When we went to bed, near midnight, on the 30th, the skies were clear. When I awoke at 4 AM, to sound of sloughing snow, on the walls of my mid, I peeked out the door to over a half inch of snow. Boy, that came quickly.
Later that morning, getting out and about, in the snow, several of us recognized, that if it had snowed this much, over by the Black Hole, the New Year’s Day tradition would be at risk. The way out of the Hole is a full on, northern exposure. We would have to drive over and see.
Tom Jones, Jenny West, Cassy Brown, Rachel Ross and I made the drive over past Hite, to the Hole exit area. If anything, there was 3 times as much snow here, than back at our Sandthrax camp. Deep sigh. We would need to fix ropes, to make the exit practical and safer, if we were to descent the Black Hole, on New Year’s Day, for the 16th time, in the last 17 January 1st’s.
Twice before, ropes had been fixed on the last day of the year before. Dave Black saved the day in 2008 and John Diener, Rich Rudow and I in 2010. Even getting down to the steeper areas proved tricky, on this day. The ropes were set in areas deemed critical. Thank you to this dedicated crew, that gave up a day in a canyon, to “pave the way” for the New Year’s tradition.
To the 15 other folks who descended the Black Hole on January 1st, You owe these folks a word of thanks!!
On the drive over
Jenny surveys the way
Careful!!
Rachel…tell us what you really think!
Jenny, livin da dream
Cassy taking it seriously
The way up from the canyon bottom. Rope PLEASE!
VERY slippery….You go first!
Tom fixing rope. Rachel on the look out
Cassy and Tom ascending back up
Canyonero
Looks like that annoying level of snow, enough to be slippery but not enough to actually use anything that sticks into snow.
deathtointernet
It was definitely appreciated!