4/2 - Vaughan had been wanting to try rappelling for years and I was always the voice of reason - until today. He found a company online, Antelope Ridge Adventure Park, that currently has the only Via Feratta route through a clot canyon in the world.
Via Feratta is Italian for Iron Way. It is a protected climbing route featuring fixed steel cables, ladders, etc. for steep exposed areas.
They provide everything you need and you provide the guts to do it. Me? I have no guts.
Here he is with the experts -
Look at that grin -
Here is a great shot at a rappel through 'eye of the needle". There is also a ladder in the wall next to this. I guess that is in case you get down and say "NOPE! I'm done!".
Many say this is a much cooler canyon than Antelope. Too bad it wasn't sunny so you could see the colors.
In some spots you had too squeeze through the slots but there was a deeper slot below.
Tight quarters for a selfie.
This shows how sand can poor in from way above.
Here he is on the upper portion of the final rappel - 60 feet. My man has guts!
Here is the lower potion of the 60 foot wall.
This was the trail back to camp. Very cool!
Meanwhile, I went for a short hike to an alcove filled with a sand dune.
But the storms were moving in -
We had a 70 mile drive back to Kanab and the snow began. By the last 10 miles we were in a major blizzard. You could barely see the white line on the right side of the road. Creeping along we eventually made it back and kissed the RV we live in.
This is our normal view out the RV window at Grand Plateau RV Resort.
and this morning - the whole ridge disappeared. Magic!
