Thursday, May 20, 2010

 

Sad Cow Disease

After our hike into Phipps Wash we drove into town for an early dinner then drove out to meet Ram and his crew. Along for the trip were Ram, Aaron, Doc, Matt, Jenny, and Me. Jenny was no ordinary canyoneer though. She was the girlfriend of one of the pioneers of the sport and was on many first descents in the 70's and 80's in some ultra classics that get done all the time today. She brought her laptop and showed us old scanned slides from places like Choprock, Baker, Poe, Happy Dog, etc... Her endless energy and love for the desert was contagious. With her and Matt along we were all fully entertained and a few times bent over laughing until our abs were sore!

On the agenda for today was a canyon we named Sad Cow Disease. Bill Wolverton and Steve Cole had descended it and we had some sparse beta from them but mostly we were just exploring. It turned out to be a short but really nice, really photogenic slot. We climbed, squoze, rap'ed, and shimmied our way down. Shortly before the end we started to get a whiff of something nasty. I was in the lead and hesitated to move forward. As we kept moving the smell got stronger... something ahead of us was dead and rotting.

Sure enough, Matt caught a glimpse of what it was. A big dead cow in the middle of the slot. With my face inside my shirt, I basically ran toward it, stemmed over it, and kept running to get away from the smell. But mom wasn't the only one who died, behind her was the corpse of her calf, who stuck with her till the end. We were all pretty traumatized by the smell but Jenny was a bit traumatized by the scene of mother and baby, thus the name of the canyon.

Looking for a way up.
From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

After a lot of searching for access, we find a rappel.
From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

Matt decided to try and wave in as many pictures as he possibly could... Hello Matt.
From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

The light in the slot was phenomenal.
From Sad Cow Disease

Probably my favorite shot of the trip.
From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

Really cool crawl through tunnel-like spot.
From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

The cow smelled way too bad, I didn't stop to take pictures of it, so here is the hike out.
From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

From Sad Cow Disease

Oh ya, and weather turned bad. We barely made it to the cars before the rains came... and didn't stop for hours.
From Sad Cow Disease

Comments:
Hi Eric, I just came across your page. Thank you for sharing the pictures. It will certainly give me an inspiration for one of my next canyoneering trips. Thank you, Lubos
 
Where are the pictures of the Dead cows?
 
i would really love to get a trail head for this canyon it looks like a fun canyon to explore.
 
Beautiful Pictures! WOW! Looks like a really fun canyon. Where is this canyon?
 
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