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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 15, 2008 - 08:19pm PT
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By Jody's request (not sure if it was serious or not), a selection of very random Grand Canyon pictures, from five years of guiding and travelling in the big ditch...
After a hike from river to the rim:
Campfire scene:
Petroglyphs:
John Hirsch making one of his beach size Grand Canyon maps to explain the geology:
Balance Sculptures:
Wheelie:
Mating Snakes (photo by Charly Heavenrich):
Side canyon hike:
Me about to get munched in Lava:
Lee's Ferry put-in:
Navajo Bridge, near Lee's Ferry (Dano and I both did a 400 rope jump off this bridge once):
Lunch spot:
You only do this jump once:
My camp on a GTS trip:
Another time about to get munched:
Pictograph Hizatsinom hand prints:
Good bouldering:
You can stare at the reflections for hours:
Cooking dinner:
ANother Jon Hirsch, the human belay for a 40' rappel during a hike up Tuck Up canyon:
Painting Dan's fingernails before Lava:
Scouting Lava:
Rowing, my favorite:
Paddle boat captaining:
Mellow stretch:
A fun crew (Rob, Rachel, me, Larry, Dan, and Nicole):
A fun night:
Another fun night:
Big Agave:
Big rain on the river, you can see a big flash flood waterfall on the skyline of the cliff:
The truck ride back after a commercial trip, where all the real shittalking begins:
Grapevine Buttress (taken while speeding through Grapevine rapid). We climbed the second ascent of this 1000 foot wall, Tommy Caldwell just did the third and first free ascent, I hear:
Telling coyote stories (note Rob, the head guide of the trip snoozing on the front boat):
Tree of light:
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2008 - 08:36pm PT
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Thanks Kath! Thanks Jody!
We gotta get Peter Mayfield to post his pics, I got a sneak peak on a tip from Billy Bob Russell, there are some super cool shots from their trip.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jan 15, 2008 - 08:37pm PT
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Thanks, John - very nice. You've also set a fine example for EKat. :-)
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Jan 15, 2008 - 08:39pm PT
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Those reflections are neato.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Jan 15, 2008 - 08:47pm PT
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Sweet,
thanks!
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jan 15, 2008 - 09:01pm PT
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Right on, John! I was gonna say that was probably exactly what Jody was after, then he confirmed it.
Very cool stuff! Who's the rest of the crew?
Cable/wireless, don't be home without it, photos had all loaded by the time I read the first verbage, seconds.
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Big Kahuna
Ice climber
Hell Hardest climb I did was getting out of bed.
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Jan 15, 2008 - 09:07pm PT
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Thx John! Great pics
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2008 - 09:22pm PT
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yeah, Jody, that picture is kind of sick..
Rowing really was my favorite way to go. Freedom, rhythm, the splash of the oars in the water, lining up and pushing the rig into the big waves, a place to sleep...
Paddle boat captaining sucked, I blew out my shoulder doing it. Fun on the big days, but there's a lot of slack water in the Grand Canyon, and it's challenging motivating the clients to paddle after a bunch of slow days. Not to mention on a wet rainy day most of your "crew" suddenly wants to take a rest day on the rowboats.
Course, kayaking was the super fun way to go. Pretty intense, though. My last trip last summer I got flipped in Granite Rapid and spent about 25 seconds getting washer machined before I was able to roll back up after the rapid. Almost pulled the skirt on that one.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
Nowhere
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Jan 15, 2008 - 09:33pm PT
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Great pics!
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Delhi Dog
Trad climber
Good Question...
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Jan 15, 2008 - 10:48pm PT
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Great share Duece brings back the best of memories...
I've rowed the Canyon 6 times now and love (almost) every minute of it.
Was down there 1 year when a baloney boat flipped just below Crystal- wow those folks were flipped out...choppered them all out, bummer for them but we sure got a lot of beers out of the downstream eddies for days :>)
That shot of Tuckup is a cool one, looks solid to me...:>)
great little side hike and climbs in there.
I remember one time 3 of us were sleeping under the overhang below the fixed rope in Olo...sound asleep and all of a sudden we heard an increadible roar...
I guesss it had been raining up high that night and we didn't know about it, when down comes this massive water spout crashing down about 5 feet away from us. Man oh man I woke up from a sound sleep shi%%ing myself thinking the end of the world had caught up with me.
I always sleep on my boat now:>)
Yea, great times down there.
I'll bet there are tons of good stories floating around in the eddies of our minds that would be fun to hear...
My wife's put-in is next summer (2009)...yipee!!!can't wait.
DD
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tenesmus
Trad climber
slc
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Jan 15, 2008 - 11:07pm PT
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Love to see that last pic of Olo. Once drug a bunch of tourist kids/husbands up that rope ladder and scared the hell out of their mothers/wives.
That agave is ginormous. The whole lot made me smile. Thanks again.
clay
edit: did you ever see the area around Vasey's and Redwall cavern in full-on flash mode? I once made the mistake of doing a rain dance in August. Then I decided to do a 'Woman Dance'. These models from Spain came down - not on the trip list. Just showed up. Pretty fun stuff.
And then it began to RAIN for about 3 days. It was pretty crazy seeing 6 or 7 red mud-monster flows as thick as a Volkswagon danding straight into the river. Big cooler sized rocks popping out and thu-dunking into the water. We took the middle channel and hung out in the cavern for hours. Pinched for camps all the way to Harding.
That pic of your long fall is killer. We saw a bunch of those through the whole way through the Upper Granite Gorge. Big red ribbons occasionally but mostly long clear ribbons. Grapevine had a cool falls.
I love how seeing those pics triggers memories - thanks for helping me. Oh - and i'd heard caldwell was on limestone, but it makes a lot more sense that he was on that granite butress. Still waiting to find a way to climb that long fin I was asking about...
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L
climber
A High Tide on a Low Coast
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Jan 15, 2008 - 11:18pm PT
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Incredible photos, John. Thanks for sharing your experiences in that most magical and beautiful of places.
(Unlike Jody, I found you semi-naked hairy men in bikinis groping each other rather...uh...fascinating. A river tradition, I presume?)
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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Jan 15, 2008 - 11:22pm PT
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Nice, Deuce! BadAss pics! Looks like tons of fun, for sure! I haven't been rafting in a number of years.
The photo entitled: "Pictograph Hizatsinom hand prints" is awesome! I didn't realize there were other hand prints quite like these out there. I've always seen the inverse of this, where it looks like the hands were dipped in paint and then the print was placed on the rock.
I have similar shots from Utah:
Which are in this ruin, in the stone above the center doorway, facing the ground.
Thanks for sharing the pics of your adventures!
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 15, 2008 - 11:28pm PT
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Awesome John, love ya dude
Thanks for your photos too, Randy
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Delhi Dog
Trad climber
Good Question...
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Jan 15, 2008 - 11:54pm PT
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Wow, Nef. those are excellent photos!!
To be down there when the rain comes is a pretty special experience. Imagine thousands of Yo. falls surrounding you all in that wonderful red colored water...the mixing of the reds and browns into the deep blues and greens...mmmm
and the wind...
DD
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Mimi
climber
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Jan 15, 2008 - 11:59pm PT
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Thanks for the awesome pics John and Randy.
That wood balancing sculpture is a cool idea. The canyon has one of the best driftwood collections on earth.
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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Jan 16, 2008 - 03:14am PT
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As much as I love the valley, sometimes I wonder if I don't love the Southwest more... The grass is always greener, eh?
Thanks for the kind words, guys. But, please, more pics, John! Those are great!
I tried doing some searching on Hizatsinom, John, and only came up with one site that tried to send me adware viruses. Yikes! Do you have any more info about this? This stuff captivates me!
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 16, 2008 - 09:59am PT
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Thanks for all cool notes and stories to share. Delhi Dog and Tenesemos--good callon the Cottonwood at Olo. Two years ago, I was sad to float by and see that a beaver had chewed the Cottonwood down. Werner, love ya too!
Nefarius: actually, I spelled Hisatsinom wrong--the current PC term for the Hopi's ancestors, see
http://www.nau.edu/~hcpo-p/arts/hisat.htm I did three trips working for the Park Service rowing boats on Hopi Elders trips (each year the Park Service organizes a trip for each of the adjoining tribes). I made a movie with footage from one of the trips : http://www.bigwalls.net/climbMovies/ One time Cliff, one of the Hopis gave me some of their sacred Grand Canyon salt--just sent some to Werner to check out.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Jan 16, 2008 - 10:09am PT
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Now that's a great slide show, thanks for bringing us along.
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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Jan 16, 2008 - 12:47pm PT
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Super cool, John! Thanks for that link! It was super informative for me! I need to make some changes to some of my literature and website to remove references to Anasazi (ruins), etc. I think I will also put a blurb in my literature when I do shows, etc. so that people can be educated as to the wishes of the Hisatsinom, as well as to understand why. Stuff like this is super important to me. I have a show in Europe coming up this year, with Ira Latour, entitled "Indians and Cowboys: A Changing Paradigm". For my part, I really hope to share with the world the wonder and beauty of the Hisatsinom culture and their descendants.
Great movie! The colors, canyons and people there are just amazing! Loved the part where they are traversing, in the slot, and the shoes are starting to slide. I don't think it matters what type of shoe you are wearing - slot canyon walls can be SLICK!!! Do you do much canyoneering, John?
Great stuff, again! Thanks for sharing!
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