Great Gusto - Eastern Reef, San Rafael Swell

[french_de]

Great Gusto!

On an early Sunday Morning, October 22, we were ready; energetically, enthusiastically, strenuously ready for this canyon/drainage located way up on top
of the Eastern Reef in the San Rafael Swell.

We took to the right-hand ridge of Ernie Canyon like all get out. The climb up is sprinkled with all sorts of
mini geologic formations like arches, Huecos, solution pockets, holey walls and caves. Once in the upper canyon, the colors change
to all sorts of oranges, whites, and greys. The canyon floor contains scattered, water-filled potholes and plenty of crypto to tiptoe around.

We were most zealous about the bridge rappel, the caves and the massive, off the edge of the world, mostly free hang final 280-foot rappel.

Dusk was the right time to walk back through Ernie canyon. The evening light reflected off of the walls brought out
the most colorful and vivid detail of this canyon.

Thanks to Road Trip Ryan for info on this canyon.

Thanks to my canyon partners Jessica, Alijeh, Mike, Jeremy and Lorin who took some great photos and videos

My Flikr Pics and videos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/french_de/albums/72157687714038950


My choice pics

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[twotimer]

Outstanding! Those kids are awesome.

[moab mark]

I got to admit you get around.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[jman]

Cool looking rappels!

How did those kids do on the last rappel? Fearless? A lot of coaxing? Etc. a 100ft rappel for a kid (younger than 12) is intimidating! Now you are doing 280 ft! [emoji33][emoji1548]


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[rockgremlin]

Really cool looking bridge! Almost like Neon but a lot wider and without the water.

Ratagonia wants to know what you used for an anchor for that last big rappel.

[french_de]

Cool looking rappels!

How did those kids do on the last rappel? Fearless? A lot of coaxing? Etc. a 100ft rappel for a kid (younger than 12) is intimidating! Now you are doing 280 ft! [emoji33][emoji1548]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My son and grand daughter really loved it. I have been very lucky - my kids have always jumped into this sport with very little coaxing. My grand daughter really loves this sport and loves to climb and rappel :nod: We will see how that goes when she moves into her later teenage years :lol8:.

[french_de]

Really cool looking bridge! Almost like Neon but a lot wider and without the water.

Ratagonia wants to know what you used for an anchor for that last big rappel.

The bridge and the bridge rappel were awesome!, very photogenic that bridge. :cool2:

The last rappel; the beta suggested the use of a fiddle stick on that final drop. I brought it but did not use it.
For me, there were too many pinch points around any of the boulders we considered for a fiddle stick.
We discussed, for about 5 seconds, using a sandtrap.:lol8:

We removed the long piece of the brittle purple webbing that was wrapped around the boulders furthest away from the edge.
We built a new black webbing anchor at the very large boulder closest to the edge and extended the quick link to the very edge of the drop to prevent rope grooves.

The top of that rappel has a curved ramp making for an easy start. We used a 340 foot rope and the same length for a pull cord.
Moving down canyon or in this case, down scree as far as possible, made the rope pull easy.

We used walkies to communicate between jump master and bottom belayer.

Yelling echoes out and voice is lost to the void.

Also, walkies are fantastic when testing the rope pull before the last person rigs for rappel. It really helps with getting it just right. :nod:

[rockgremlin]

^^^You've truly got it honed to an art, well done. :2thumbs: