Thursday, January 12, 2006
"My Fault" and "Your Fault" aka Hard Day Harvey and Good Day Jim - Video TR
Ok, I've got a new approach to my TR's here. I recently bought a digital camcorder complete with accidental damage insurance. If I destroy it in a canyon, I take it back and get a new one. Basically I'm planning on using it a few times. I was able to take my new camera down some canyons that drain into Lake Powell last weekend, we've nicknamed them "My Fault" and "Your Fault". The footage turned out very nice and I put together a 13 minute long video set to music for everyone to enjoy. I tried to capture the whole experience which I think can be done much better on video than through still photos. I watched the video and added some comments along the way. I've listed my comments below so for those interested they can follow along as they watch. Just watch the time as the video plays and read my comments when the time on the video matches the time I have listed. You can view the video below, or click the link to view it larger, Enjoy:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1503247507224214147&q=canyoneering
00:00 – Name of the two canyons we descended that weekend
00:08 – The view from our camp Saturday morning.
00:23 – After driving around for a while trying to find the right roads, we found the head of the first days canyon. Here we look down as the slot twists its way toward Lake Powell.
00:40 – Nat and Stefan trying to find a route down the upper cliff band to access the Navajo.
00:46 – After finding a slippery slide entrance to get down to the slickrock, it was into the shallow slot we went. What lies ahead?
00:53 – The slot starts right away, like usual it’s not terribly deep at first, but it keeps us entertained with chock stones to crawl under and short drops to downclimb.
01:05 – Nat on one of the first bigger downclimbs where the canyon started to deepen up and get narrow!
01:43 – The canyon had quite a few short sections of very nice convoluted narrows. It wouldn’t get particularly deep until toward the end, but the slot was very beautiful nonetheless.
02:00 – Stefan downclimbing one of the many, many, short drops.
02:19 – a blue alien bug trying to block the lens.
02:44 – This is the only shot of me you get, my legs about 20 feet or so off the deck. Skinny guys probably can fit through everything down low, but I sure would hate to get stuck finding out. We chose to go high for this one.
03:05 – There were a lot of really tight squeezes where we had to take off our packs and wiggle through. Many times the packs were more difficult to get through than ourselves.
03:20 – Crazy how Nat and Stefan could flip into turbo mode every now and then on the downclimbs and rappels. I still don’t get how they do it.
3:29 – The canyon would alternate between narrow and tough, and wide and easy. It seemed to be narrow and tough a lot more than wide and easy though.
04:22 – A nice little bridge we found in a deep section.
04:28 – Some like the action shots, some like the scenic views. I tried to get a little of both when I put the footage together.
04:55 – This is the spot of the first rappel. Nat belayed me down what looked like a downclimb, but ended in a 12 foot open section to the ground. I hung out below this giant chockstone, while Nat and Stefan built an anchor for the rappel.
05:04 – This is the spot I came down; I would have had to downclimb that sheer cliff if I hadn’t been on rope. Good thing we took the side of caution on that one.
05:18 – Nat rappelling down the squeaky rope.
05:25 - Stefan on Rappel #2
05:44 – After the second rappel we hit a deep dark section of slot, I had to turn on my night vision light to get decent shots, hence the green glow to the rock.
06:41 – Are you still reading this and watching? Dude, you must be pretty bored!
07:00 – Finally the canyon widened, we must be done with all the hard stuff… not quite yet. After a few more downclimbs, a semi-tricky pothole and one last rappel, we were back to the land of the living.
07:25 – Ahh, the endless views of slickrock on the hike out, yet another perk of this great sport.
07:54 – After getting to the car just before dark we set up camp and ate delicious burritos courtesy of Nat and Stefan. Mmmm… they were good. After a good nights sleep it was time for day two, a canyon that would prove to have a MUCH different character then yesterdays squeeze and stem.
08:14 – The crux of the canyon was right near the beginning. It was really tough to get in position for a good shot on this one, but there is a pretty nasty keeper pothole at the bottom of this rappel. In order to get around the obstacle, we set one end of the rope to rappel on single strand. The other end was tied off to a potshot hanging over the other side of the pothole. Nat then rappels down one side of the rope, and uses a ledge halfway down the pothole along with the rope tied to the potshot to pull himself out, allowing him to never drop into the bottom of the pothole. It worked out rather well.
09:12 – This canyon had a couple more rappels than yesterdays; here Nat builds a bomber anchor for a series of four potholes. These were much friendlier than the last one, but fun to climb out of still.
10:05 – There they go again with their voodoo magic; you really got to see them do this crap in real life to appreciate it.
10:38 – This was the longest and probably prettiest rappel of the trip, very nice spot.
11:00 – Then we were spoiled with an awesome convoluted twisty narrow section with absolutely perfect lighting.
11:15 – You could go over or under this one, we chose to go under.
11:32 – More twisty curvy narrows.
11:55 – Time for the hike out, this time we decided to take a different approach closer to the lake. The route finding was tricky at times but lots of fun. And the views… too bad the video does them no justice.
12:15 – “Want to go cliff jumping?” Just in case you can’t understand what Stefan is saying as he stands 600 or 700 feet above the lake.
12:57 – You must really be sick if you are still watching. I must really be sick if I’m still writing this. Ok, we’re both sick. Hope you enjoyed it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1503247507224214147&q=canyoneering
00:00 – Name of the two canyons we descended that weekend
00:08 – The view from our camp Saturday morning.
00:23 – After driving around for a while trying to find the right roads, we found the head of the first days canyon. Here we look down as the slot twists its way toward Lake Powell.
00:40 – Nat and Stefan trying to find a route down the upper cliff band to access the Navajo.
00:46 – After finding a slippery slide entrance to get down to the slickrock, it was into the shallow slot we went. What lies ahead?
00:53 – The slot starts right away, like usual it’s not terribly deep at first, but it keeps us entertained with chock stones to crawl under and short drops to downclimb.
01:05 – Nat on one of the first bigger downclimbs where the canyon started to deepen up and get narrow!
01:43 – The canyon had quite a few short sections of very nice convoluted narrows. It wouldn’t get particularly deep until toward the end, but the slot was very beautiful nonetheless.
02:00 – Stefan downclimbing one of the many, many, short drops.
02:19 – a blue alien bug trying to block the lens.
02:44 – This is the only shot of me you get, my legs about 20 feet or so off the deck. Skinny guys probably can fit through everything down low, but I sure would hate to get stuck finding out. We chose to go high for this one.
03:05 – There were a lot of really tight squeezes where we had to take off our packs and wiggle through. Many times the packs were more difficult to get through than ourselves.
03:20 – Crazy how Nat and Stefan could flip into turbo mode every now and then on the downclimbs and rappels. I still don’t get how they do it.
3:29 – The canyon would alternate between narrow and tough, and wide and easy. It seemed to be narrow and tough a lot more than wide and easy though.
04:22 – A nice little bridge we found in a deep section.
04:28 – Some like the action shots, some like the scenic views. I tried to get a little of both when I put the footage together.
04:55 – This is the spot of the first rappel. Nat belayed me down what looked like a downclimb, but ended in a 12 foot open section to the ground. I hung out below this giant chockstone, while Nat and Stefan built an anchor for the rappel.
05:04 – This is the spot I came down; I would have had to downclimb that sheer cliff if I hadn’t been on rope. Good thing we took the side of caution on that one.
05:18 – Nat rappelling down the squeaky rope.
05:25 - Stefan on Rappel #2
05:44 – After the second rappel we hit a deep dark section of slot, I had to turn on my night vision light to get decent shots, hence the green glow to the rock.
06:41 – Are you still reading this and watching? Dude, you must be pretty bored!
07:00 – Finally the canyon widened, we must be done with all the hard stuff… not quite yet. After a few more downclimbs, a semi-tricky pothole and one last rappel, we were back to the land of the living.
07:25 – Ahh, the endless views of slickrock on the hike out, yet another perk of this great sport.
07:54 – After getting to the car just before dark we set up camp and ate delicious burritos courtesy of Nat and Stefan. Mmmm… they were good. After a good nights sleep it was time for day two, a canyon that would prove to have a MUCH different character then yesterdays squeeze and stem.
08:14 – The crux of the canyon was right near the beginning. It was really tough to get in position for a good shot on this one, but there is a pretty nasty keeper pothole at the bottom of this rappel. In order to get around the obstacle, we set one end of the rope to rappel on single strand. The other end was tied off to a potshot hanging over the other side of the pothole. Nat then rappels down one side of the rope, and uses a ledge halfway down the pothole along with the rope tied to the potshot to pull himself out, allowing him to never drop into the bottom of the pothole. It worked out rather well.
09:12 – This canyon had a couple more rappels than yesterdays; here Nat builds a bomber anchor for a series of four potholes. These were much friendlier than the last one, but fun to climb out of still.
10:05 – There they go again with their voodoo magic; you really got to see them do this crap in real life to appreciate it.
10:38 – This was the longest and probably prettiest rappel of the trip, very nice spot.
11:00 – Then we were spoiled with an awesome convoluted twisty narrow section with absolutely perfect lighting.
11:15 – You could go over or under this one, we chose to go under.
11:32 – More twisty curvy narrows.
11:55 – Time for the hike out, this time we decided to take a different approach closer to the lake. The route finding was tricky at times but lots of fun. And the views… too bad the video does them no justice.
12:15 – “Want to go cliff jumping?” Just in case you can’t understand what Stefan is saying as he stands 600 or 700 feet above the lake.
12:57 – You must really be sick if you are still watching. I must really be sick if I’m still writing this. Ok, we’re both sick. Hope you enjoyed it.
