Canyoneering near Hite, part 2

The next day we returned to the same area for another short canyon, this time the "East Fork of Mile 27.4 Canyon." We were looking forward to another couple hours playing around on sandstone. As I write this from Boulder City, NV, I remember and miss the sandstone!


John strikes an imposing figure:


A random hoodoo:


Almost a selfie:


At the top of the first rappel (15 meters high):


It was an easy one - a nice change for me:


The second rappel was our highest to date, 32 meters. Too high to double-back our 50-meter rope, so we had to use a second rope to pull it down. This was good practice for a subsequent canyon at Zion, even though we (likely) won't need this skill at Desert Winds.

Getting set up:


I *love* this shot:


Looks like he got it all figured out:


Another fun rappel, just quite a bit more of a drop. Looking back at the ropes as John is starting to pull them down:


Stemming practice:


The slot below the rappels was awesome - narrow, curvy, interesting, and in some places really narrow:





A rare view from above:


One of my better "downclimb" photos - I may be getting better at it, but usually it doesn't look any too graceful:


We had planned to do the east fork as well, but some dark clouds and wind chased us away. Hopefully we'll be back there someday - it's a neat place to learn on some short and sweet canyons.