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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Mar 24, 2017 - 05:38pm PT
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Ansel Adams?
John Muir?
Edward Abbey?
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 24, 2017 - 06:54pm PT
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Thank you.
Stein is a distillation of all of the above, and distilling is another of his hobbies.
Stein Sitzmark, the most interesting "old-guy" in Idaho.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Mar 24, 2017 - 08:06pm PT
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Great stuff! My brother recently executed a multi-year plan to escape from Nampa, ID.
When he was still in southwestern Idaho, we did have a few adventures at cool places:
Here we are trying to kill my niece after failing to kill the other kids:
Snake River in the western part of the state:
No rocks handy to climb, but this reminded me of being a kid:
And super-epic lava tubes to explore. Sometimes have to crawl on bellies to get through constrictions, but we eventually (after a good half hour of walking and exploring?) hit a spot that the army corps of engineers or somebody sealed off.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 26, 2017 - 04:29pm PT
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Nut again, thanks for sharing your photos.
This is from the online version of the Twin Falls daily paper:
MURTAUGH — Even on a dull day, Star Falls could chew you up and spit you out.
That’s why visitors at the historic waterfall upstream from the Murtaugh Bridge were shocked last weekend to see several groups of kayakers take on the turbulent Snake River.Below Star Falls, the Murtaugh Stretch of the river is considered a world-class section of whitewater too dangerous to float most years. Some kayakers and rafters would consider it too dangerous to float any year, but with the Snake as high as it is now, many will give it a go.
“We’ll be here every weekend until the water stops,” said Twin Falls kayaker Mike Bond.
A large group of sightseers had traveled to Murtaugh Saturday, crossed the Snake River Canyon at the Murtaugh Bridge, then followed signs along graveled roads to “Cauldron Linn” — otherwise known as Star Falls — to see the rarely raging river at its best.During a normal spring, irrigation water would be backing up behind the Milner Dam, leaving only a trickle of water flowing between bone-dry boulders eroded away over thousands of years in the deep canyon.But a plentiful snowpack in the mountains has streamflows this week at more than 20,000 cubic feet per second below the dam. Bond and his group stood at the bank and watched the river flow over a high terrace that almost never sees water.
“Are they nuts?” bystanders whispered as the men wearing wet suits and GoPro cameras pointed and planned their route over the waterfall, named Cauldron Linn by early trailblazers after a waterfall on the River Devon in Scotland.
The Wilson Price Hunt Party, hired by real estate and fur tycoon John Jacob Astor, met disaster upstream from Star Falls in October 1811 when an experienced steersman drowned after his dugout canoe hit a rock near present-day Milner Dam. The river proved impassable and others on the expedition ended up walking through the winter to Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River.
“I don’t want to discourage people, but I don’t like to see people getting in over their heads,” said Dennis Pettygrove, owner of River and Adventure Toys in Twin Falls. “If you’re not an experienced oarsman, you should have second thoughts about running the Murtaugh.”The Murtaugh Stretch is tough, Pettygrove said, but shooting Star Falls is nearly impossible.
But that’s what kayakers are doing now, and have done every time the Snake River bulges at its seams.
“Kayakers come in from literally all over the West to run the river,” Pettygrove said, who has rafted the Murtaugh Stretch at 10,000 cfs.
Here's a youtube video of the kayakers running Star Falls aka Cauldron Linn, they start dropping in at about 2 minutes.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
I also found this 6 minute youtube video of an Aire Cougar like mine running the Murtaugh at about 18,000 cfs.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
MY-MY! What busy water. At one point, there is a distant shot of another raft flipping. They didn't video the Class V rapid, which is often portaged, Pair of Dice. In this old photo I took of it, we ran the right hand channel, which is between the two dice.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 30, 2017 - 08:15pm PT
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It rained most of the night in Choss Creek, but the storm broke this morning, for a few hours & the combination of light & clouds in the Snake River canyon was pleasant.
Then we drove to our local "Big city" of Twin Falls for some shopping errands & visited Shoshone Falls, just a few miles to the east mid-morning, before the wind, rain, & snow hit. At 18,000 CFS, Shoshone Falls was spectacular, & not crowded by rural Idaho standards.
A down canyon view.
A nice break in the boring South Idaho flats.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Mar 30, 2017 - 08:27pm PT
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Geeze Fritzs...Nice waterfall pics.. I always get lost when i drive thru Twin Falls...rj
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 31, 2017 - 09:43am PT
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 31, 2017 - 10:17am PT
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I think Nutagain's waterfall & climbing photos above & earlier on this thread are of Jump Creek Falls. There was a death there earlier this week when a local took a 40 foot fall while scrambling.
And Wayno, that nearby stream in your photo is none other than world-famous, Choss Creek. It's suppose to be running real high today, so I'll get some photos, that may be higher than in this Feb 10th shot.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 31, 2017 - 05:34pm PT
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Heidi & I explored high water on Choss Creek today. It was roaring.
Here's a shot slightly below where Wayno's photo is. The little dam was a mill-race today.
Choss Creek canyon was also impressive.
Choss Creek Falls is all but washed out. At lower river levels, there's a nice drop, that some kayakers finally ran & survived.
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7SacredPools
Trad climber
Ontario, Canada
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Mar 31, 2017 - 06:15pm PT
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Great thread Fritz. I love white water paddling, but haven't spent much time doing it and never got any good at it. Just as well, I'd probably drown.
That pic of your friend Stein climbing up the dune is galley worthy!
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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I thought Choss creek was the little creek that ran through your ranchette, Fritz.
Nice little spot nonetheless.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 2, 2017 - 03:39pm PT
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Wayno: Choss Creek has had many names, but likely deserves to be called the Malad.
Trapper Donald McKenzie’s Northwest Fur Company expedition became ill in 1818, after eating beaver they had trapped in Choss Creek. McKenzie named the river Malad, meaning “sick” in French.
Trapper Alexander Ross’s party also became quite ill in 1824 after dining on beaver caught from Choss Creek. Ross speculated the beaver had been eating the roots of some plant growing near the creek that poisoned humans, but not beaver. Water Hemlock, which still grows along Choss Creek has been guessed as the root by me & others.
Ross named Choss Creek the Riviere Aux Maladies = river of sickness.
Another trapper noted the same problem in 1830 & renamed Choss Creek, Sickly River.
Water Hemlock. Ain't it pretty?
Tragically, this incident happened on another Idaho desert river, the Owyhee, in 1984.
Guide Ken Kromer gathered & washed a batch of water hemlock roots while scouting a rapid & thinking they were wild parsnip, then shared them with other guides & passengers. They said he and Sam Allen, 27, of Denver, began having seizures about 45 minutes after eating the roots. The others began feeling queasy and lethargic.
John Youle, 26, of Denver, said Kromer died a short time later. 'We just sat around,' Youle said. 'We didn't know who would be next. We were terrified.' James Apple, 27, of Denver, added, 'We positioned ourselves in grassy spots, so in case one of us had a seizure we wouldn't hurt ourselves on rocks or anything.'
While they were waiting for the seizures to begin, chief guide Don Merrill, who did not eat any of the roots, hiked out of the steep canyon looking for help. Thomas Wendel of Lake Oswego, Ore., a medical student at Oregon Health Sciences University, said he tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Kromer, but it didn't work.
'At first I thought it was a real classic epileptic seizure, but as soon as Sam had his seizure I knew it was much too coincidental,' Wendel said.
Wendel said four of the rafters took only one or two bites of the hemlock, but Allen and Kromer, a junior at the University of Oregon in Eugene, ate much more. None of the other rafters experienced the seizures, he said, but they were sick.
All but one of the five who survived the poisoning were released from a Boise hospital Tuesday. Sam Allen remained hospitalized in fair condition
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