The last canyon we hit in Escalante was East Scorpion via it's West Branch. This had a couple short rappels to get in, then stemming in the full sun for 45 minutes or more. It was REALLY hot and after the first section Dave and Pen decided to bail and head back to the car. We looked at the final slot section from the rim, and it looked like more of the same so we didn't feel too bad about our decision. I may come back to this one on a cooler day but it seemed like a lot of pay for the play to me. Fairly long approach hike for how short and shallow the slot was. It's a good intro to stemming canyon though, just high enough to feel a little serious, but never scary high.
Link to gallery of Dave's Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ericgodfrey/WBranchOfEScorpion#
All photos by Dave P.
Whew, it was HOT!
The mad stemmer
My secret agent pose
Canyon is getting deeper, but it's still in the blaring sun.
The lower slot we bypassed
# posted by Eric @ 1:21 AM
