Monday, April 22, 2013

Tombstone Blues

The most bang for your buck, according to Joe, and I have to agree. He went on to declare it even better than Bonas Defeat which is a bold statement but if anyone would know it would be him. No doubt about it this made for an excellent east coast canyoneering/cascading route.

It was an easy walk to the entry: a short walk on a well maintained trail and then into the creek.

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Then we immediately right into it with a 60' waterfall that required some technical down climbing before we reached the main drop.

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There was a deep pool at the bottom we could barely see and Joe was hopeful that he could down climb and then jump into the water. But before he could use such a technique he had to know that it was clear at the bottom. So, I went down on rappel with Joe providing a meat anchor. At the bottom I found the landing zone to be very shallow so Joe had to build another anchor and then rappel down himself.

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Even though it was shallow a swim was still required.

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From there we had a lot of rock hopping and whatnot before the walls starting to close in as the creek fell off the mountain. Like Joe said, It was now on.

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We were on top of a 150' waterfall and faced with technical cascade scrambling and multiple rappels. This was exactly what we came looking for.

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The rock in this part of the canyon was very banded and simply stunning. The perspective provided by descending these mountain creeks shows a whole other side to natures beauty and splendor.

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We probably could have down climbed this little section of the waterfall. We also probably could have slipped and fallen. So, we rapped it.

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A short, but sketchy traverse across the creek over some amazing rock and then another rappel deeper down into the canyon. Joe was really stoked about what he saw below us.

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Enormous boulders, tight walls, never ending problems and unflinching concentration. It was around here better than Bonas Defeat was declared.

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Swift water. Joe is actually accredited in this stuff. 

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A big part of it is picking the right line.

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Much like Grassy it was just never ending splendor.

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It ended with a double waterfall into two pristine swimming holes and then a fun little exit traverse.

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Pictures from Joe's perspective can be found on his Pura Vida Adventures facebook page

Anyone interested in this stuff check out Joe's website: http://pvadventures.com/adventures/canyoneering/
His trips are a great way to get introduced to canyoneering and his courses are the perfect way to develop the skills to this stuff on your own.





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