Freeze Fest XI

[dweaver2130]

Well everybody Anna and I are back from Utah, warmed up, and already planning our next trip. We both had loads of fun, made new friends, learned a ton, and actually we were not as cold as we had thought we would be. We were glad to have helped in the great canine SAR mission and learned not to leave your camera out overnight as it will freeze and be useless during the black hole. :cold:

The Black Hole was amazing!!! We were a bit nervous about the canyon after the morning meeting, but that went away as soon as we were in the water. Such beauty, a perfect start to the New Year. I was lucky enough to bring up the rear with Clown Hair. BTW if anyone got a picture of that, I would love to get a copy.

Malia and Marlowe were nice enough to group up with us and help lead us through some amazing North Wash canyons.

We did the West fork of Shillelagh Canyon first, it was straight forward and simple. The canyon was very dry and anchors in great condition.

Second we moved onto Morocco. We tried to catch up to Slot Machine in the canyon, but the scenery took over and we went into slack jaw mode. There were two pools "easily" stemmed over and lots of great webbing for the anchors.

We woke up on the third to do Miss Piggy, the most difficult challenge for us so far. We learned a lot about down climbing, stemming, and went timidly down our first elevator. The views were amazing. The canyon was dry with good anchors as well. We had planned on doing Hogwarts, but since we were slow and took our time we ended up with a nice hike out to the Hog Springs rest area.

We decided instead on East Shillelagh, right at sundown the light in the canyon was spectacular. Some of the most amazing colors came to life in there. Was more great practice for stemming and down climbing. All of the anchors were solid and the canyon was more or less ice free.

The last day we all set out for West Blarney. I felt this was a perfect canyon for us to end the trip with. We really got to practice a bunch of the things we learned during the week. It was almost like a test of the different stuff we got to learn during the week. I thought we flew through this one. The first anchor needed to be re-worked. It was not hanging near the edge and rope grooves were beginning to develop. So Malia lengthened the anchor so we wouldn't have to worry about grooves.

We were the last ones to leave Sandthrax at 1230.

Thank you to everybody for making us feel so welcome, and for helping teach us. We cannot wait to get back up to Utah this spring and for next Freeze Fest.

Here is the slideshow and below that is the link to our Flickr page.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-gEZEO3Ez0&feature=youtu.be


http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunting-family/sets/72157632444909825/with/8352143594/

[ratagonia]

Awesome. Glad to have you there.

Tom

[jman]

Cool slideshow and welcome to the sport. Thanks for sharing!

[penmartens]

Very good post. It explains very nicely why 'fests are so important in the community. Without a homebase, or central location, for people to meet and get to know each other, we are left to the internets which are harsh faceless places where it is easy to be mean spirited.
Hopefully, fests will continue in the future for people who are new to the sport or who like socializing with like minded individuals. I think the AC is missing the boat if they don't offer a few 'get togethers'. It is what people seem to want and are willing to brave cold temps for the opportunity.
Welcome to the community and thanks for the contribution.
Penny

[Sombeech]

Excellent!

[Deathcricket]

I really liked the music you chose, I'll have to check out that artist. Great TR!