|
12.
A New World of Canyon Trips
LAM History Index |
Go
to Previous Topic |
Go to Next Topic By 1973, the
Mountaineers were starting to discover a new world remote from the
mountains -- the canyon country of Arizona and Utah. This includes the
Grand Canyon, the Navajo Indian Reservation, Buckskin Gulch and Paria
Canyon on BLM land, Canyonlands National Park, the Escalante National
Monument, and many other beautiful areas. Over the years, more and more
club members have come to enjoy the desert world of broad arid plateaus,
narrow slot canyons, and secret cool oases of water. For some members,
the desert has come to have a stronger emotional pull than the high
mountains themselves.
Bob Cowan, Jim Breedlove, Peter O'Rourke, Norbert Ensslin, and other
club members participated in a two-day backpack through the Zion Narrows
in October 1973. Over the years this has remained a well-known and
popular destination during the dry, cool fall season when the danger of
flash floods from thunderstorms is low.
Over the 1973 Thanksgiving break, Merle Wheeler introduced the
Mountaineers to their first cross-country, off-trail, rough-and-tumble
canyon trip to the Navajo Indian Reservation. This was a backpack into
Navajo Canyon from near Tsai Skizzi Rock, requiring the use of ropes and
Anazasi toehold routes to find a way into and out of the canyon. The
trip provided many opportunities to explore dark narrow slots, hidden
arches, and high sandstone domes. Merle had just come to Los Alamos from
Tucson, where he had been an active member of a small group of canyon
explorers at the University of Arizona. Merle was also a strong rock
climber and had done a number of very hard first ascents on Beeline Dome
and Rockfellow Dome in the Cochise Stronghold. He had no fear of boldly
sliding, jumping, or falling into the most impossible-looking slots,
mudholes, or other canyon obstacles.
Fig.
1. Merle Wheeler enjoying one of his favorite activities,
"dome running" near Navajo Canyon (N. Ensslin photo, 1973).
Many of the club's
canyon trips have tried to emulate Merle Wheeler's enthusiasm for slot
canyons. Some trips, like upper Kaibito Creek and the Black Hole in
White Canyon, have involved getting into deep, dark, wet slots. These
trips required carrying waterproof packs, ropes, and equipment for
rappelling, jumaring, or setting anchors. The reward for all of this
effort is an almost other-worldly experience, totally removed from the
ordinary. Norbert Ensslin remembers that "When you jump into a dark pool
of water in a deep slot and sink in over your head, suspended in total
cold darkness for a moment, the rest of the world seems very far away!"
Even on a hot summer day, some of the deepest slot canyons are so cold
that wet suits or dry suits are needed to get through without risking
hypothermia. When Jan Studebaker and Norbert Ensslin reached the exit of
a slot canyon near Navajo Mountain, they were so cold that they just
threw their packs into the last plunge pool, jumped in, and quickly swam
across to lie down on a small sunny beach. While they were trying to get
warm, they heard a loud, continuous knocking noise. Norbert's legs were
shaking uncontrollably and one of his knees was knocking against a small
rock!
Fig.
2. Kurt Short playing the slots in a narrow canyon near Navajo Mountain.
He's wearing an upper body wet suit, and pushing his pack along ahead of
him
( Mike Sullivan photo, May 2005).
Ever since 1973, the
Mountaineers have enjoyed many Spring and Fall canyon trips between the
summer climbing and winter skiing seasons. Merle Wheeler led other
Navajo Country trips to the area around Navajo Mountain through at least
1978. Other early club canyon trips include a trip to Dark Canyon led by
Hank Blackwell in 1979. Bob Cowan recalls that the group included Dennis
Brandt, Dave and Faye Brown, Roland Pettitt, John Sarracino, and Bill
Priedhorsky. They entered Dark Canyon from the mesa north of Natural
Bridges National Monument, and climbed out via the Spanish (or Golden?)
Staircase. Bob Cowan also joined a May 1987 trip to Dark Canyon led by
Bill Priedhorsky, using the Spanish (or Golden?) Staircase in both
directions. Hank Blackwell and John Sarracino also led additional canyon
trips in 1980, 1981, and 1982.
In 1995, some club members saw an article in the June issue of Outside
Magazine, by David Roberts and Jon Krakauer, that described a trip to an
unidentified "Mystery Canyon" near Navajo Mountain. The authors did not
say where this canyon was, but described how they had found the entrance
by climbing a set of Indian toeholds near Surprise Valley. This article
appealed not only to the Mountaineers' sense of adventure, but also to
their enthusiasm for deciphering secret information. They carefully
analyzed every detail in the article and realized that the toehold route
might be one that Merle Wheeler and Hank Blackwell had used some years
earlier on a trip that circled the north side of Navajo Mountain. So in
May 1997, the club organized a trip to this area. Sure enough, they
found the "Mystery Canyon" right where they thought it would be!
Trips to Navajo Country, Zion, Escalante, and the Maze have now become a
regular and well-loved part of the club's annual schedule, with many of
these trips led by Bill Priedhorsky. The canyon trips provide a way to
extend the summer by climbing into the warmest places available within a
day's drive of Los Alamos. The relatively small canyons in the Navajo
and Escalante areas have actually been more popular than the more
dramatic scenery in the Grand Canyon, perhaps because they provide a
more intimate experience.
The Mountaineers' canyon trips have led to the creation of new club
traditions, like having Thanksgiving dinners in the canyons, with frozen
turkey, seal-a-meal mashed potatoes, gravy, and dressing, and
carefully-transported pumpkin pies. There were many jokes about making
the turkey walk in with the party, but so far as we know it never
actually happened.
LAM History Index |
Go
to Previous Topic |
Go to Next Topic
.
|
