The Gear Sherpa's Canyoneering Blog

So I spent the last long weekend in Zion.  The weather was perfect.  Temperatures were in the 70's during the lay, and barely cracked past 40 at night.  Mostly I was there to socialize with my brother's, but I was also working on a couple of upcoming articles for Gearreview.  We had the new N!ergy tent from Eureka.  It is wired for 12V DC access at 3 locations in the tent.  That's a handy feature for charging cell phones, using the night light etc.  The remote switches make it nice and easy to kill the light from inside you sleeping bag. The included ceiling fan is a fun gadget, but I'm not sure it circulates any more air than the tent does on it's own with the windows open.  The tent held up pretty well in the wind, paticularly for a high profile 3 season tent.

 

We also had the Coleman eXponent Northstar 8 tent.  Now this is a full on 3+ season family or base camp tent.  There are multiple door / entry options, with plenty of room on the inside to accomodate your family.  With the oversized cots and pads common for car camping now, it would be a squeeze to fit 8 people, but with standard 22 inch x 76 inch pads it wouldn't be a problem.  The full rain fly is awesome.  It has sufficient guy lines to keep the tent firmly anchored to the ground, and stable enough that you aren't going to be tearing fabric or bending tent poles.  The Northstar also has 5/8 inch aluminum poles, not crappy fiberglass ones, which makes the tent not only lighter (as if 37 pounds vs. 40 matters) but stronger and more stable.  The tent bag is also well thought out with separate zip compartments for the body, fly, and poles, which makes it easy to set up and take down.  Watch for the full review in June on Gearreview.com

 

Finally, I took the new Imlay Canyon Gear Heaps Hybrid pack out for a little workout.  It wasn't really the most appropriate test location because we were mostly in the desert, and not too much water, but it gave me a chance to see a few of the differences.  Just as with the original Heaps pack it is stable and carries the load well.  The new compression pocket configuration and straps were handy.  It seemed like the lid is smaller than in the past, which I need to check on.

I spent two weekends in late March visiting one of my all time favorite early spring locations - Arches National Park.  Arches seems to thaw out from the winter earlier and better than many other location on the Colorado Plateau.  There is so much to do, with easy trails and excursions as well as full on challenging adventures for the canyoneer in me.  When I was at the Furnace in November, I noticed a few things I wanted to check out, and I had some good beta from a close friend.  He agreed to me me there, and we spent the better part of a day dissecting new routes, and revisting long forgotten ones.

 

There were three basic highlights to the day, one was the discovery of a new exit route out the the lower reaches a series of fin joints deep in the heart of the Furnace.  The second was the discovery and successful passage of a 150 foot slot near the desert.  The slot was every bit as tight at the crux of the 4th narrows in Shenanigans.  Sorry folks, no pictures because there wasn't room for much in there.  It was the effective bypass of a jumbled boulder field with a difficult down climb exit.  Ryan, my skinny compadre was able to pass through the 15 foot crux section with only some grunting and pushing.  I on the other hand had to contort my body to pass through the wider spot located at a slight incline, mostly horizontal, at waist height.  This involved standing on one leg with my other leg outstretched behind me.  One arm on my side, the other pointed straight down to support my upper body.  The problem is that in this position, locomotion was difficult a best.  I was only able to move inches at a time by sort of hopping on my foot while supporting my weight on my hand.  This strategy finally failed when the going got tight.  Ryan, ever the Hero, assisted by pushing on my head.  It was fantastic, and I will make sure to visit this special spot again in he future.  Fortunately, I was able to keep the "Beast" at bay.

 

Finally there was the satisfaction of entering a joint series I had looked into often.  My friend had been in there before, years earlier.  It was my first trip.  The most memoriable part of the series being an exposed 40 foot elevator, off width, with sand coating every near horizontal surface.  The downclimb was not overly difficult, but challenging and exhilirating all the same.  The spot was futher highlighted in my memory by Mr. Ransom kindly kicking lots of dirt into the back of my pants and I climbed down.

 

There were so many other discoveries between the two trips that I won't take the time to review them all.  Needless to say there are many beautiful places that I will return and visit when snow, frost, and ice water clog the deep reaches of my home territory, Zion.

 

Sherpa.

 

 

So I took the 986 out on the Provo Race Loop on Saturday morning.  My toes and fingers were freezing as we pedaled up the shoreline trail to the start of the loop in the 36 degree air.  The 986 was light under me and I made good time.  I had adjusted my seat forward a little since my last ride along the shoreline trail, which seemed to mitigate some of the front end lightness I had felt on steep, loose climbs.  I also reduced my tire pressure a bit after my first ride.  On my pump, it shows I am about 25 pounds.  The tires are firm, but pliable when I squeeze them.  I also tweaked the Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes to get better stopping power.  For some reason, it came from the factory with the rear pads barely in contact with the disc, even with the lever fully against the hand grip.  I wiped down both rotors with isopropyl which improved the braking quite a bit, especially on the front brake.

 

We rode past the start of the race loop until we joined up with the Orem double track, and continued uphill to the upper entrance to the race loop.  The 986 felt light and nimble.  It took some getting used to the responsiveness.  I found that I was able to contol the bike better driving hard into the corners with my full weight centered, rather than cautiously towards the rear.  We rode the loop once clockwise and once counter clockwise before exiting downhill on the access road. 

 

Now that I am getting used to the bike, I have to take it out on some longer and more demanding trails.  I'll keep you updated.  Jon Sharp will also be testing the bike, so keep an eye on his blog http://acidinmylegs.blogspot.com/ and look forward to our full feature review on Gearreview.com.

I have been working on several family camping pieces, and some trail runners.  Look for them to be updated soon on our gearreview.com website.  Also, we have received and started work on the new Look 986 Carbon Fiber Mountain Bike.  I have never ridden a bike so light and responsive.

So I spent this weekend in Zion with my brother.  We had wanted to descend an unnamed drainage on the east side of the park, but because we were unable to arrange a car shuttle, we opted for Boundary Canyon.  Neither of us had done this particular canyon before, so we were excited.

 

We left the WRT about 8:00 and were at the head of the canyon by 9:00.  After a short rest and putting on all the gear, we got going in the canyon at about 9:30.  The canyon drops quickly through beautifully sculpted sandstone stained with iron oxide.  It was fabulous.  The bottom of most of the potholes were moist, but not wet as a heavy thundershower had soaked the area the night before.  There was a small snake in the second pothole, trying to get warm on top of a log.  We left him there, and tried not to bother him.

 

We hit the grotto at the last rappel at 11:30, and were at the main Kolob / Oak drainage by noon.  A short walk and we were at the MIA exit.  We stopped and had a nice long lunch break before embarking on the climb out.  We took a wrong turn up the gully to the right after the second dry fall, and ended up high and right from the regular route.  That cost us about 30 minutes and a lot of bushwhacking through the manzanita.  We intersected the regular route just below the saddle, and got back on track.  We were at the road within 30 minutes after that, and back at the WRT in about another 45 minutes.  Thankfully, the sun was blocked but developing afternoon thundershowers.  That made the walk back up from the MIA camp much more enjoyable.  We got to the car just after the rain started.  All in all it was a good day.

 

I was wearing the Exum River shoes from Sportiva.  They are similar to the Exum Ridge mountain running shoe they make.  I found the shoes to be reasonably grippy, and quite comfortable to walk in, especially when scrambling.  The only discomfort I noticed is that the shoe is cut a little high around the ankle, so there was a pressure point on my ankle bone.  It didn't bruise or blister, but it was a little tender the next day.  The Exum river is quite abrasion resistant.  I am happy with how well the upper performed so far.  Watch for the official review to be posted shortly on Gearreview.com

So I spent a nice 3 day weekend down around Hanksville.  It was a great trip and it gave the a chance to complete testing on the new Sierra Designs Volt sleeping bag.  It's a Primaloft bag rated to 15 degrees.  I posted the draft review yesterday at http://www.gearreview.com/SD_Trade_Wind.php.  It's worth a read anyway.  I also review the Trade Wind down sleeping bag there.

 

Temps were moderate in the daytime at about 40 degrees.  There was more snow in the higher elevation canyons like Pandora's, and more water in the lower elevations like the Black Hole.  I've posted photo albums of both of the canyons.

 

I just getting started on an update to our bivy reviews, which will include content from Integral Designs, Outdoor Research, and hopefully Bibler.  The Sierra Designs Navassa bivy will also be included.

So I have spent the last several months hammering around with a prototype Metolius Canyoneering Pack.  They have since added it to their production line.  It's super robust, though a bit heavy.  The waist belt is great though to tell you the truth.

 

I wish it had a few more grommets in the sides because when I have it packed full of wet ropes and dry bags, the water has a hard time getting out the bottom.  It is also a little small for a full on exploration pack.  The Imlay Canyon Gear Heaps Pack is better for that.  Look for a review soon on Gearreview.com.  It is cavernous, comfortable, and tough.  I hauled it through a canyon we were scounting out.  All in all we did about 23 miles, with about 2000 feet of gain and another 2000 feet of loss.  I carried bivy gear, as well as a wet suit, and 300 feet of rope, plus all the regular gear.  I think I was weighing in at about 45 pounds or so with the pack.  By the end of the day though I still felt pretty good, all things considered.  My feet were the most sore part on my body.