UT: Zion – Full ‘Fridge + Loot

Was in Zion a couple weeks back so my wife could take an ACA test. Since we only have one car I needed to drop her off and pick her up which left me not much time to do a canyon. I settled on upper and lower refrigerator after having been told by @Yellow Dart that “No one does upper ‘fridge anymore.”

I decided to have a go and I can see why. Although there was a decent amount of fun down-climbing the single short rappel did not (in my opinion) make up for the required bushwhacking.

On the hike up I did see maybe the most hardcore hiker I’d ever seen. I encountered her just after Walter’s Wiggles:

That’s right, Walmart flip-flops with little bedazzled plastic jewels on the straps. I can only hope that one day I’ll be man enough to attempt a hike like that with so little arch support.

Got to the top of Refrigerator in about an hour, bushwhacked down to the first rap:

The view up-canyon at the bush-whacky approach. This rap had a super rusted out quick-link on it though. I didn’t bring any hardware with me but if anyone ever goes back up there bring a new one to replace this with.

This first rap did afford an interesting view of the AL trail I’d never seen before.

Throughout the canyon I’d encountered a lot of interesting debris, numerous cables, a single tennis shoe that presented more questions than it answered, but the most interesting was for sure a 50 gallon barrel that had gotten wedged at the top of one of the downclimbs:

I’d picked up a trash bag and wag-bag at the permit desk because I’d heard the wash between upper and lower fridge was often full of trash and human waste. After downclimbing the first rap of lower ‘fridge I found the worst of the trash problem – people taking breaks on the AL trail where it enters the canyon seem to throw wrappers and other trash off the cliff where it ends up in this canyon. Lucky for me I also happened to find, in order, a large hydroflask with no lid, a somehow unbroken pair of Oakley Sunglasses, and a lid to the hydroflask. Great canyon loot to add to the previously mentioned solitary tennis shoe.

The last 2 raps of lower refrigerator went easily and the hike out was short and easy.
Shuttle to shuttle time was 3hrs 20 mins. I see why no one does upper refrigerator but I will say the bushwhacking was a interesting change of pace from the normally vegetation-barren trails of the trade-route canyons. Fun time if you have less than 4 hours total.