One concept I have been working on putting into words is the idea of Stewardship, both personal on my part, and moreover the stewardship the community and visitors take on, to keep the canyons clean, friendly and in as natural a state as possible. Keeping the canyons “natural” requires active management, as contradictory as that sounds, and producing a guidebook spurns the steward in me to take action, and deal with problems that have festered for a while.
Read MoreWent to do some canyoneering, this fine Halloween day. Pipe Spring Canyon in Zion, up near Lava Point was the canyon du jour. I had not been there in a while, and wanted to revisit. Was not all that interested in swimming, or getting up early, so this seemed like a good choice. Mike Cressy came up from Vegas for the day; Cameron was in town briefly; Andy Archabald (AA) came over from St George; and Felicia joined in to complete our crew...
Read MoreHeaps - the Big Kahuna! What a great canyon. I got the opportunity to do it three times this year - and this is the one where a bunch of pictures got taken. A mellow trip put together by Deeps, with Brian Olliver, Louis Johnson, Everett Boutillet and myself. Two days in the middle of the summer - LOTS of daylight. With the canyon full from recent thunderstorms, and a strong team... SHOULD be no problem. (Pictures this Rave from the whole team!)
Read MoreRecently I have heard about people having trouble pulling their rappel on the first rap in Englestead Canyon. I found this curious, that this problem would suddenly arrive for several parties this summer. What gives???
Read MoreMy first visit to Mind Bender, in March 2004, was rather disappointing. A nice social canyon, but it really had none of the meat SA described - kinda a dud, actually.
Read MoreRam in Zion? Mon Dieu! Well, we had a project to do, so Ram assembled a top team, we got up really early and... and... and... and the weather did not cooperate.
Read MoreOn this occasion, we were descending Englestead with several southern Utah locals. Mark "Little Bear" Mallory had invited us down since he had a rope fixed for the first drop.
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