User | ffelix

With Jas. Jeff’s hip acted up on the approach and he waited for us at the car.

With Jeff, Jasmine and Dave.

With Jeff, Jasmine, Tammie, Dave.

Bonanza-Enron with bike shuttle. Drove from Moab on day 1, which made for a hard push--best to get there and camp the night before.

With Michele and Jeff. Beautiful canyon, scenic, physical and interesting.

J&F. Perfect winter canyon, long walk.

J&F. Super fun, scenic place that is great for practicing new tricks. We used a CEM for the first time (on the low angle rap)! There are two sets of anchors for the big rap: the second one makes it all free-hanging.

J&F. Beautiful canyon with nice slickrock terraces, interesting views, and a rather intimidating rappel over a wicked head cut. Nice day poking around and sorting out the area roads. Went home via the Yellowcat road to the Cisco exit.

With Jeff and Greg. Pit-roasted turkey when we got back.

Wife 3 during Uberfest.

Uberfest

Jeff and I did the complete Pool Arch with Jasmine, Sean and Allen after L2. It was pretty full, so we got wet above the waist. We did Crack 'n' Jill on 09/23/2024 after L1 with Jasmine, Jonathan, Alex, and Rob. Luckily, the other students didn't have time to come along...

With Heather & Michael

Kari and I hiked up from the bottom to the narrows after setting the car shuttle for the White Crack-Cataract adventure. Fun!

Kari and I poked around the first narrows after setting the car shuttle for the White Crack-Cataract adventure. Pools were fuller than we were interested in that day, so we looked around the start and the rim rather than going all the way through. Found a manky ladder on the west side that someone probably uses to get out after the first narrows section. We didn't trust it!

Kari and I went in and out before setting the White Crack-Cataract car shuttle. We didn't have a ton of time, and were worried about wood after the crazy storms, so we came out after going down a ways to check things out.

Solo, but shared a shuttle saving me a hot bike ride. 150cfs is just enough to get the job done. Some nice flowers out. Found ANOTHER Oru! Drove out of the Swell via the Temple Mt. Road, which doesn’t seem to be much longer.

Smacked a ditch in the Insight and had to go back to GR to get it checked out. So I was late getting started again. But water was 800cfs so I made it out in 3.5h at sunset. Did the bike shuttle in the dark, which was fun and cooler but pushed bedtime to midnight. Some good wildflowers on the drive in, a rattlesnake in the road, and a dead black-tailed jackrabbit, plus good river wildlife (lots of beaver again).

Launched at about 5pm and camped at late sunset after 3.5-hours of fairly steady paddling on good water (roughly 220cfs). Lots of great wildlife: 7-8 beavers, wild turkey, tiny ducklings, deer, as well as new baby cows. The cow-beaver combo is decimating the cottonwoods, and lots of them end up in the river. Would be a good project to take out the emerging Russian Olive before it leaves the treasure hunt stage and becomes a big hassle. Finished the run with less than 1.5-hrs of paddling in the morning, then pedaled the shuttle back to Fuller Bottom in about 2-hrs. Found the real dinosaur track, and spent a little time looking more closely at the Buckhorn Rock Art Panel--it's impressive. Headed to the Wedge Overlook on the way out and met a giant truck and its cheerful driver: he had been delivering solar panels to a massive nearby installation and though he'd see the sights. Good thing his PR grandmother taught him how to drive loads on tiny roads!

With Michele, Red Wolf, Julie & Tim, Pete, Marti.

Hot day, with loud thunderheads. Bailed on the strip skiing and poked around in Brumley instead. So much stinging nettle, but wildflowers were still lovely.

Solo in packraft. Nice to be back after so long! Encountered a woman and her daughter having a bit of an epic--hopefully I helped them out of their panic. Tried to run on June 14 before we did Deso, but had a comedy of errors: took forever to get there in the Puch, so I was behind all day. Then the brakes failed, and I misplaced the skewer for my MTB which was to be the shuttle. There are people out there these days, so I probably could have mooched a ride. But after all that, it was raining upstream, so I bailed. I got rained on hard on the way out, but the wildflowers were awesome and I exited through Sinbad and Swazey's cabin, which I don't remember ever doing.

Ran with Michele. Great to be back after so long! Lots of water, with fairly stout swirls and eddies and a few easily avoided strainers.

Solo

Muddy approach with cold wind. Snow and ice after reaching the wall. But beautiful day with Jeff.

Upper Granary with Julie, Michele, Tom & Tami, Christine. M & I wore dry suits, but there were walk arounds for the really deep holes.

With Kim

With John & Margaret

With John and Margaret. Explored the slickrock above the river, and down to the start of the difficulties.

Solo

Solo

Scrambling was harder than I remembered. Took the left route around the basin to the arch, and the direct route back down.

With Mike & Kim. Full potholes!

Out to Goosenecks for sunset and to check out Sulphur Creek.

Went solo, but ran into a guy and his daughter to share the shuttle and hike together. Fun hike! Tricky move prevents the masses from hiking up from below.

With Michele to first viewpoint (bikes from Prostitute Butte).

Solo

Just to the tunnel, after Fiery Furnace.

Put up new route on west end of butte (5.8 C0) with J and M. Requires aiders on last few moves to top out. Some needle-dick later chopped the first bolts, so maybe use RBs? The rock is too soft to hold a fall on gear in the sketchy crack.

FF, Mike & Kim: the day after finishing the 6-day White Rim.

Solo scout with MTB approach, to base of headwall. Found a carabiner at the drop.

Pete, Dave, Michelle, Julie, Marty, J & F. Fun and easy! Set last rap, then waited for full moon at the fudge-cicle but it was taking too long so we bailed and looked at the moon from the parking lot, instead. Workers on 191 hit a gas line, so town power was out and traffic bottle-necked. Cleared out by the time we left the park, though.

Pete, David, Michelle, J & F. Fun! Potholes about half full and easily escaped. Good trail to start and route-finding on the short-cut return not severe. Use the canyon across from the balanced rim boulder to exit Courthouse Wash.

F & J. Super fun route!

J & F, Seatons. Date approximate. No wetsuits needed. Most of the raps can be downclimbed.

Beautiful fin narrows hike to a great arch. We didn't bring a rope, so we backtracked--still very fun!

F & J. Can’t recall actual date, but it must have been around Thanksgiving since we were still working at Sagehen. Used drysuits, but that was overkill. Fixed rope in place at first mandatory rappel.

Date is a very rough approximation. Hiked up canyon from the river, through the house-sized boulders. Might make a fun packraft adventure?