Here is some more photo goodness from Dave. This day we hit up Raven Canyon, a high stemming solid R borderline -X canyon. Most of the stemming is high but pinched off below you. The canyon starts with some mellow, shallow stemming and climbing then gives you a good 40 'ish foot upclimb and stays high for a bit. You cross a few mini silos, touchdown for a few minutes, then do the crux, exposed, big boy silos just before it lets up and you can climb out. The canyon is new in Kelsey's Tech Slot Guide but we have friends that have done it in the past (Dave had done it before). When our friends do it, they cross over five big silos, we crossed the first two mandatory silos (including the scary sharp corner silo that you have to downclimb straight into the dropzone, then step over to a ledge on the right) and then decided to go down and tackle the last three the traditional way, with sand bags, aiders, and ascenders. The final couple pothles were very fun to climb out of and the canyon very human friendly down there (NOT human friendly for the first two silos, those you HAVE to cross up high). I'd rate it 3A II - III SLOT R+
This is a great adventure for those ready for it, but be warned the silos at the end are VERY real. That said it's a great step up for those comfortable with stemming but wanting to cross some real silo's. The crux can kinda, sorta be belayed by the person behind, it is very exposed.
Link to gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ericgodfrey/Raven#
Dave P.'s Photos:
Gettin things started
A brief safe spot, sitting on a wedged rock 30 feet off the ground
A sweet resting corner
Getting high
Short break from the stemming, then it was back up. No pictures of the rest as we were working too hard
# posted by Eric @ 1:03 AM
