Irish Jihad 2013 - A Fundraiser For SAR

[Kuya]

The ABUSEment Brothers successfully completed the Irish Jihad on Friday! Hiking many of the canyons by the light of a full moon will be something I will remember forever! (I will also never forget the 7 approach hikes I had to do!) I will be the first to tell you how it truly was a "emotional" and "physical" battle! It was a wonderful experience (the first of its kind for many of my team). For 4 members of the team, it was their very first time visiting these canyons. For the other two of us, only 2 of them had been done previously. We were all very excited to see them all, but I was especially happy to be visiting 5 "new" canyons on this trip!

Huge shout out to the people that put this together! We had an experience of a lifetime! AND... We LOVED our "free" milkshake from the Burger Shak! For some of our team that was their main motivation for doing the canyons! haha

[penmartens]

This past weekend four teams put their feet to sand and completed the Irish jihad. All teams that attempted, completed. Congrats to all!
I'm itching to go but really want to hedge my bet with a full moon.
Good luck to the remaining teams.

Penny

[penmartens]

[Aj84737]

If you look closely the tattoo on the leg of the person on the right. It gets squeezed from one leg to the other. Must be a total work out and squeeze fest to move a tattoo like that.

[Kuya]

This video highlights our descent through West Fork of Blarney Canyon. One of my new favorite canyons!

[jman]

If you look closely the tattoo on the leg of the person on the right. It gets squeezed from one leg to the other. Must be a total work out and squeeze fest to move a tattoo like that.

Hahahaha

[Kuya]

The Forks of the Shillelagh Canyons :) They were wonderful canyons to end the Jihad with :D

[Kuya]

sorry. duplicate post

[penmartens]

Ten good reasons to join the Irish Jihad:
1) Support Garfield and Wayne counties' SAR through donations
2) Challenge yourself in a new and different way
3) Have a really good reason to eat Stan's burgers and shakes
4) Win cool gear. Right now the chances are about 1:5 that you will win something
5) Have bragging rights
6) Sport the Jihad patch or sticker (if you dare)
7) Post funny pics of your teammates
8) Have fun and a few laughs with your friends
9) Make exciting videos
10)Have your tattoos moved or removed (ouch)

All this goes away Monday, April 15, at midnight. Don't miss your chance.

Once registered as a participant you have until May 30 to complete the route.
Penny

[penmartens]

The Irish Jihad has come to a successful close. Thank you to all who supported the event from donors, to sponsors, to participants, to those who helped from far behind the scenes. Also, thanks to the BLM and the Garfield and Wayne County SAR units for their support and encouragement. Over 40 people were involved in some way or another.
We raised $1145 that was split between the two counties. The costs of running the event; prizes, shipping, mailings, advertising and handling of monies were all donated so that 100% of the actual donations went to SAR.
List of donors:

Christy Pfost, Mike Schasch, Abby Wines, Tim & Carrie Cooney, Leanne & Brian Toler,
Kent Beverly, Bruce Dissel, Kevin Swanson, Jenny West, Dave Pimental



Twenty-five people donated and signed up to participate in trying to do the 7 Irish Canyons in a day:


Blake Merrell
Jacob Groom
Joel Graham
Josh Davis
Garrett Jensen
Rob Bay
Scott Bishop
Weston Lunsford
Rebekah & Robin Reed
Tyler & Mark Fallentine
Penny Martens
Cari & Travis Rohe
Diana & Matt Williams
Helen & Seth Andersen
Thomas Collins
John Wood
Rick Ianniello
Luke Galyan
Abby Wines


A special thank you to:
Jared Hillhouse at NorthWash Outfitters for running the registration through his company.
Tom Jones at Imlay Canyon Gear for donating and shipping prizes.
Jessica and Duke Alvey at Stan's Burger Shak for matching our donations and for advertising.
Luke Galyan at BluuGnome for lending his website, managing the event page there, and donating Gnome Gear prizes.


Below are the official event results:
3/28/13 —The ABUSEment Brothers--18.5 hours
3/29/13 —The Saber Toe Tigers--13 hours 29 min
3/30/13 —Irish Crackwhores--13 hours 10 minutes
4/20/13 —Irish Gnomes--11 hours 5 minutes
4/27/13 —Fiona McSweat--16 hours 16 minutes
5/11/13 —The Dark Pookas of Endeavor--15 hours 45 minutes
5/17/13 —Tom Collins & John Wood--11 hours 36 minutes 49 seconds
Congratulations to all who participated. Thanks for doing so safely. There are many amazing and amusing stories out there surrounding the Irish Jihad. If you know any of these people, encourage them to share their stories.


The winners of the drawing are:
Imlay Canyon Gear Sandtrap— Joel Graham
Imlay Canyon Gear 120' Canyon Fire— Jacob Groom
Imlay Canyon Gear Rope Bag— Diana Williams
Imlay Canyon Gear Rope Bag— Rebekah Reed
Rest Stop Bucket Toilet— Robin Reed
GnomeGear Fiddlestick— Travis Rohe
GnomeGear Fiddlestick— Helen Andersen

[Kuya]

ugh! I knew we were the slowest group! ;) ah well, we were also the largest group so it was to be expected :D What a great event! Thanks again for putting this all together! It is neat seeing all the money going to the SAR!

[penmartens]

Your group was one of a kind-- biggest group, most newbies, most 'new to you' canyons, in the dark. I don't think anyone went at night. You also provided the most enthusiasm. If we do it again, we may need to ask you to provide advertising videos for us.

[summitseeker]

It was a great time. Excited for next year. My team will go for 8 hours car to car . thanks to everyone for organizing this treat.

[peakbaggers]

So Penny - would like to hear your story?? It must have been fairly wet. We went whizzing by you that morning on our way to do Woody with Jared. He said he stopped briefly when he saw you and that you had reported wet conditions, which is very much what we found in Woody.

[Kuya]

Your group was one of a kind-- biggest group, most newbies, most 'new to you' canyons, in the dark. I don't think anyone went at night. You also provided the most enthusiasm. If we do it again, we may need to ask you to provide advertising videos for us.

Thank you Penny :) I will be happy to help in anyway I can :D

[penmartens]

We had an interesting beginning long before we hit the trail. We had never met. I had read much of what Mountaineer had written on the 'nets. He seemed like he would be a thoughtful and careful canyoneer. When he wrote in answer to my request for partners, it seemed like a good idea. Mrs. Mountaineer had considered going with us, but in the end didn't make it. It would have been wonderful to have her along even for part of the trip.
We politely worked out a name for our team. Pookas are shape shifting, crafty and sometimes ornery creatures in Irish lore. If he and his son were big guys, there was definitely going to be some shape shifting going on in a few places.
We needed to find a day in that 11 week period that we could go. I really wanted to go near a full moon so we could take advantage of the moonlight. It turned out we went on a new moon. The day before Mother's Day.
Emails went back and forth trying to come up with a plan. Tyler, Mark's son (also the youngest to have competed), was to be our climber. He remained silent during the planning stage, still an unknown. We decided to do the Leps first, then the Blarneys, and the Shillelaghs last. We would go down some and up others.
It took FOREVER for our weekend to come. I was assuaged by the reports of others while we waited. As an organizer I was privy to the other teams' reports. Things were going well. People were having fun. I just needed to wait my turn.
On the Friday before our trip, I skipped lunch so I could leave work early. I was concerned that my favorite camping place would be taken. North Wash had been crowded all spring. The other Pookas knew where I usually camp but I was unable to explain adequately where the alternative camp was. The other Pookas live far from North Wash and I felt it was my job to get that camp site or at least be in the area to direct them to the alternative.
I dashed to Hanksville and was on the phone with Dave one last time giving the updated plan when I received a text from Mark. They were just pulling into Hanksville. They had left home that morning and leisurely drove down. We met, appropriately, at Stan's Burger Shak. I was pleased to see two fit, strong, young men step from the vehicle.
We arrived at the campsite to find it empty and 'ours' for the weekend. It had rained a few days before. Water had flowed across the road and filled the potholes in camp. The potholes usually dry up pretty fast but they still had water in them. The canyons were going to be wet. How wet we wouldn't know until we actually got there.
It would have been nice to hang out and get to know each other but we needed to consolidate our plan, figure out gear, and hit the sack. Four-thirty was going to come much too quickly especially if any of us stayed awake fighting the dark pookas of doubt.

Now then, in a true team effort, I am going to leave off here for one of my teammates to carry on. Who will pick up the baton and lead?

Penny

[peakbaggers]

Oh No! Is this going to be a season ending cliffhanger?

[Mountaineer]

We had an interesting beginning long before we hit the trail. We had never met.

Now then, in a true team effort, I am going to leave off here for one of my teammates to carry on. Who will pick up the baton and lead?

Penny

Lead? I think we led each other. Truly a team effort, especially as it started with a mutual risk. When you meet "virtually" over the forums, you don't know how well the team dynamic will fit. In this case, it worked out perfect. Penny is truly a remarkable canyoneer, and we were lucky to be invited. The best memory of the trip was beyond just sharing the experience, but learning about the history and near epics in the same places and same time we were struggling to get through. We also learned about other canyons, and each of their characteristics and challenges.

Alas, all the water from the day before gave us pause. In fact, we even considered in only doing a couple of canyons or just abandoning the trip altogether. Glad we didn't. However, we switched our "order" plan in the morning, and ended up doing middle Lep at the end of the sequence. This proved to be as much mentally exhausting as well as physically.

At one point, we started up the nose to do another fork and continued to second guess the decision. This forced a retreat, a resupply as we were short on water, and additional time all the way to the Kiosk then walking back again. Whew.

The Shillelagh forks came first, then the Blarneys, then the long hike up and around to the East fork, then West. We had the canyons to ourselves.

A few climbing moves, a few snacks, a few rest breaks, some scrapes and wet clothes. By dusk, we were out and feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

[penmartens]

The feelings are entirely mutual. I hope we can do more together next season. You introduced several topics to discuss and I was concentrating and/or too tired to hold up my end of the conversation. You, also, need to teach me a couple techniques that we never got around to that day.
So to continue with the long drawn out version (my apologies but for some reason Bogley or my computer isn't letting me make paragraphs)...
We were up and out of camp 20 minutes earlier than planned. We left my truck at the mouth of the Blarneys and drove Mark's to the kiosk where we started our watches. Because of the strong suspicion there would be water we decided to do the shortest, driest canyons first and save the wetter ones for the warmer part of the day. We headed for E Shillelagh. The pool at the bottom of the second rap can be mighty deep but we were going to avoid the pool with a meat anchor for the first person at the far side of the flat area(RLDC) and then give a modified guided rap to the rest of the team.
Mark decided to rap first using the usual rap anchor. He was just going to go and do whatever was necessary to get out. Way to take one for the team! It turned out the water was ankle deep and avoidable. That doesn't negate the fact that Mark was willing. We took a 'shortcut' between the Shills to get to W Shillelagh. It is a sweet little route that Tyler was able to follow nicely. Our deepest water in the Shills was thigh deep, not bad. After both of those were done, we headed back to my truck for resupply: some breakfast, dry socks, more fluids.
That was when we had one of our best surprises of the day. Three vehicles went speeding by us heading up the highway. (Kuya, are you aware of the speed limit in that section?) One of the vehicles abruptly stopped, did a U-turn and came back. It was our great pleasure to see Jared (Canyonbug) step out of his vehicle. We had invited him to join us but he had a prior engagement in the way of a class he was teaching. It was great to unexpectedly see him. We quickly exchanged niceties, water conditions, wished each other well, then Jared was off to catch the rest of his class (Kuya, Peakbaggers, and others).
We prepared for the Blarneys. With any luck, and our rope gun willing, we wouldn't hike over the domes again. We headed up E Blarney hoping that Tyler (the youngest competitor of the Irish Jihad, and our climber) could make the moves up the rap in the middle of E Blarney. Mark (Dad) had veto power if he didn't like the looks of it. Tyler looked at the rap and in an instant said, 'Yeah, I can make that.' Dad and son made a plan and made it happen. Mark and I did a modified 'jug up' and we were on our way again--up climbing E Blarney and using a lot of energy. Had we made the right decision? Shortly, we were through the narrows and climbing out the side (Thanks to the captain of the Sabre Toe Tigers for sharing this shortcut in trade for the shortcut in the Shills). We finished out E Blarney and headed cross country for the west fork. If I remember correctly the water was knee deep or less in W Blarney. We made quick time of that and were back at the truck for more food, dry socks, water. We were really cruising. Although, Mark kept reminding us that this wasn't a race; Tyler and I were really pushing to finish with a respectable time, if not the fastest.

[Kuya]

That was when we had one of our best surprises of the day. Three vehicles went speeding by us heading up the highway. (Kuya, are you aware of the speed limit in that section?) One of the vehicles abruptly stopped, did a U-turn and came back. It was our great pleasure to see Jared (Canyonbug) step out of his vehicle. We had invited him to join us but he had a prior engagement in the way of a class he was teaching. It was great to unexpectedly see him. We quickly exchanged niceties, water conditions, wished each other well, then Jared was off to catch the rest of his class (Kuya, Peakbaggers, and others)

Wha??? phew , good thing it wasn't me driving hehehehe, else that accusation about me speeding would probably be true! *how did you know?* LOL

It would have been great to meet you all. Hopefully some day soon I will get that chance! :)