spinesnaper
05-31-2011, 09:09 AM
I was planning to do some epic canyoneering with my regular partner this weekend. Then he had to cancel our plans. He remembered that that it was his anniversary weekend. "No problemo, we can use her as an anchor," I suggested.:nod: He patiently explained that early in their marriage he sandbagged her on some hikes and lost credibility as a hiking director. My own girls were headed off to Chicago to visit Nana. So, I had to cast about for alternative plans without a canyoneering partner.:cry1:
I settled on twenty hours of driving for 2-days of "advanced canyoneering" instruction with Excursions of Escalante, Rick Green's outfit. (No, I swear I am not a paid shill). I was paired up with Jim Cleary as my guide on a private basis. It's not that I don't play well with others, it just that as a private client, one gets their way in the back country, which long ago I decided was worth the extra mazuma.
Many of you know Jim. He is a very strong canyoneer with a solid resume of credentials and canyon experience. What you may not know is that he is also an excellent teacher. The fact that he is a bona fide caynoneering sex symbol is also a bit of a plus. He is the featured canyoneer in that piece of caynoneering porn from Dan Ransom taken in Poe Canyon (aka Smiling Cricket). For those of you not following along, we are taking about the Mother of all pot holes:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2608/4015237150_2a49dd5237_z.jpg?zz=1
It was great being out in the Escalante area again. I have been asked not to disclose the canyons they use to protect the innocent. Jim took me out back of the office and reviewed rope work and had me demonstrate what skills I came with. He also encouraged me to unlearn a few things I had picked up along the way. We then hit a 2a canyon. What the canyon lacked in spice, Jim made up for in teaching opportunities. We worked on dialing in my down climbing and using various rope blocking combinations. There were numerous constructed anchors, including dicy anchors that I would have never thought to construct, let alone rely on. Jim showed me how to maximize friction to make these marginal anchors work.
Day two was in a very interesting 3b canyon. We practiced ascending, switching to a rappel and back to ascending. We dug up, re-grith wrapped a burried rock anchor and moved it to another site. Yes, lots of digging in the sand. I had the opportunity to deploy, rappel off and pull an Imlay sandtrap ( that's going on the wish list). There was some hands on for using delicate looking shrubs for a rappel anchor. This canyon also had interesting up-climbing. We discussed cleaning the blocking gear on a particular pull where it was likely to stick in a v-notch, and how to avoid pinching the rope on a pull. Mercifully he did not make me climb into the pot holes, but we also discussed pot hole management, sequencing, when to set up a guided rappel, and how to tension the rope. I also got to be a meat anchor, and practiced lowering on rappel from a releasable, among other useful techniques.
All great stuff for the developing canyoneer. Jim is very client oriented (translation, does not make you feel like a bone-head). I can highly recommend him for anyone looking for a safe environment to learn canyoneering skills. My thanks also to Amie who runs the business side of Excursions of Escalante. The ice cream and fresh coffee at the end of the day was a nice touch.
They must have really liked me over there because they said if I ever come back they plan to throw me off a three-hundred foot rappel.:haha: It is like Tom Jones says on his website: "Canyoneering, its like fun, only different."
Ken Steinsapir
Los Angeles
I settled on twenty hours of driving for 2-days of "advanced canyoneering" instruction with Excursions of Escalante, Rick Green's outfit. (No, I swear I am not a paid shill). I was paired up with Jim Cleary as my guide on a private basis. It's not that I don't play well with others, it just that as a private client, one gets their way in the back country, which long ago I decided was worth the extra mazuma.
Many of you know Jim. He is a very strong canyoneer with a solid resume of credentials and canyon experience. What you may not know is that he is also an excellent teacher. The fact that he is a bona fide caynoneering sex symbol is also a bit of a plus. He is the featured canyoneer in that piece of caynoneering porn from Dan Ransom taken in Poe Canyon (aka Smiling Cricket). For those of you not following along, we are taking about the Mother of all pot holes:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2608/4015237150_2a49dd5237_z.jpg?zz=1
It was great being out in the Escalante area again. I have been asked not to disclose the canyons they use to protect the innocent. Jim took me out back of the office and reviewed rope work and had me demonstrate what skills I came with. He also encouraged me to unlearn a few things I had picked up along the way. We then hit a 2a canyon. What the canyon lacked in spice, Jim made up for in teaching opportunities. We worked on dialing in my down climbing and using various rope blocking combinations. There were numerous constructed anchors, including dicy anchors that I would have never thought to construct, let alone rely on. Jim showed me how to maximize friction to make these marginal anchors work.
Day two was in a very interesting 3b canyon. We practiced ascending, switching to a rappel and back to ascending. We dug up, re-grith wrapped a burried rock anchor and moved it to another site. Yes, lots of digging in the sand. I had the opportunity to deploy, rappel off and pull an Imlay sandtrap ( that's going on the wish list). There was some hands on for using delicate looking shrubs for a rappel anchor. This canyon also had interesting up-climbing. We discussed cleaning the blocking gear on a particular pull where it was likely to stick in a v-notch, and how to avoid pinching the rope on a pull. Mercifully he did not make me climb into the pot holes, but we also discussed pot hole management, sequencing, when to set up a guided rappel, and how to tension the rope. I also got to be a meat anchor, and practiced lowering on rappel from a releasable, among other useful techniques.
All great stuff for the developing canyoneer. Jim is very client oriented (translation, does not make you feel like a bone-head). I can highly recommend him for anyone looking for a safe environment to learn canyoneering skills. My thanks also to Amie who runs the business side of Excursions of Escalante. The ice cream and fresh coffee at the end of the day was a nice touch.
They must have really liked me over there because they said if I ever come back they plan to throw me off a three-hundred foot rappel.:haha: It is like Tom Jones says on his website: "Canyoneering, its like fun, only different."
Ken Steinsapir
Los Angeles