Corbett Creek July 5th

[TommyBoy]

Maybe I'm a masochist, but the pain wasn't as bad today and I figured I can be in pain sitting at camp or I can be in pain doing a canyon so lets go do a canyon. Corbett was the canyon choice for today with plans to the North Fork entrance. The approach hike was pretty with a nice section of lush aspen grove to hike through.

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We followed the books description, hike to the split in the trail, turn left, cross the creek, and a minute or so later turn off the trail and hike down the ridge. This is exactly what we did, but somehow we ended up entering the canyon at what is supposed to be a 250-300' rappel depending on how it is anchored. Of course we didn't know this at the time, but the description of the rappel didn't match what the book said (and we only had the first edition with us which doesn't describe this section of the main fork). The rappel didn't look like 300' though so we decided to rig a lowering system with two ropes tied together. This way at least the first guy could get safely down and we at the top could look for an alternate entrance if the rope wasn't long enough. The anchor we used was a tree high up canyon right with a long tail of webbing hanging down. Being a little skittish from Thur I hiked up to the tree and carefully inspected the anchor to make sure it was in good condition before continuing. With the webbing extended almost to the top of the waterfall we were able to rappel with a 190' rope.

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The above drop was supposed to be a down climb, but water levels said otherwise so we improvised
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The waterfall off to the right was where we were supposed to enter the canyon, our way was more fun.
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Of course not all sections of the canyon can be adrenaline inducing, but it was pretty none the less
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Back to the good stuff
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Up around the corner at the first stage you are rappelling down to what looks like a ledge and turned out to be a swimmer pothole with all that water pounding on you and pushing you under, quite the novel experience.
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A very sturdy Atwood Outdoor Gear rope bag. It made it through shenanigans and the pounding water of Ouray with very little damage.
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I'm beaten and bruised after this trip, and still walking funny, but it was absolutely worth it to see these canyons in such conditions.

[Sombeech]

Awesome, looks very refreshing in that water :cool2:

[TommyBoy]

Refreshing is one word for it, after coming out of one of the taller waterfalls I felt dizzy and couldn't walk straight for a second or two from the pounding I took. And that wasn't even from hitting my head on a wall, it was simply from getting hit in the head by the water. Until you've experienced it yourself, its hard to truly understand the power that water has.

[jman]

Awesome! Great pics and great framing with the photos.

Looks like a rush!

Compared to your other TR of Oak Creek - which canyon would you prefer more, Oak Creek or Corbett Creek? Corbett looks more like a water park than Oak, but Oak is beautiful.

[TommyBoy]

Compared to your other TR of Oak Creek - which canyon would you prefer more, Oak Creek or Corbett Creek? Corbett looks more like a water park than Oak, but Oak is beautiful.

Hard to say which was more fun, Oak had higher water levels, but Corbett had some narrow sections that required some interesting anchor solutions that were fun to solve. With high water in both canyons I think they were both really fun and it's hard to pick a favorite, however if they both had low water I think Corbett would be more fun than Oak.

[jman]

Hard to say which was more fun, Oak had higher water levels, but Corbett had some narrow sections that required some interesting anchor solutions that were fun to solve. With high water in both canyons I think they were both really fun and it's hard to pick a favorite, however if they both had low water I think Corbett would be more fun than Oak.

Great thanks! I'm trying to plan a most for your bang type of trip for Ouray (never been). And your photos and TR really show off the canyon well.