More Dan Ransom -- FreezeFest Encore Presentation

Dan's rafting video was so awesome, I just had to post an encore presentation of this video from FreezeFest.


FreezeFest IX from carpeybiggs on Vimeo.
If you didn't cross the line at FreezeFest IX, you weren't there...



Maybe it was because of the crazy weather and lack of canyons in condition, but things just plain got ugly for this year's version of the fest. For two days, there was rain, as temps stayed just above freezing. The last 4, it cleared up, but was as cold as anyone can seem to remember.



But, a tradition is only a tradition when it's kept, so a crew of 13 fools set off to descend the black hole on New Year's day. Temperatures at the parking lot were 16, only climbing to 23 by the afternoon. Definitely the coldest in the 9 year history of the New Year's Black Hole.



Good times!

Dan's Awesome Grand Canyon Video (Preview)

Dan Ransom (carpeybiggs) has posted a three minute trailer for the upcoming video of our Grand Canyon raft/canyoneering trip.  Check it out!!


Last of the Great Unknown - Preview from carpeybiggs on Vimeo.

The Grand Canyon is an immense place, almost unfathomable in scale, and one of the last places in the American West to be explored. John Wesley Powell called it the "Great Unknown," having no idea what rapids, falls, or canyons awaited him on his first descent of the river in 1869. In the decades since, the Canyon has been a playground for dozens of explorers. River runners, backpackers, routefinders, lithic hunters, and peakbaggers have all laid claim to the Canyon's iconic landmarks, often seeking out the prestigious "firsts." While many significant points of interest were being explored, there was one feature that was left almost entirely ignored: the Canyon's innumerable technical slots.

Deep within this vast wilderness are secret and intimate tributaries rarely visited by man, hiding some of the Canyon's most remarkable features. The barrier to entry is steep. To explore them, one must have a knowledge of backpacking, packrafting, rappeling, anchor building, and off-trail navigation. The Last of the Great Unknown is the story of these slots, the canyoneers who systematically explored their drainages, and the secrets hidden deep within their walls.

In February 2011, a group of 16 set out to run the Grand Canyon and descend as many slots as possible en route. The itinerary was ambitious. 280 miles of whitewater, 30 days and 22 slots. The tally included 7 fully loaded boats, 5 rookie boatmen, 1400 packed meals, a steady flow around 20k cfs, and an ungodly amount of 4 a.m. wakeup calls.

This video is a compilation of that trip, and a preview of what's to come...

music by alex beroza, licensed by creative commons from ccmixter.org. R' Coaster, LTH, and Tell Somebody           

Raftoneering Trip - West Half - Hiking trip - SpotAdventures

In the continuing quest to find good ways to share trips, I've discovered the ability to upload SPOT messages to a shared web site.  This (primitive) effort shows the last few "OK" message locations starting with Matkat and resuming with Diamond Creek following my break from the trip.

Click the link to see: Raftoneering Trip - West Half - Hiking trip - SpotAdventures

Dave Nally's River Trip Photos

Dave Nally uploaded some great photos of our recent trip.  Here they are, using the Picnik slideshow feature (which I'm using for the first time here).

"dNally Slideshow"

Via Ferrata Video

Found this via ferrata video on the Black Diamond web site (yep, he uses their gear).  Looks like fun!

Grand Canyon Trip Photos From dNally

Dave Nally has posted a wonderful photo set from our recently completed 30-day Grand Canyon river rafting and canyoneering ("raftoneering") trip.  Here they are, presented using Picasa's native slideshow embedding code.  A later post will try the same photos using the Picnik slideshow code.



(Click on the slideshow to view the album in Picasa.)

Pearce Ferry Rapids

Pearce Ferry Rapids has become nearly un-runnable.  Here is a short video showing the view from just upstream, river left.  Dan Ransom takes photos as I shoot some video.  The videos have been uploaded to my YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTraye-vSZ0

150-Mile Canyon

Matkat Hotel the evening before I left.

For the past 16 day I've been on a canyoneering river trip organized by Rich Rudow and Rick Demarest.  On Monday I hiked out 150-Mile Canyon with J.J., and Guy Smith joined the trip in my place for a few days.  I will rejoin the trip at Diamond Creek.  (Because Havasu Canyon has been closed by flood damage, this was as close as I could get to my original plan of hiking out at Havasu and back in at Diamond.)

In a word, this hike was great!!  It had just about everything you could ask from a day hike: river, canyon, cliff, water, narrows, boulders, sun and snow.   Rafts, wetsuits, wading, climbing, trail finding, and good old fashioned boulder hopping.

J.J. and I started out from Matkat Hotel camp in packrafts at 7:30am, just after the hiking group had started up the trail to do the Panameta descent. We stowed the rafts for later pickup at the beach about 1/2 mile upriver from Upset Rapids. We were in the mouth of 150-Mile at 8:30am. Finding and negotiating the first bypass, we were a bit apprehensive because this hike involves four rope assisted upclimbs that rely on pre-placed pull cords, used to raise a rope through rap rings placed on bolts & hangers. We weren't sure the pull cords would still be in place and our concern was heightened as we reached the first pouroff and found a silty length of parachute cord in the stream bed and no pull cord on the B&H. However, I observed that the pouroff did not appear to be a true rap according to "Todd and Rich" standards, but rather a partner-assisted upclimb. Sure enough we were able to negotiate it so we did not count it against the four pull cords we were hoping to find intact.

Fluted limestone with clear-running snowmelt.

As we approached the next waterfall, we could see a pull cord in good condition, and we successfully placed and ascended our rope. As we were moving upstream, J.J. said if there was going to be one washed-out pull cord, he wished it had been that one, because he was sure he could have upclimbed it. I should mention that J.J. is an awesomely good climber. 

We continued on, and each of the next three obstacles had a well placed and excellent condition pull cord. Unlike the parachute cord we had found ruined in the bed, the pull cords were all of good quality accessory cord. I don't know if it's any more resistant to flash flood damage than parachute cord, but we were sure glad to see such quality pulls since we were dependent on all four being in good shape.   

J.J. enjoys a rare dry-foot moment.

Two of the four pouroffs required wet upclimbs, at least partly in the falling water. It was quite exciting. I shuttled packs through the waist-deep to neck-deep pools balanced on my helmet to try to keep them at least somewhat dry, if only to prevent them getting any heavier. We mostly succeeded although at the final waterfall the pack hoist was almost straight up through the stream flow. The tale of the tape was that J.J.'s camera stayed dry inside its ziplock bag, so mission accomplished.


The lower section of Temple Butte and Redwall narrows was very pretty and reminded me of Saddle Canyon (the one between Muav Saddle and Tapeats Creek, not the Marble Canyon one). Large red-washed alcoves and some boulder scrambling. The higher section of Redwall became very narrow (10 feet or so) and contained fluted and sculpted white polished limestone that was as beautiful as any I have seen in the canyon. Even though we were going for speed, I just had to dig my camera out of the pack for a couple of photos at this spot, so we found a dry-foot spot to stop for a moment and snap some views.

The narrowest section is near the top of the Redwall.

Just after 1pm we topped out above the "90 foot cliff" that Rich had told us about. It was no problem for us both to upclimb with packs on and we wondered why such a big deal had been made of it. There was a B&H at the top which we imagined would mostly be used to belay downclimbs, rather than the moderate upclimb. In hindsight the first bypass up from the river was much more sketchy and exposed, and although we both upclimbed it without removing packs, J.J. had set up a belay for me after saying "it's wigging me out" doing a climb around a point with footholds just two or three inches wide with exposure to at least 50 feet of fall potential.

We took a break in the first direct sun of the day, getting out of our wetsuits and eating lunch on the polished top of the Redwall layer. At 2:20 we set off again. In the Supai we found two of the stock trails around ledge pouroffs, showing some signs of rough stacked stone construction to support the trail. At others we simply upclimbed in the interest of time. As we approached the end of the canyon we could see the exit break in the Coconino but we never saw either Buckhorn Spring or the metal wheelbarrow that are given as landmarks in the area. We didn't care too much since our main goal was to get out in daylight. 

J.J. taking in the views from the final pitch of Kaibab limestone.

On the bench above the stream bed we found a cairn and sign of a trail and started working our way up. Although the switchbacks were not particularly obvious, and the upper section was completely obscured by 4-6" of snow, we were able to make our way out, "mostly" staying on the correct trail alignment. For part of the way through the Hermit we followed fresh bighorn tracks in the snow and were amused that he seemed to be following the stock trail, at least for a little while. 

View to the east as sunset approaches.

In the Toroweap we encountered a barbed wire fence above a ravine and J.J. said "yep, I wouldn't want my cows walking off the edge of that", then we switched back across the slope to the east a long way until reaching another fence at the edge of another ravine. The two fences (and ravines) seemed to define the switchbacks the rest of the way up until it became apparent that the trail would angle directly below a corner in the Kaibab Limestone cliff.

Shortly after that, staying on the same line, we passed through a gate in the barb wire fence. I stopped again to take a couple photos of the fantastic view back to the east as the low sun angle set the canyon's contours in delightful relief. We topped out at 5:30pm, 10 hours after pushing our packrafts off the beach. It had been a most exhilarating day.

More photos from this trip can be viewed in my Picasa web album at

150-Mile Canyon

https://picasaweb.google.com/CRForsyth/150MileCanyon?feat=directlink

Tabernacle Route

On a perfect January day, this century plant was silhouetted against a vivid blue sky in front of the Tabernacle.