyon before the season closes down...guess I got it! Doesn't help that I don't like getting up early. Or maybe I didn't do the math, but... We chose Checkerboard as a worthy canyon for a mighty day, and thankfully not all that wet. We met at 7:30 a.m....
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It's my party, and I get to choose the canyon and the company. For this year's TomFest, the sparsely-attended Friday canyon would be Pandora's Box, a wonderful though vigorous canyoneering adventure in Capitol Reef National Park. There have been several rescues in there the last couple years, as novice groups have underestimated the difficulties (foreshadowing!)...
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Yes, it is still winter. After a few days of rain, we were psyched to go sneak another canyon in, and also psyched for a lazyish start, given the festivities the night before, Amanda and Kat's going away party in advance of their coming-up-fast South Africa adventure. The day was grey and not all that warm. The plan was to do Lower Lower Echo...
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The idea was to sneak in one more good canyon before the weather hit, and Diana really wanted Kolob, so we scheduled a trip Monday Tuesday, hiking out the narrows and... And then it snowed. Plenty of snow up top, so Kolob was not going to be a good choice. Second choice...
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After a great day in Keyhole (which sounds faintly ridiculous)... Luke came up from Las Vegas, and the question was, what canyons COULD we do. Given the blanket of snow across Zion, Deeps and I kinda thought the only canyon that would be non-epic would be Pine Creek.
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Mr. Deanpaul Russell aka Deeps came down to enjoy our incredible non-winter weather in Zion... except, the day before and the night he drove down, it snowed about 6" in Zion. Winter again! As the weather report predicted clearing in the afternoon, we delayed our start, meeting Jenny down at Deep Creek at 10 am. We geared up and picked up a permit, then headed up to do Pine Creek Canyon. The storm had cleared and the sun was out, melting snow on the slickrock. The flow in Pine Creek was a little more than we were up for, so we drove up the highway a bit, and ventured into Keyhole Canyon.
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The big day was upon us. Yes, the night was cold and we rang in the new year at the appropriate hour --- for New York. Off to Hite it was, fairly early.
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It is hard to get psyched for FreezeFest, living in a heated house with a plush, warm bed each night. But --- certain traditions MUST be followed, and FreezeFest is one of them. After a visit from the Ramoo for a snowy canyon in Zion, all that was left was to avoid packing
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This is a silly sport. The whole thing. Sliding down ropes in remote places, risking death and destruction on a regular basis, for what?
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Finally, a storm brought moisture upon us, first time since New Years. Not the best timing, however, as Ram was just blowing into town.
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Our annual INSANE canyoneering festival called FreezeFest is held in North Wash for a good reason - there are a LOT of good canyons within easy reach. For this day, we chose Paradiso out on Ticaboo Mesa, one of the Dante Canyons, possibly the funnest of the Dante Canyons.
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I woke up feeling mean. The sky did not look so friendly either, so I ducked out and headed home to rest up for a few days. Ram and crew headed off to do Shenanigans Canyon, a canyon near and dear to my heart. Photos by Hank and Bruce.
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A new tradition. The Black Hole for New Years. Ram rounded up a bunch of folks, most of whom backed out when they checked the weather forecast. So off with a small group of die-hards to the slots of North Wash for a little Mae-Westing before the Hole.
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Went down to Zion with the Boyz for a little Freeze Fest. Imlay Canyon in winter sounded like a good idea at the time.
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As the date approached, I rounded up a partner for Saturday also, and the weather report looked good. Not so the weather in Salt Lake as I hit the road Friday night. The snowstorm did not let up till past Nephi and got me worried.
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