The storm came the night of the 28th. Not so bad as to get in the way of a fire and not super cold at first. Blustery and often drizzle and rain overnight. The next day it couldn’t make up its mind what it would do and 5 of us headed off to South Maidenwater. Not one of my favorite canyons, it had been perhaps the prettiest one the year before, with most of its short rappels made obsolete, due to deep snow. One could just slide off the chockstone, into deep drifts. The canyon also has the advantage of having a non slickrock approach. It is closer to the Henry’s too and gets more snow. Snow is better than rain. Well almost always anyway. By late AM, on approach, the snow had picked up. The wind was howling and the temperatures were plummeting. I sheltered my face from the blizzard, on approach. Seemed we would get our “adventure” after all!
We dropped in the head of the canyon and descended. Snow covered the world and slowed the pace up high. It also made it beautiful. The mid canyon soon arrived. Snow dropped off, but we encountered frigid swims. Seven total before we would exit the bottom. Then a canyon breeze picked up. Sometimes from up canyon, sometimes from down canyon. Always cold. We moved smartly down and out in the late PM, quite cold. We changed out of a ton of wet gear and placed the gear in large garbage bags. The gear was destined to freeze solid that night, establishing a theme for the rest of the trip. We fought a deep chill, inspite of all the warm drink and warm gear preparations.
it would be a night in the festive party tents and a mixture of rain and snow continued, with winds picking up substantially. When all awoke the next day, they were greeted by 4 inches of fresh snow. The world transformed. With a limited amount of dry wet gear, along with massive squalls coming through camp, I dillied. I dallied. I stalled. The AJ group went out and had a fine day. I finally got restless enough come midday and we rallied for an attempt of Shimrock. We drove around top and experienced major wind chill factor. FreezeFest had arrived with a vengeance. We scrambled down to the canyon head and had our little misadventure. We couldn’t get to the first rap sling, so plastered was the slickrock, in drifted snow. Please note……slung boulders like to ride up and exit potholes, when sliding on snow. One must be fleet of foot to avoid getting clocked by said boulder. We decided to retreat and try to follow AJ and crew down Blarney. On the way up, I spied Leprechaun (East fork) and noted that the entry in from the east side looked reasonable. I shouted ahead and pow wowed. Change of direction. Go this way! Canyon right here!
Canyon right here yes….but huge drifts appeared to falling into the canyon. Last year it took a few storms, weeks apart to fill the canyons with massive drifts. This time? This time it took a 4 inch storm, with a lot of wind and we encountered up to 4 feet of snow to plow through. Wherever the canyon was open, transitions back into the narrows were treacherous. Sooooo, while the Lep is usually rated 1-3 raps, we rappelled 6 times during the descent. Our fairly skilled group will raise the wonder of folks that follow this spring. They will wonder “Why did these idiots need an anchor at such an easy drop?” They will dismiss the folks who built such anchors as true newbies.
All that anchor building was time consuming. It was starting to get dark. We had many captures and much spotting. It was hard and somewhat dangerous. A fair share of water to the thigh too…or deeper if you erred. The middle fork would have been easier, for its more closed spaces, if we could have gotten into it, that is. Many took turns plowing through deep snow in the lead, sharing the work load. Others dug through a ton of snow looking for anchors deeply buried. The rope was frozen stiff. It now seems a bad idea to use the damp rope from the day before. It now seems a bad idea to bring just one rope. It is odd rapping a frozen rope. The lack of pliability slows you a lot. The frozen coating of water on the rope, speeds you up a lot. Result? About average speed.
As the light started to fade, we hit the last and standard rap. Tom and Aaron had come up to check on us. Getting to the confluence took a dynamic climbing move that required the best Aaron had to give. It was great to see them and they escorted us out to the road. Little did we know but the AJ group was just behind us having done a down, then up, then down 3 canyon trifecta. So many of us coming home in last light during a late December storm. Little east Leprechaun has given a skilled group all they would want to handle. What is undeniable and what drives many of us is……is…..it is just so beautiful, these canyons plastered with snow
Oh it is so painful to strip out of wet and frozen gear. Gear that wants to freeze even more as you slow and stop. Dean and Victor supply the party tent, along with the heater to make that “change” tolerable. And it will be another night of visiting from one festive party tent to another, as the storm will not lose its grip on Sandthrax. We see stars for a bit, but it is snowing at the same time. The temps drop and drop. I note that a new pile of my gear is turning to rock, inside a garbage bag. I wonder….Can I gather enough unfrozen gear to go and canyon tomorrow? Its harsh out there, but somehow, we seem to work around the obstacles mother nature is tossing our way. Two thousand and ten has one more full day ahead of us. Ram
RAM
A 2nd pair of shoes and neos a must too. One can put on a frozen suit by soaking it in water, even cold water. The experience is……ahhhhhh…..unforgettable. But it is a finite one, as to the unpleasantness. You warm up pretty quickly. Surprisingly, wet neos and shoes are quite warm after a few minutes. Over the years, I have done drying by the car heater, but idling one’s cars for j hours uses a lot of gas and has a large carbon footprint. Using w warm water helps, but caution advised. It is easy to use water a bit too warm and do a dance of a different kind.
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Dan” wrote:
more wetsuits the better. i think i had 5 with me (in various degrees of destroyed…)
this year, it was virtually impossible to thaw anything. sometimes, you can pour hot water onto stuff just to get it on (like socks and shoes.)
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “loftypeaks” wrote:
Great Report !
Just Curious, do you bring more than one wetsuit or how did you get the frozen one unthawed…I can’t imagine it’s easy or pleasant to pull on a stiff freezing cold wetsuit ?
>
Dan
more wetsuits the better. i think i had 5 with me (in various degrees of destroyed…)
this year, it was virtually impossible to thaw anything. sometimes, you can pour hot water onto stuff just to get it on (like socks and shoes.)
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “loftypeaks” wrote:
Great Report !
Just Curious, do you bring more than one wetsuit or how did you get the frozen one unthawed…I can’t imagine it’s easy or pleasant to pull on a stiff freezing cold wetsuit ? >
loftypeaks
Great Report !
Just Curious, do you bring more than one wetsuit or how did you get the frozen one unthawed…I can’t imagine it’s easy or pleasant to pull on a stiff freezing cold wetsuit ?
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “RAM” wrote:
> The storm came the night of the 28th. Not so bad as to get in the way of a fire and not super cold at first. Blustery and often drizzle and rain overnight. The next day it couldn’t make up its mind what it would do and 5 of us headed off to South Maidenwater. Not one of my favorite canyons, it had been perhaps the prettiest one the year before, with most of its short rappels made obsolete, due to deep snow. One could just slide off the chockstone, into deep drifts. The canyon also has the advantage of having a non slickrock approach. It is closer to the Henry’s too and gets more snow. Snow is better than rain. Well almost always anyway. By late AM, on approach, the snow had picked up. The wind was howling and the temperatures were plummeting. I sheltered my face from the blizzard, on approach. Seemed we would get our “adventure” after all!
We dropped in the head of the canyon and descended. Snow covered the world and slowed the pace up high. It also made it beautiful. The mid canyon soon arrived. Snow dropped off, but we encountered frigid swims. Seven total before we would exit the bottom. Then a canyon breeze picked up. Sometimes from up canyon, sometimes from down canyon. Always cold. We moved smartly down and out in the late PM, quite cold. We changed out of a ton of wet gear and placed the gear in large garbage bags. The gear was destined to freeze solid that night, establishing a theme for the rest of the trip. We fought a deep chill, inspite of all the warm drink and warm gear preparations.
it would be a night in the festive party tents and a mixture of rain and snow continued, with winds picking up substantially. When all awoke the next day, they were greeted by 4 inches of fresh snow. The world transformed. With a limited amount of dry wet gear, along with massive squalls coming through camp, I dillied. I dallied. I stalled. The AJ group went out and had a fine day. I finally got restless enough come midday and we rallied for an attempt of Shimrock. We drove around top and experienced major wind chill factor. FreezeFest had arrived with a vengeance. We scrambled down to the canyon head and had our little misadventure. We couldn’t get to the first rap sling, so plastered was the slickrock, in drifted snow. Please note……slung boulders like to ride up and exit potholes, when sliding on snow. One must be fleet of foot to avoid getting clocked by said boulder. We decided to retreat and try to follow AJ and crew down Blarney. On the way up, I spied Leprechaun (East fork) and noted that the entry in from the east side looked reasonable. I shouted ahead and pow wowed. Change of direction. Go this way! Canyon right here!
Canyon right here yes….but huge drifts appeared to falling into the canyon. Last year it took a few storms, weeks apart to fill the canyons with massive drifts. This time? This time it took a 4 inch storm, with a lot of wind and we encountered up to 4 feet of snow to plow through. Wherever the canyon was open, transitions back into the narrows were treacherous. Sooooo, while the Lep is usually rated 1-3 raps, we rappelled 6 times during the descent. Our fairly skilled group will raise the wonder of folks that follow this spring. They will wonder “Why did these idiots need an anchor at such an easy drop?” They will dismiss the folks who built such anchors as true newbies.
All that anchor building was time consuming. It was starting to get dark. We had many captures and much spotting. It was hard and somewhat dangerous. A fair share of water to the thigh too…or deeper if you erred. The middle fork would have been easier, for its more closed spaces, if we could have gotten into it, that is. Many took turns plowing through deep snow in the lead, sharing the work load. Others dug through a ton of snow looking for anchors deeply buried. The rope was frozen stiff. It now seems a bad idea to use the damp rope from the day before. It now seems a bad idea to bring just one rope. It is odd rapping a frozen rope. The lack of pliability slows you a lot. The frozen coating of water on the rope, speeds you up a lot. Result? About average speed.
As the light started to fade, we hit the last and standard rap. Tom and Aaron had come up to check on us. Getting to the confluence took a dynamic climbing move that required the best Aaron had to give. It was great to see them and they escorted us out to the road. Little did we know but the AJ group was just behind us having done a down, then up, then down 3 canyon trifecta. So many of us coming home in last light during a late December storm. Little east Leprechaun has given a skilled group all they would want to handle. What is undeniable and what drives many of us is……is…..it is just so beautiful, these canyons plastered with snow
Oh it is so painful to strip out of wet and frozen gear. Gear that wants to freeze even more as you slow and stop. Dean and Victor supply the party tent, along with the heater to make that “change” tolerable. And it will be another night of visiting from one festive party tent to another, as the storm will not lose its grip on Sandthrax. We see stars for a bit, but it is snowing at the same time. The temps drop and drop. I note that a new pile of my gear is turning to rock, inside a garbage bag. I wonder….Can I gather enough unfrozen gear to go and canyon tomorrow? Its harsh out there, but somehow, we seem to work around the obstacles mother nature is tossing our way. Two thousand and ten has one more full day ahead of us. > Ram >