Sandthrax 5-16-14

[TommyBoy]

Ever since reading about Sandthrax canyon I thought I would never do it, I just thought whats the point. However, for the last year or so, my main canyon partner has been wanting to do it so I started to consider maybe doing it one day. Then after our trip down to Escalante this March where we did Raven and East Baker I started to consider the possibility that I might be ready to give it a try. So I start thinking about when would be a good time to do it and we decide to do it May 1st down at the NW Meetup. Now I have to try and find the cams necessary to ascend the crux, so I start asking around and several times I think I've found someone who has them/can get them for me, only to be disappointed. Finally at the last minute I manage to find someone who has them and I have to drive from Spanish Fork up to Thanksgiving Point to get them then go home and finish packing. I get all packed and ready to go and my buddy calls and he's in the middle of some emergency and can't go. Luckily for us someone at work needed to trade a few days that ended up leaving me with a Fri/Sat free this weekend and I called up my friend to see if we could take another shot at Sandthrax. He's in and I've still got the cams so the trip is on. Throughout this whole process I had been waffling back and forth between being afraid of what I was getting myself into and being confident in the skills I had gained over the last few years of canyoneering. The moment finally arrived and we hiked to the head of the canyon and the familiarity of hiking and chatting with my friend was enough to calm my nerves and I was confident that, with care, we could make it through safely.



Looking down at the head of Sandthrax








So much for staying dry this trip




And the work begins




Going down






A Nice spot to "relax" for a moment


Not as scary as I though it would be, although certainly I crossed with care




Lots of the buggers in canyon




Just relaxin and waiting for my buddy on good old earth


Unfortunately I was both so excited to have safely descended Sandthrax and tired after lots of stemming that I forgot to get pics of us exiting, I also missed the crux silo. Hopefully he got them on his GoPro, either way though I definitely need to go back again someday. Just not for a while, I'm still recovering.

[Iceaxe]

Nice!

It's hard to sleep the night before Sandthrax but it sure is easy to sleep after it's finished :-)


Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[PG Rob]

Interesting to see it with water... looks like you had a fun trip.

[TommyBoy]

Yeah I slept really well that night. We went to do hogwarts that afternoon since my buddy hadn't done it and his wife had stayed in camp while we ran through Sandthrax. It should have been an easy outing except being tired I wasn't thinking and forgot to walk away from the wall while pulling the rope on the next to last rappel and the tail of the rope jammed on a chock stone and I had to ascend up to get it undone. It took about 30 min of me flailing around on that overhang to get up so I could undo the jam. I was about ready to say screw it we'll come back tomorrow and pick it up then. I was dead tired that night, I fell asleep in my camp chair while talking around the fire.

[Byron]

Outstanding!!! You were obviously well prepared...Now I'm all jacked up to do it!

[CanyonBarbie]

Congratulations! That is quite the accomplishment!