Johan and Hans from Costa Rica were in town, and I wanted to show them canyons as dissimilar to Costa Rica as possible. Despite the high heat at the end of May, I figured we would go to North Wash and get a few narrow-type canyons in.
Read More
Went to the DarkHorse Leadership Canyoneering Rendezvous down in North Wash, I arrived Thursday night and it was COLD, so having a large room inside was really helpful. I hung out and chatted with people and retired to a tent on the large lawn about 11pm.
Read More
Last canyon of the year. The day before the Black Hole calls for something modest - don't wanna get too worked before A. the big party; B. the big campfire session and C. the BIG DAY. Let's do a HOG, some people said. Hog 2 aka Swine Flue was selected as a good choice - and a bunch of people signed on...
Read More
FF XIV: After a frosty Inferno, came back to camp to find Alane had arrived from Colorado. Next day we joined Ram and others to do a super-duper, double-cross-your-heart secret canyon, which of course was totally wonderful (400 foot rappels next to hot-water waterfalls, dolphins in the pools, a couple 40 foot jumps... you know, all that secret canyon stuff)...
Read More
The name "Epic Blarney" has been thrown around for awhile, origin mysterious. Some said it was because of a canyoneering expedition where an Epic brew (good choice) was to be drunk at each rappel... (hmmm, suspicious). A more likely origin was perhaps a descent during one extremely snowy FreezeFest, when it really was EPIC, just to get down Blarney...
Read More
Sitting in the comfort of my Mount Carmel palace, it is easy to come up with a list of "canyons I want to do at FreezeFest". Unfortunately for me, there are people at the Fest who have read my list and gotten psyched to do canyons that involve snow, ice, swimming in icewater plus lots of climbing up and over and through. Trail was at the top of my list because I don't get to do it often, it being somewhat harder than most things in the area; an area I often visit with less-experienced canyoneers.
Read More
"You Tom?" called out a voice.
"Who wants to know?"... I will spare you a fabricated conversation. The guy in the white SUV said, there's two guys stuck on a cliff down near Hog Springs, and he was driving up to Hanksville to get a SAR going. Hmmm, we said, we'll see what we can do in the meantime.
Read More
Freezefest is an annual gathering of hearty (ie, foolish) canyoneers for canyoneering at the turn of the year. Camping out in single-digit temperatures may not seem like it would be fun, but with proper preparation, plus lots of firewood, fine spirits and good friends, it works out to be one of the funnest events of the year.
Read More
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.
Read More
North Wash is such a fine place to canyoneer in the fall. November 2011 was no exception; the canyon gods were kind to us, providing fine weather and fine friends.
Read More
Scott Patterson discovered a large and frightening arch in Marinus canyon, scouting it in April 2010 and, due to lack of time and suitable companions, judiciously traversed downcanyon and rapped in lower down, leaving the difficulties of the arch itself to... us!
Read More
Dec 15- I was way stoked, packing for Freeze Fest, thinking about all the canyon possibilities - a good chance for me to explore Dave's Mini-Slots, and revisit old favorites.
Read More
Before heading into more serious things, a lazy-ish weekend in North Wash was in order. No Kidding provided a good opportunity to test out the new Sand Trap. Dave Buckingham and Anna Rehkopf from ZAC and Springdale drove up for some slot action
Read More
Looking for a canyon that would be dry, we thought - HEY! How about Hog 2! COULD be the driest canyon around, maybe maybe not. We decided to do the Ridge of Many Huge Holes Ramble to get up there, which would save us a car spot.
Read More
A great time to be in the wild, but with the wetness and all, not a great time to do canyons. What else was around? How about Ryan's ramble out to the Yellow Brick Road and Tik Tok Bridge?
Read More
Back to North Wash for another weekend. Thanksgiving brought a whole bunch of rain, but it cleared off quickly. Friday, I rendezvoused with hank and alicia around noon.
Read More
Looking through Wyoming Dave's recent finds, we chose Morocco as the best venture. A quick trip to Hog Springs (for the usual) and we parked at the 'trench' of Casablanca Canyon and followed Dave's directions up the cliff - and around to the head of the canyon.
Read More
Love these beautiful fall mornings - especially since "early" means 9 a.m. Destinations for the day were West Leprechaun Canyon for the Arhart clan, and the Main Fork of Leprechaun Canyon for Dave and me.
Read More