10/31 Day 17

Park Avenue

Canyoneering day! I met Bri at her house at 9 and we went for coffee and met up with Andrew at a drive-thru coffee shop. I think we got to Elephant Butte and were on our way by about 11. The whole thing was kind of a strange and exhilarating experience because although we were almost constantly going upward, it never seemed like we were climbing this huge formation. It seemed a lot more like we were climbing fins and boulders in the Fiery Furnace except almost never descending them. We'd occasionally turn around to see the view but it was usually a small slice of vista seen from between walls of rock.

I felt no real fear (nervousness about keeping my footing on slickrock doesn't count) walking up steep bare sandstone and chimneying up cracks. Even the first rappel, which was part of our ascent, oddly enough, wasn't scary enough to cause hesitation. I think having the skills but not the experience was enough to give me plenty of confidence. I'd watched and coached plenty of kids half my age through basically the same thing so I knew exactly what to do and that if I started to fall, Andrew was ready to pull the rope taut and stop me (fireman's belay). I felt pretty good about myself when I reached the bottom. The summit was incredible, and fortunately, not very windy. We could see Delicate Arch, the salt basin, Fiery Furnace, Castleton and Fisher Towers, and much more.

Delicate Arch

Fiery Furnace

Balanced Rock

The rappel on the descent was much longer than the first and involved wall-walking for the first third or so. The rest dropped from an overhang, and as I let myself down to the bottom, I yelled, "augh! I'm freaking out right now but this is awesome!" Andrew got a few pictures of me from below but they probably would have been better with flash. No big deal, I also have some good ones Brianne took of me on top of the butte.

Stemming, because why the heck not

Andrew, who got us there and back

Brianne, who very patiently hung there while I tried to get a shot where her face could be seen. My flash was too weak.

We didn't do anything else afterward mostly because Bri and Jay have to be out of their house by tomorrow so I had a pretty relaxed evening at the hostel and made hiking plans with Kristel. We decided that backpacking or even just camping isn't going to work so we'll just do a long dayhike in the Needles.