AJ
09-11-2007, 09:45 PM
Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=174451834/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Wednesday 5/2:
We met up at Jonas' house, chatted about the roads and the forecast(bad), and decided which cars to take. We would go with my Jeep Commander, and Jonas' Subaru because the forecast called for rain and the roads out in the Swell could get messy. A few of the trailheads required high clearance or 4wd as well. There were five of us going; Ben, Jonas, Tim, Rom and I. we were planning on trying to hit many of the bigger canyons of the Swell, and would meet up with some other canyoneers who were attending a Tom's CanyonFest for the first few days. I was looking forward to this trip, as I wanted to practice pothole escapes, and upclimbs in preparation for my upcoming Zion trip where we would be attempting Imlay and Heaps.
We ran into some rain over the mountain passes on the way to Utah, not a good sign. More rain and thunderstorms in Utah, definitely not a good sign. The road out to the Hidden Splendor campsite was fine though; mostly dry and in good condition. We got in late, around 1am. There was a few other canyoneers who just arrived as well, we chatted with them for a bit. They had nasty weather coming from Salt Lake City as well. It was late, so I didn't even bother putting up the gear tent. I just put my gear outside, covered it with a tarp; and slept in the back of the Jeep.
Thursday 5/3:
We woke up with the sun, around 6:30am. Well, at least the sun that was popping through the clouds. Tried to listen to the weather radio, and didn't get a signal. From the looks of the sky, it didn't look like it was going to be different than the 30% chance of rain we saw yesterday. It was cold; in the upper 30's I'd guess. It's supposed to be a lot warmer here in May...
We were planning on doing the full loop of Music Canyon today. It is a pretty short canyon of around 2 miles, but a pretty long day of around 10 miles. We had plenty of options with Music if the weather turned sour. We could always not drop in if the weather was really bad. We could drop into the narrows and upclimb back up them if weather turned bad (though Tom said the upclimb would be 'burly.') Or if the weather was decent, we could do the full loop which hiked us through the Chute of the Muddy creek. Details on Music: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/music1.htm
We talked to Tom's group; they were going to try to do the Squeeze. The Squeeze is a big canyon, with a large drainage. We were going to attempt to do it tomorrow if the weather was better. We packed up, and headed out in the Jeep to the trailhead; around 6.2 miles from camp. The weather was looking decent, so we hiked down into the drainage leading to Music.
I quickly realized I forgot my camera back at camp. Crap. I'll have to rely on the others' pictures for today. (Nobody sent me their photos, so the only pic I have is the old car at the entry which I took when we went back to pick up my car.) The hike down to Music was pretty; with some small downclimbs. This was the first trip I wore a specific shoe made for canyoneering, the 5-10 Canyoneers. Without my neoprine sock, the shoe was a little loose (I fitted it to wear a sock and a neoprine sock) so it was moving around giving me a few hotspots. However, the traction on it was awesome. After I put my neoprine sock on, it was a great shoe.
The weather was still looking decent when we made it to the start of the slot section. No visual rain dropping anywhere, and the clouds weren't building vertically; so we dropped in. Music was a fun little canyon, with some interesting downclimbing. There were a few cool chambers, several with decent acoustics. There was a bit of mud in the canyon; looked like it rained in the area the day before. When we got down to the Chute of the Muddy creek, it was running fast and was muddy with debris; more evidence of rains. The weather was still decent though; overcast, but no rain; so I wanted to climb back up Music. Tim and Ben were game; we wanted to be 'burly' canyoneers. ;) Rom and Jonas decided to just stay at the Chute and wait for us. The plan was that Ben, Tim and I would upclimb Music as far as we could without ropes, and then come back down and all of us would hike down the Chute.
Ben, Tim and I set off on the upclimb. Some of the upclimbs were challenging, but we were able to make all of them without even a partner assist. We did spot each other on a couple of places, just in case; but I was pretty happy with the accomplishment of making it up unassisted. We joked that we were now all burly canyoneers. When we got to the top, the weather started to look a little worse, so we headed back down to the others. Still no significant rain (a sprinkle here and there) but the sky was starting to get a little darker and the wind had picked up. Clouds still weren't moving fast though, so the wind was mostly just low altitude winds.
When we got down to the Chute, Jonas and Rom weren't there. No sign of them or their gear. Since they took thier packs, and we didn't run into them on the way down, I assumed they either got cold, or didn't like how the weather looked, and headed down the Chute since we have a four mile hike through the Chute, which is in the river. Tim, Ben and I started down the Chute and figured we could catch up to them.
Hiking down the Chute was awesome! You were hiking right through the river, which was usually around mid-thigh deep; but sometimes got to chest deep. It was certainly muddy, and moving decent from yesterday's rains. Some small debris was floating by, but the weather was again looking decent, so no worries. I still kept my eyes open for escape routes, just in case. The walls on either side were several hundred feet tall, and they constricted every once in a while, with some log jams twenty feet, thirty feet and some over fourty feet high. Just a reminder that the water can get wicked in here at times. Very cool hike though; albeit tiring. Next time I'll definitely bring a hiking pole or two for the river hike.
We caught up to Jonas and Rom, and all finished up the long hike through the Chute, and then down the Muddy River back to the Hidden Splendor campsite. There were some beautiful views at the campsite, with large walls and towers surrounding us. Very cool. We changed out of our wet clothes, and then Jonas and I went to get the Commander with Jonas' car. After a couple of miles, we ran into Tom's group. Tom asked for a lift back to camp. Jonas and I thought we were over half-way to the Commander (which was empty, so I could fit four to six others; and we could only fit one more person right now in Jonas' car since it was all full of stuff. At least on the way back, he could fit two - so we could likely squeeze them all in on the way back) so we said we would pick them up on the way back. Tom thought they were just outside of camp; so they were a little disappointed. We saw Tom's pack on the side of the road on the way to get the Commander. The Jeep was a little farther than we thought, so I told Jonas to go pick up as many people or packs as he could. I drove back, picked up Tom's pack on the way, and caught up to Tom's group. I asked if anyone wanted a lift, and several took us up on the offer.
When we got back to camp, we found out that Tom's group bailed out of Squeeze because the weather looked bad. They hiked to the top of Knotted; and on the way, the weather was looking better. When they got to the top, it was looking bad again, so they opted to head near Quandary. They got to Quandary, and were going to drop in, but people were already cold; even without getting into the water yet. Quandary has lots of water, and some of Tom's group didn't have very thick wetsuits. They decided to not drop in, and hiked back around the top using the roads, which is where we came across them. We nicknamed his route "Kinda-Quandary."
While we were gone, the winds had really kicked up. I had two totes, facing different directions, with a vinyl bag full of shoes and clothes on top of them, and then all of that was wrapped inside a tarp, with rocks on the top and sides of the tarp. The tarp was blown off, the vinyl bag was blown off, the lids were blown off the totes, and gear was down a little drainage. Wow, that must have been some serious wind, and from different directions to blow the tops off both hinged totes - since they were facing different directions.) I think I found everything from the totes, and set up my tent to store all my gear inside it so that wouldn't happen again.
Unfortunately, one of Tom's group also had a wind incident. Andy had set up a tent, staked it down well, but only had a sleeping bag and a few lighter items in it. When he got back to camp, his tent was gone. Several people went and helped him look for it, but they didn't find it. He was pretty bummed. He looked exhausted too; as did several of Tom's group. I was still feeling fine, other than the usual tired from sleep deprivation, so I asked if Jonas was okay too. Jonas and I have done a fair bit of adventure racing, so we are accustomed to insanely long days. We went over, and found out where the others had searched. Nobody had hiked into the drainages; so I took the high side, and Jonas went down towards the Muddy River to see if it had blown down there. I checked each drainage down to the Muddy, and on the last one, saw Jonas coming up; carrying the tent. Apparently, it was only a few hundred feet in front of me, and that canyon went all the way down to the Muddy. I helped Jonas carry the tent back up to a very happy Andy; and we also gained the knowledge that the canyon (we now called it Tent canyon) went all the way down to the Muddy so it made our hike shorter for the next day.
We headed over to where Tom's group was camped, and visited with them for the evening. I had brought chips and homemade salsa from Jen to share. I also picked up some beer from Colorado for the Utah folk, since the Utah beers are lower alcohol and worse tasting. We talked for hours, sharing both food and stories. It was a great time. Just before bed, I wandered around with the weather radio and was able to pick up a signal. The weather forecast didn't change; it was still supposed to be 40% chance of rain for Friday, 50% chance for Saturday, and 20% chance for Sunday - with highs in the 50's, lows in the 30's. Bummer. Usually, anything over 20% chance of rain in Utah means that you are definitely getting rain. The questions are just when, and how much. Oh well, we'll see how tomorrow plays out.
Friday 5/4:
We woke up to about 50% clouds. It didn't look too bad, so I wanted to get moving; as today was going to be a big day. Tim was taking his sweet time today; don't know if he was apprehensive about the weather or what. I started to get annoyed though, especially when he gave vague answers to my inquiries on how much time he needed to get ready. I wanted to get as good of a start as we could so we could evaluate the weather on the Moroni Slopes (the approach to the big canyon, the Squeeze.) We finally got started around 7:40, over a half hour after our planned 7am departure time. We hiked down the Muddy River towards the Squeeze.
At the base of the Squeeze, the clouds weren't looking much worse, but we had run into a few sprinkles. Probably not a good idea to drop into the Squeeze. I was still game with either climbing up the Moroni, so we could get a better view of the weather; or heading over towards Knotted Rope, which has a much smaller drainage area. The others would rather just save Squeeze for a better weather day, and not chance it at all; so we headed over towards Knotted Rope. Info on Knotted Rope: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/knotted.htm
On the way, it started to rain pretty hard. Probably made the right choice. Heck, we might not even get to do Knotted if this rain kept up. Luckily, it didn't, and shortly cleared up some.
We climbed up the slopes to get to the Knotted Rope big drop; which offered some great views of the Muddy, and of the weather. There was some definite clear spots, but the weather to the West still looked iffy. We figured that the bottom part of Knotted was pretty open with lots of exits, so we would just upclimb Knotted as far as the weather would allow. We started up Knotted around 11:30am, and started to skirt some of the big, full potholes. Some of these bypasses were on pretty angled slopes, with a bit of exposure. Jonas doesn't like exposure much, so he got stuck at one of the places we were able to climb around. He got frustrated, and started heading back down. I went and got him, and we decided that instead of skirting around, we'd all just go down a bit and go up Knotted Rope fully in the watercourse. Jonas agreed to give it a shot. It would be much more challenging, as we would be climbing up steeper walls, many of them from water filled potholes.
We did lots of partner assists (boosting others), pack tosses, threw pot shots, some cool climbing, and some good old fashioned gruntwork, but we were making good progress. The weather was holding out well too; with quite a bit of sun. We got into the tight narrows section around 1:30pm, and were having a blast playing around in all the cool obstacles.
Unfortunately, pretty deep into the narrows, it started to rumble. Thunder. Not a good sign; it meant the clouds were building vertically and now had a good amount of water to release. We discussed and decided to press on. I was much more mindful of possible exits now, just in case.
We continued climbing up the narrows with more fun climbing, including some new possibilities with stemming since the walls were closer. There were also some pipe remnants of the old mining days which we used to climb up some of the drops. We were still deep in the slot when it began to rain. Not a downpour, but still a decent enough rain. A few people were wanting to turn back, but I hadn't seen a good exit in a bit. Also, for how far we had traveled, I was thinking the head of the narrows had to be quicker than going back through all the narrows we came up. I was a little in the lead, so I called to the others that I'd drop my pack and take a quick scout. I made it around a few turns and up a few pothole ledges, and came to a spot where it looked like it was opening up ahead. I couldn't tell for sure, because I was stopped by a larger ledge that I could use a hand getting up. I went back down calling to the others to still press on; that it looked like it opened up.
A few people were definitely worried, so I tried to calm them down a little. There was certainly rain, but it wasn't hard enough to cascade down the walls yet. There was no signs of flow, nor debris; which usually happen before a flash. The drainage isn't that big, so it would have to get hammered to flash; and we didn't see any of that. Still, I wasn't going to dilly-dally, so we made our way up the canyon as quickly as we could. We got past the upclimb, and sure enough, the canyon opened up. We had made it through the tightest section; and there were now plenty of exits. The rain subsided, so we continued up the canyon until the slot ended. We then reached a decision point. The weather was actually looking better. We could see most of the drainage for Knotted and Quandary, and it looked fine. We could see a lot of the Western sky, and it was again not looking too bad.
We could either hike back up the roads and go back to camp (I told the others that I was NOT going to do this unless it was pouring), we could hike over to Quandary, and head down Quandary. I was okay with this option, but it was already after 3pm, and Quandary was an unknown to us. Thus, if the weather turned bad, we wouldn't know about exits. Since Knotted Rope was so full, I was thinking it would be a blast heading back down. It was fun climbing up, so it would be a blast heading back down; we knew many of the places we could jump into the water instead of climbing. If the weather turned bad, we also knew the canyon well enough to know whether to go down or up to exits. It didn't take much convincing, and soon we were on our way back down Knotted Rope.
The narrows were just as fun on the way down. Sliding down the pipes, partner assists for downclimbs, and lots of jumps. While we were nearing the end of the narrows, the weather again started to turn sour and rumble. We exited the narrows and found a fun, big and deep pothole that we all took turns jumping and flipping into. We then continued down to where it was more open with chained potholes.
It then started to pour, even with some hail. It was a hard enough rain to stream water down the sides of the canyon. This was probably the first time I'd ever been in a canyon in a heavy rain, and not been worried at all. I knew the canyon in front of us, behind us, and there were plenty of exits if necessary. My biggest concern was actually lightning, especially since we had to hike over a ridge to get back to the Muddy Creek; but we had some time before then. As usual, the rain slowed, so we continued to play in the canyon and potholes. The weather again got better before we finished the canyon around 6pm. The sun was again out, so we changed out of our wetsuits, and rinsed them off in the final pool. We then relaxed out in the sun for a few, taking a break and getting a bite to eat.
We then hiked up the ridge, and back down to the Muddy Creek, and hiked back up the creek to camp. Tom's group had left for their second camp spot; so we had the place to ourselves. We made dinner, and chatted about the day's adventures. Great times! I checked the weather radio again, and the forecast hadn't changed. Highs in the 50's, lows in the 30's; with 50% chance of thunderstorms for tomorrow and 20% chance on Sunday. Hmmm. We likely aren't going to even attempt Squeeze tomorrow; maybe we'll get to do Quandary. We'll see how the weather looked tomorrow.
We were also supposed to have two more people, Alexis and Chris, join us that evening; but didn't know if they would bail because of the forecast. Turns out that they didn't bail, and made it to the campsite around 10pm. We gave them the lowdown on the plans, and headed to bed.
Saturday 5/5:
Woke up at 6:30am again, and it looked the same as it had before. Some clouds, but nothing too ominous. We discussed it, and decided to head over towards Quandary, and would evaluate again when we got past the notch. Info on Quandary: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/quandary.htm
We knew there was a decent amount of entries and exits, a smaller catch basin; and could always use the bypass as a safety zone too. Jonas and Tim decided not to go today. Not fully sure if it was uneasiness over the previous day's weather experience, or fatigue. My guess is they were nervous about the weather, as they are both pretty strong. So we would again have five with us today. Ben, Rom, myself and Alexis and Chris that joined us last night. We headed out in the Commander to the trailhead. Easily made it to the old car; however, this is the worst stretch of road. You will definitely need a high clearance vehicle to get out here; and 4wd or AWD will help. It would be possible to get a high clearance 2wd out there though if you were careful.
We started hiking towards the canyon around 8:30am, hiked up and over the notch, partner assisted the first few drops, and made it to some pools of water. Ben and I put on our wetsuits, and hit every drop into a pool of water or even a puddle on the way, even if it could have been bypassed; just for fun. We were at the arch around 9:30am and everyone fully suited up. It was windy down low, but the clouds had cleared up a bit. It was mostly sunny, and the clouds that were there weren't moving very fast. Looks like we had a good window, so we decided to head in.
We were able to partner assist another big drop over a pool. It would have been a great jumper, but after checking it, it was only three feet deep. Not a good candidate to jump. There would be more, in time...
The first section of the canyon was really fun. There were some good downclimbs, neat corridors, and some swims. Sometimes if it was a deeper section, we'd climb back up to jump in. That way, we could get practice downclimbing, climbing back up, and then the fun of jumping! After a small corridor swim, we came across a bomber fixe anchor setup with two bolts, a chain and a ring. It wasn't placed properly, but it was a super solid anchor system. The curious thing was, it didn't look like it was needed. Maybe you could use it to hook out of the corridor swim, but the upclimb wasn't that bad; and if someone even had a small amount of trouble, a pack toss could solve the problem quite nicely. Thought there might be a rap coming up, but nope again. Passed it on by, wondering why it was placed...
After some more pothole, downclimbing, and climbing fun; we came to the slanted slot section around 10:45am. This was pretty close to the start of Quandary direct. The weather had cleared up nicely and there were sunny skies. We dropped into the direct section. We used two potshots for the rap into the first pool. I tested the water, and it was deep. Nobody else wanted to jump that one though. Bummer. Had I known that, I would have let someone else go first and I would have jumped that one. I climbed out on the other side, and was able to traverse higher to jump in and do a few flips. Fun stuff.
We got to another deep pothole, and Ben joined in on the jumping. We continued down, using a scout and either downclimbing or jumping. Used a pot shot throw to escape another keeper, and a potshot anchor for most people to handline down a ramp. I dropped the anchor and was able to downclimb low enough for a jump into the shallow pool.
The direct section was super fun, especially because it was pretty full. It could prove a little more challenging with lower water; but still didn't see anything that would be that big of an issue. Definitely more fun when it's full though.
We found another place to jump and play, then came to a pretty good downclimb. It could have been skirted, but we all chose to do the downclimb. A pretty long one, with a little exposure. Nothing too serious though. Quite fun! A few more downclimbs, then we went through a cool corridor swim under a boulder. Soon after that, it looks like we hit the end of the main water section. There was a great pool to rinse off our stuff, and a sloped slickrock section. We washed our gear off, and set it out to dry. It was around 2:30pm, and we were through the technical section of the canyon as near as we could tell; so we took a longer break here; drying off and basking in the sun. Funny that this was supposed to be the worst weather day, and it was by far the best; with sun for most of the day.
We packed up and got moving again. we soon came to a cool and fairly large drop into a pool that could be skirted to the left. It looked like a really fun downclimb; but we were all dry now and out of our wetsuits. It was tempting, but we decided to bypass it. We then came to the bypass of the two final pools, and again took the bypass. Next time, it would be fun to do the downclimbs into the pools. Although, the spot we chose to bask and dry off our gear was awesome.
Shortly afterwards, we were pushing through a little deep brush, and then heading up the wash towards Ramp Canyon; our exit. There were some wonderful views of the uplifted layers of the swell along the way. Ramp was an awesome canyon too. Some really neat views as it was cutting through the uplifted swell. we came across the double dryfall, and I wanted to go the direct route. Climbed up to the second dryfall easily, but the second one was overhanging. Tried to skirt it, but the others had already started the bypass. I didn't feel safe doing it without at least a spot, so I went back down and caught up to them. Next time.
Ramp was quite a scenic canyon. Some fun upclimbing and great formations. The technical ramp section wasn't too bad, but it's definitely pretty exposed. Can see where some people wouldn't enjoy it much. There wasn't a great place to anchor from though. You could get a good anchor, but if the climber fell, it would be one heck of a pendulum swing. Best to just not fall. ;) We were all decent climbers, so no issues for the rest of the canyon. We hit the top, and hiked back to the car. We hit the car around 6pm, and headed back to camp.
Jonas and Tim were a little disappointed that they didn't go, since the weather turned out to be so good. However, the wind was again kicking strong all day long. Jonas took a run up to the start of Knotted Rope, and saw a tent blowing across the land while he was up there. He ran down, and got yet another tent. This one was a bit more damaged than Andy's. He and Tim then packaged the tent, and around six stuff sacks and other gear they found blowing all over. They put it all by the entry sign for Hidden Splendor, hoping the owner of it would find it.
We all went down into tent canyon to make dinner and to visit. It was more out of the wind; but you could hear it howling above us. Chris and Alexis brought a Coleman stove with a grill attachment and made grilled marinated beef skewers. Wow. Much better than the Lipton Side meal that I was making. They had a little extra and shared with all of us; it was great stuff. We talked about the canyon choice for tomorrow. It was still supposed to be 20% chance of rain; the best of the days so far. we discussed doing the Squeeze, but I thought it was a bit much to do on our drive home day; since the drive home is 8 hours. Squeeze is a long canyon, and we'd still have to pack up camp, etc. I'd go if everyone else wanted to, but would have rather saved it for the next time; when the weather is better too.
We decided we'd head over towards the Baptist Draw and Chute Canyon. I hadn't done those before either, so I'm sure it would be great. (All canyons are great to do at least once!) we headed to bed relatively early, around 9pm.
Sunday 5/6:
We woke up around 7am, had breakfast and packed up camp. For the best forecast day, it was more cloudy than the other days. We drove out to the Baptist trailhead. The Subarus had to go a little slower in some spots, but the trailhead could be accessed by a 2wd high-clearance vehicle with some careful driving in a few spots. All seven of us were going into the canyon today, and we started hiking around 10:15am. More info on the Baptist/Chute loop: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/baptist.htm
We navigated to the West more, so we could hit the canyon at the beginning; rather than going to the South side of Teepee rock. The beginning of the canyon was nice too. Open, but still pretty. We got to the start of the slot section around 11am. Baptist Draw was a fun little canyon. Some good downclimbs, very pretty erosion patterns, and some good tight slot sections. We reached the main drop into Chute canyon around 11:45am. It started to sprinkle a little. It was still very cloudy, but the clouds didn't look all that dark. It didn't look like they were building upwards, so we discussed and decided to drop into Chute and climb up Chute, rather than going down Chute to Fault.
Good choice, the narrows upcanyon of the Chute/Baptist confluence were a blast. There was a bit of water, so it added more climbing as we stemmed over it to keep our feet dry. There were some great upclimbs, tight sections, and some dark sections on the climb. Very fun. This would be another good canyon for people to start out with. Although, accidents can happen, as the Harris brothers can attest to: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/baptist1.htm
As we were getting out of the slot section around 1:15pm, it started to rain a little harder. Still didn't look too dark yet, and we were out of any real danger. Only a traverse up a smaller side canyon, over a ridge, crossing the head of Baptist and then overland back to the car to go. Glad we didn't go into the Squeeze today though. We did the hike back to the car with no issues, and then around 200 yards before we got to the car, the rain just poured down. We rushed to the cars, and quickly put our stuff inside. The roads here can get really nasty when wet; sometimes impassible even with 4wd due to the clay content. We made it to the main road okay, but it was still dumping. Definitely glad we didn't go into the Squeeze. Had some good clumping going on with the tires for the way out. We all made it out fine, although it would take a few good washings to clean off the truck when we got back. It continued to rain hard most of the way to Green River. We all stopped for Subway, and chatted about the great weekend.
For the forecast we had, we got a ton of canyoneering in; we really only missed the Squeeze from our main plan, but we added down Knotted Rope and up Ramp (we oringinally planned to only go up Knotted, and then down Quandary. Instead we did up and down a very fun Knotted Rope, and did down Quandary and up Ramp.) We were really lucky the weather played out as it did, and a little funny that the best day had the worst forecast, and vice versa.
We did the long drive home, and then cleaned everything up a different day. Finished off a pair of shorts and a pair of gloves over the weekend. Just another reminder of why it's good to buy canyoneering gear on sale or used. It will get trashed...
Thanks to Rom, Tim, Jonas, Ben, Alexis and Chris for another fun canyon weekend!
Hope you enjoy the pics,
A.J.
Movies:
20070504D1-71 Ben Jumping.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8uW4zDb5lI
20070504D1-73 Tim Run and Jump.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRhkgNBmvpM
20070504D1-87 Tim Cannonball.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoA4dMCwDgc
20070504D1-88 Ben Cannonball Spin.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJDAShExZcc
20070504D1-92 Ben High Cannonball.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFYt9fXV4pA
20070504D1-97 AJ Side Spin.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMxond72S8I
20070504D1-99 Ben Slide.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwAnpWcu2Q
20070505D1-49 AJ Quandary Backflip.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq3w7y5OURs
20070505D1-50 Ben Q Cannonball.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyGV1twXcY
20070505D1-87 Ben Jumping.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waTpi_oLJW0
Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=174451834/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Wednesday 5/2:
We met up at Jonas' house, chatted about the roads and the forecast(bad), and decided which cars to take. We would go with my Jeep Commander, and Jonas' Subaru because the forecast called for rain and the roads out in the Swell could get messy. A few of the trailheads required high clearance or 4wd as well. There were five of us going; Ben, Jonas, Tim, Rom and I. we were planning on trying to hit many of the bigger canyons of the Swell, and would meet up with some other canyoneers who were attending a Tom's CanyonFest for the first few days. I was looking forward to this trip, as I wanted to practice pothole escapes, and upclimbs in preparation for my upcoming Zion trip where we would be attempting Imlay and Heaps.
We ran into some rain over the mountain passes on the way to Utah, not a good sign. More rain and thunderstorms in Utah, definitely not a good sign. The road out to the Hidden Splendor campsite was fine though; mostly dry and in good condition. We got in late, around 1am. There was a few other canyoneers who just arrived as well, we chatted with them for a bit. They had nasty weather coming from Salt Lake City as well. It was late, so I didn't even bother putting up the gear tent. I just put my gear outside, covered it with a tarp; and slept in the back of the Jeep.
Thursday 5/3:
We woke up with the sun, around 6:30am. Well, at least the sun that was popping through the clouds. Tried to listen to the weather radio, and didn't get a signal. From the looks of the sky, it didn't look like it was going to be different than the 30% chance of rain we saw yesterday. It was cold; in the upper 30's I'd guess. It's supposed to be a lot warmer here in May...
We were planning on doing the full loop of Music Canyon today. It is a pretty short canyon of around 2 miles, but a pretty long day of around 10 miles. We had plenty of options with Music if the weather turned sour. We could always not drop in if the weather was really bad. We could drop into the narrows and upclimb back up them if weather turned bad (though Tom said the upclimb would be 'burly.') Or if the weather was decent, we could do the full loop which hiked us through the Chute of the Muddy creek. Details on Music: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/music1.htm
We talked to Tom's group; they were going to try to do the Squeeze. The Squeeze is a big canyon, with a large drainage. We were going to attempt to do it tomorrow if the weather was better. We packed up, and headed out in the Jeep to the trailhead; around 6.2 miles from camp. The weather was looking decent, so we hiked down into the drainage leading to Music.
I quickly realized I forgot my camera back at camp. Crap. I'll have to rely on the others' pictures for today. (Nobody sent me their photos, so the only pic I have is the old car at the entry which I took when we went back to pick up my car.) The hike down to Music was pretty; with some small downclimbs. This was the first trip I wore a specific shoe made for canyoneering, the 5-10 Canyoneers. Without my neoprine sock, the shoe was a little loose (I fitted it to wear a sock and a neoprine sock) so it was moving around giving me a few hotspots. However, the traction on it was awesome. After I put my neoprine sock on, it was a great shoe.
The weather was still looking decent when we made it to the start of the slot section. No visual rain dropping anywhere, and the clouds weren't building vertically; so we dropped in. Music was a fun little canyon, with some interesting downclimbing. There were a few cool chambers, several with decent acoustics. There was a bit of mud in the canyon; looked like it rained in the area the day before. When we got down to the Chute of the Muddy creek, it was running fast and was muddy with debris; more evidence of rains. The weather was still decent though; overcast, but no rain; so I wanted to climb back up Music. Tim and Ben were game; we wanted to be 'burly' canyoneers. ;) Rom and Jonas decided to just stay at the Chute and wait for us. The plan was that Ben, Tim and I would upclimb Music as far as we could without ropes, and then come back down and all of us would hike down the Chute.
Ben, Tim and I set off on the upclimb. Some of the upclimbs were challenging, but we were able to make all of them without even a partner assist. We did spot each other on a couple of places, just in case; but I was pretty happy with the accomplishment of making it up unassisted. We joked that we were now all burly canyoneers. When we got to the top, the weather started to look a little worse, so we headed back down to the others. Still no significant rain (a sprinkle here and there) but the sky was starting to get a little darker and the wind had picked up. Clouds still weren't moving fast though, so the wind was mostly just low altitude winds.
When we got down to the Chute, Jonas and Rom weren't there. No sign of them or their gear. Since they took thier packs, and we didn't run into them on the way down, I assumed they either got cold, or didn't like how the weather looked, and headed down the Chute since we have a four mile hike through the Chute, which is in the river. Tim, Ben and I started down the Chute and figured we could catch up to them.
Hiking down the Chute was awesome! You were hiking right through the river, which was usually around mid-thigh deep; but sometimes got to chest deep. It was certainly muddy, and moving decent from yesterday's rains. Some small debris was floating by, but the weather was again looking decent, so no worries. I still kept my eyes open for escape routes, just in case. The walls on either side were several hundred feet tall, and they constricted every once in a while, with some log jams twenty feet, thirty feet and some over fourty feet high. Just a reminder that the water can get wicked in here at times. Very cool hike though; albeit tiring. Next time I'll definitely bring a hiking pole or two for the river hike.
We caught up to Jonas and Rom, and all finished up the long hike through the Chute, and then down the Muddy River back to the Hidden Splendor campsite. There were some beautiful views at the campsite, with large walls and towers surrounding us. Very cool. We changed out of our wet clothes, and then Jonas and I went to get the Commander with Jonas' car. After a couple of miles, we ran into Tom's group. Tom asked for a lift back to camp. Jonas and I thought we were over half-way to the Commander (which was empty, so I could fit four to six others; and we could only fit one more person right now in Jonas' car since it was all full of stuff. At least on the way back, he could fit two - so we could likely squeeze them all in on the way back) so we said we would pick them up on the way back. Tom thought they were just outside of camp; so they were a little disappointed. We saw Tom's pack on the side of the road on the way to get the Commander. The Jeep was a little farther than we thought, so I told Jonas to go pick up as many people or packs as he could. I drove back, picked up Tom's pack on the way, and caught up to Tom's group. I asked if anyone wanted a lift, and several took us up on the offer.
When we got back to camp, we found out that Tom's group bailed out of Squeeze because the weather looked bad. They hiked to the top of Knotted; and on the way, the weather was looking better. When they got to the top, it was looking bad again, so they opted to head near Quandary. They got to Quandary, and were going to drop in, but people were already cold; even without getting into the water yet. Quandary has lots of water, and some of Tom's group didn't have very thick wetsuits. They decided to not drop in, and hiked back around the top using the roads, which is where we came across them. We nicknamed his route "Kinda-Quandary."
While we were gone, the winds had really kicked up. I had two totes, facing different directions, with a vinyl bag full of shoes and clothes on top of them, and then all of that was wrapped inside a tarp, with rocks on the top and sides of the tarp. The tarp was blown off, the vinyl bag was blown off, the lids were blown off the totes, and gear was down a little drainage. Wow, that must have been some serious wind, and from different directions to blow the tops off both hinged totes - since they were facing different directions.) I think I found everything from the totes, and set up my tent to store all my gear inside it so that wouldn't happen again.
Unfortunately, one of Tom's group also had a wind incident. Andy had set up a tent, staked it down well, but only had a sleeping bag and a few lighter items in it. When he got back to camp, his tent was gone. Several people went and helped him look for it, but they didn't find it. He was pretty bummed. He looked exhausted too; as did several of Tom's group. I was still feeling fine, other than the usual tired from sleep deprivation, so I asked if Jonas was okay too. Jonas and I have done a fair bit of adventure racing, so we are accustomed to insanely long days. We went over, and found out where the others had searched. Nobody had hiked into the drainages; so I took the high side, and Jonas went down towards the Muddy River to see if it had blown down there. I checked each drainage down to the Muddy, and on the last one, saw Jonas coming up; carrying the tent. Apparently, it was only a few hundred feet in front of me, and that canyon went all the way down to the Muddy. I helped Jonas carry the tent back up to a very happy Andy; and we also gained the knowledge that the canyon (we now called it Tent canyon) went all the way down to the Muddy so it made our hike shorter for the next day.
We headed over to where Tom's group was camped, and visited with them for the evening. I had brought chips and homemade salsa from Jen to share. I also picked up some beer from Colorado for the Utah folk, since the Utah beers are lower alcohol and worse tasting. We talked for hours, sharing both food and stories. It was a great time. Just before bed, I wandered around with the weather radio and was able to pick up a signal. The weather forecast didn't change; it was still supposed to be 40% chance of rain for Friday, 50% chance for Saturday, and 20% chance for Sunday - with highs in the 50's, lows in the 30's. Bummer. Usually, anything over 20% chance of rain in Utah means that you are definitely getting rain. The questions are just when, and how much. Oh well, we'll see how tomorrow plays out.
Friday 5/4:
We woke up to about 50% clouds. It didn't look too bad, so I wanted to get moving; as today was going to be a big day. Tim was taking his sweet time today; don't know if he was apprehensive about the weather or what. I started to get annoyed though, especially when he gave vague answers to my inquiries on how much time he needed to get ready. I wanted to get as good of a start as we could so we could evaluate the weather on the Moroni Slopes (the approach to the big canyon, the Squeeze.) We finally got started around 7:40, over a half hour after our planned 7am departure time. We hiked down the Muddy River towards the Squeeze.
At the base of the Squeeze, the clouds weren't looking much worse, but we had run into a few sprinkles. Probably not a good idea to drop into the Squeeze. I was still game with either climbing up the Moroni, so we could get a better view of the weather; or heading over towards Knotted Rope, which has a much smaller drainage area. The others would rather just save Squeeze for a better weather day, and not chance it at all; so we headed over towards Knotted Rope. Info on Knotted Rope: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/knotted.htm
On the way, it started to rain pretty hard. Probably made the right choice. Heck, we might not even get to do Knotted if this rain kept up. Luckily, it didn't, and shortly cleared up some.
We climbed up the slopes to get to the Knotted Rope big drop; which offered some great views of the Muddy, and of the weather. There was some definite clear spots, but the weather to the West still looked iffy. We figured that the bottom part of Knotted was pretty open with lots of exits, so we would just upclimb Knotted as far as the weather would allow. We started up Knotted around 11:30am, and started to skirt some of the big, full potholes. Some of these bypasses were on pretty angled slopes, with a bit of exposure. Jonas doesn't like exposure much, so he got stuck at one of the places we were able to climb around. He got frustrated, and started heading back down. I went and got him, and we decided that instead of skirting around, we'd all just go down a bit and go up Knotted Rope fully in the watercourse. Jonas agreed to give it a shot. It would be much more challenging, as we would be climbing up steeper walls, many of them from water filled potholes.
We did lots of partner assists (boosting others), pack tosses, threw pot shots, some cool climbing, and some good old fashioned gruntwork, but we were making good progress. The weather was holding out well too; with quite a bit of sun. We got into the tight narrows section around 1:30pm, and were having a blast playing around in all the cool obstacles.
Unfortunately, pretty deep into the narrows, it started to rumble. Thunder. Not a good sign; it meant the clouds were building vertically and now had a good amount of water to release. We discussed and decided to press on. I was much more mindful of possible exits now, just in case.
We continued climbing up the narrows with more fun climbing, including some new possibilities with stemming since the walls were closer. There were also some pipe remnants of the old mining days which we used to climb up some of the drops. We were still deep in the slot when it began to rain. Not a downpour, but still a decent enough rain. A few people were wanting to turn back, but I hadn't seen a good exit in a bit. Also, for how far we had traveled, I was thinking the head of the narrows had to be quicker than going back through all the narrows we came up. I was a little in the lead, so I called to the others that I'd drop my pack and take a quick scout. I made it around a few turns and up a few pothole ledges, and came to a spot where it looked like it was opening up ahead. I couldn't tell for sure, because I was stopped by a larger ledge that I could use a hand getting up. I went back down calling to the others to still press on; that it looked like it opened up.
A few people were definitely worried, so I tried to calm them down a little. There was certainly rain, but it wasn't hard enough to cascade down the walls yet. There was no signs of flow, nor debris; which usually happen before a flash. The drainage isn't that big, so it would have to get hammered to flash; and we didn't see any of that. Still, I wasn't going to dilly-dally, so we made our way up the canyon as quickly as we could. We got past the upclimb, and sure enough, the canyon opened up. We had made it through the tightest section; and there were now plenty of exits. The rain subsided, so we continued up the canyon until the slot ended. We then reached a decision point. The weather was actually looking better. We could see most of the drainage for Knotted and Quandary, and it looked fine. We could see a lot of the Western sky, and it was again not looking too bad.
We could either hike back up the roads and go back to camp (I told the others that I was NOT going to do this unless it was pouring), we could hike over to Quandary, and head down Quandary. I was okay with this option, but it was already after 3pm, and Quandary was an unknown to us. Thus, if the weather turned bad, we wouldn't know about exits. Since Knotted Rope was so full, I was thinking it would be a blast heading back down. It was fun climbing up, so it would be a blast heading back down; we knew many of the places we could jump into the water instead of climbing. If the weather turned bad, we also knew the canyon well enough to know whether to go down or up to exits. It didn't take much convincing, and soon we were on our way back down Knotted Rope.
The narrows were just as fun on the way down. Sliding down the pipes, partner assists for downclimbs, and lots of jumps. While we were nearing the end of the narrows, the weather again started to turn sour and rumble. We exited the narrows and found a fun, big and deep pothole that we all took turns jumping and flipping into. We then continued down to where it was more open with chained potholes.
It then started to pour, even with some hail. It was a hard enough rain to stream water down the sides of the canyon. This was probably the first time I'd ever been in a canyon in a heavy rain, and not been worried at all. I knew the canyon in front of us, behind us, and there were plenty of exits if necessary. My biggest concern was actually lightning, especially since we had to hike over a ridge to get back to the Muddy Creek; but we had some time before then. As usual, the rain slowed, so we continued to play in the canyon and potholes. The weather again got better before we finished the canyon around 6pm. The sun was again out, so we changed out of our wetsuits, and rinsed them off in the final pool. We then relaxed out in the sun for a few, taking a break and getting a bite to eat.
We then hiked up the ridge, and back down to the Muddy Creek, and hiked back up the creek to camp. Tom's group had left for their second camp spot; so we had the place to ourselves. We made dinner, and chatted about the day's adventures. Great times! I checked the weather radio again, and the forecast hadn't changed. Highs in the 50's, lows in the 30's; with 50% chance of thunderstorms for tomorrow and 20% chance on Sunday. Hmmm. We likely aren't going to even attempt Squeeze tomorrow; maybe we'll get to do Quandary. We'll see how the weather looked tomorrow.
We were also supposed to have two more people, Alexis and Chris, join us that evening; but didn't know if they would bail because of the forecast. Turns out that they didn't bail, and made it to the campsite around 10pm. We gave them the lowdown on the plans, and headed to bed.
Saturday 5/5:
Woke up at 6:30am again, and it looked the same as it had before. Some clouds, but nothing too ominous. We discussed it, and decided to head over towards Quandary, and would evaluate again when we got past the notch. Info on Quandary: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/quandary.htm
We knew there was a decent amount of entries and exits, a smaller catch basin; and could always use the bypass as a safety zone too. Jonas and Tim decided not to go today. Not fully sure if it was uneasiness over the previous day's weather experience, or fatigue. My guess is they were nervous about the weather, as they are both pretty strong. So we would again have five with us today. Ben, Rom, myself and Alexis and Chris that joined us last night. We headed out in the Commander to the trailhead. Easily made it to the old car; however, this is the worst stretch of road. You will definitely need a high clearance vehicle to get out here; and 4wd or AWD will help. It would be possible to get a high clearance 2wd out there though if you were careful.
We started hiking towards the canyon around 8:30am, hiked up and over the notch, partner assisted the first few drops, and made it to some pools of water. Ben and I put on our wetsuits, and hit every drop into a pool of water or even a puddle on the way, even if it could have been bypassed; just for fun. We were at the arch around 9:30am and everyone fully suited up. It was windy down low, but the clouds had cleared up a bit. It was mostly sunny, and the clouds that were there weren't moving very fast. Looks like we had a good window, so we decided to head in.
We were able to partner assist another big drop over a pool. It would have been a great jumper, but after checking it, it was only three feet deep. Not a good candidate to jump. There would be more, in time...
The first section of the canyon was really fun. There were some good downclimbs, neat corridors, and some swims. Sometimes if it was a deeper section, we'd climb back up to jump in. That way, we could get practice downclimbing, climbing back up, and then the fun of jumping! After a small corridor swim, we came across a bomber fixe anchor setup with two bolts, a chain and a ring. It wasn't placed properly, but it was a super solid anchor system. The curious thing was, it didn't look like it was needed. Maybe you could use it to hook out of the corridor swim, but the upclimb wasn't that bad; and if someone even had a small amount of trouble, a pack toss could solve the problem quite nicely. Thought there might be a rap coming up, but nope again. Passed it on by, wondering why it was placed...
After some more pothole, downclimbing, and climbing fun; we came to the slanted slot section around 10:45am. This was pretty close to the start of Quandary direct. The weather had cleared up nicely and there were sunny skies. We dropped into the direct section. We used two potshots for the rap into the first pool. I tested the water, and it was deep. Nobody else wanted to jump that one though. Bummer. Had I known that, I would have let someone else go first and I would have jumped that one. I climbed out on the other side, and was able to traverse higher to jump in and do a few flips. Fun stuff.
We got to another deep pothole, and Ben joined in on the jumping. We continued down, using a scout and either downclimbing or jumping. Used a pot shot throw to escape another keeper, and a potshot anchor for most people to handline down a ramp. I dropped the anchor and was able to downclimb low enough for a jump into the shallow pool.
The direct section was super fun, especially because it was pretty full. It could prove a little more challenging with lower water; but still didn't see anything that would be that big of an issue. Definitely more fun when it's full though.
We found another place to jump and play, then came to a pretty good downclimb. It could have been skirted, but we all chose to do the downclimb. A pretty long one, with a little exposure. Nothing too serious though. Quite fun! A few more downclimbs, then we went through a cool corridor swim under a boulder. Soon after that, it looks like we hit the end of the main water section. There was a great pool to rinse off our stuff, and a sloped slickrock section. We washed our gear off, and set it out to dry. It was around 2:30pm, and we were through the technical section of the canyon as near as we could tell; so we took a longer break here; drying off and basking in the sun. Funny that this was supposed to be the worst weather day, and it was by far the best; with sun for most of the day.
We packed up and got moving again. we soon came to a cool and fairly large drop into a pool that could be skirted to the left. It looked like a really fun downclimb; but we were all dry now and out of our wetsuits. It was tempting, but we decided to bypass it. We then came to the bypass of the two final pools, and again took the bypass. Next time, it would be fun to do the downclimbs into the pools. Although, the spot we chose to bask and dry off our gear was awesome.
Shortly afterwards, we were pushing through a little deep brush, and then heading up the wash towards Ramp Canyon; our exit. There were some wonderful views of the uplifted layers of the swell along the way. Ramp was an awesome canyon too. Some really neat views as it was cutting through the uplifted swell. we came across the double dryfall, and I wanted to go the direct route. Climbed up to the second dryfall easily, but the second one was overhanging. Tried to skirt it, but the others had already started the bypass. I didn't feel safe doing it without at least a spot, so I went back down and caught up to them. Next time.
Ramp was quite a scenic canyon. Some fun upclimbing and great formations. The technical ramp section wasn't too bad, but it's definitely pretty exposed. Can see where some people wouldn't enjoy it much. There wasn't a great place to anchor from though. You could get a good anchor, but if the climber fell, it would be one heck of a pendulum swing. Best to just not fall. ;) We were all decent climbers, so no issues for the rest of the canyon. We hit the top, and hiked back to the car. We hit the car around 6pm, and headed back to camp.
Jonas and Tim were a little disappointed that they didn't go, since the weather turned out to be so good. However, the wind was again kicking strong all day long. Jonas took a run up to the start of Knotted Rope, and saw a tent blowing across the land while he was up there. He ran down, and got yet another tent. This one was a bit more damaged than Andy's. He and Tim then packaged the tent, and around six stuff sacks and other gear they found blowing all over. They put it all by the entry sign for Hidden Splendor, hoping the owner of it would find it.
We all went down into tent canyon to make dinner and to visit. It was more out of the wind; but you could hear it howling above us. Chris and Alexis brought a Coleman stove with a grill attachment and made grilled marinated beef skewers. Wow. Much better than the Lipton Side meal that I was making. They had a little extra and shared with all of us; it was great stuff. We talked about the canyon choice for tomorrow. It was still supposed to be 20% chance of rain; the best of the days so far. we discussed doing the Squeeze, but I thought it was a bit much to do on our drive home day; since the drive home is 8 hours. Squeeze is a long canyon, and we'd still have to pack up camp, etc. I'd go if everyone else wanted to, but would have rather saved it for the next time; when the weather is better too.
We decided we'd head over towards the Baptist Draw and Chute Canyon. I hadn't done those before either, so I'm sure it would be great. (All canyons are great to do at least once!) we headed to bed relatively early, around 9pm.
Sunday 5/6:
We woke up around 7am, had breakfast and packed up camp. For the best forecast day, it was more cloudy than the other days. We drove out to the Baptist trailhead. The Subarus had to go a little slower in some spots, but the trailhead could be accessed by a 2wd high-clearance vehicle with some careful driving in a few spots. All seven of us were going into the canyon today, and we started hiking around 10:15am. More info on the Baptist/Chute loop: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/baptist.htm
We navigated to the West more, so we could hit the canyon at the beginning; rather than going to the South side of Teepee rock. The beginning of the canyon was nice too. Open, but still pretty. We got to the start of the slot section around 11am. Baptist Draw was a fun little canyon. Some good downclimbs, very pretty erosion patterns, and some good tight slot sections. We reached the main drop into Chute canyon around 11:45am. It started to sprinkle a little. It was still very cloudy, but the clouds didn't look all that dark. It didn't look like they were building upwards, so we discussed and decided to drop into Chute and climb up Chute, rather than going down Chute to Fault.
Good choice, the narrows upcanyon of the Chute/Baptist confluence were a blast. There was a bit of water, so it added more climbing as we stemmed over it to keep our feet dry. There were some great upclimbs, tight sections, and some dark sections on the climb. Very fun. This would be another good canyon for people to start out with. Although, accidents can happen, as the Harris brothers can attest to: http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/baptist1.htm
As we were getting out of the slot section around 1:15pm, it started to rain a little harder. Still didn't look too dark yet, and we were out of any real danger. Only a traverse up a smaller side canyon, over a ridge, crossing the head of Baptist and then overland back to the car to go. Glad we didn't go into the Squeeze today though. We did the hike back to the car with no issues, and then around 200 yards before we got to the car, the rain just poured down. We rushed to the cars, and quickly put our stuff inside. The roads here can get really nasty when wet; sometimes impassible even with 4wd due to the clay content. We made it to the main road okay, but it was still dumping. Definitely glad we didn't go into the Squeeze. Had some good clumping going on with the tires for the way out. We all made it out fine, although it would take a few good washings to clean off the truck when we got back. It continued to rain hard most of the way to Green River. We all stopped for Subway, and chatted about the great weekend.
For the forecast we had, we got a ton of canyoneering in; we really only missed the Squeeze from our main plan, but we added down Knotted Rope and up Ramp (we oringinally planned to only go up Knotted, and then down Quandary. Instead we did up and down a very fun Knotted Rope, and did down Quandary and up Ramp.) We were really lucky the weather played out as it did, and a little funny that the best day had the worst forecast, and vice versa.
We did the long drive home, and then cleaned everything up a different day. Finished off a pair of shorts and a pair of gloves over the weekend. Just another reminder of why it's good to buy canyoneering gear on sale or used. It will get trashed...
Thanks to Rom, Tim, Jonas, Ben, Alexis and Chris for another fun canyon weekend!
Hope you enjoy the pics,
A.J.
Movies:
20070504D1-71 Ben Jumping.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8uW4zDb5lI
20070504D1-73 Tim Run and Jump.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRhkgNBmvpM
20070504D1-87 Tim Cannonball.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoA4dMCwDgc
20070504D1-88 Ben Cannonball Spin.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJDAShExZcc
20070504D1-92 Ben High Cannonball.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFYt9fXV4pA
20070504D1-97 AJ Side Spin.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMxond72S8I
20070504D1-99 Ben Slide.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwAnpWcu2Q
20070505D1-49 AJ Quandary Backflip.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq3w7y5OURs
20070505D1-50 Ben Q Cannonball.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yyGV1twXcY
20070505D1-87 Ben Jumping.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waTpi_oLJW0
Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=174451834/a=38054161/t_=38054161