An ugly name. And on the approach, I couldn't help but think it was an
unattractive canyon.
We were excited at the prospect of doing a PG slot, but this one wasn't as great as I'd hoped. It was pretty short, and VERY sunny. Usually it's not so bad running canyons in the heat, because the slots almost feel air conditioned. But not this one.
(By the way, PG stands for Pretty Good. And it doesn't mean "pretty good" as in "okay, but kind of lame," like a PG movie. It means it's a pretty good slot, and you're going to have to have skills to get through it. An R slot is Risky, and you have to be pretty advanced. And an X slot means you could die. Gog was the first PG slot I've done; all the other slot canyons I've been through haven't been tight enough to be rated.)
There was some stemming, and some narrow parts.
(I think this was the part where I was going to skip stemming and squeeze through on the floor, but my little ATC made enough of a difference in my width that I couldn't do it.)
(Subway-like walls)
The crux of it was a 40-foot drop that Kelsey describes as a RISKY MOVE if you downclimb it and recommends rapping. I figured Jason and Kristin would DC, but after Jason went down, he insisted that I could make it.
After quite a bit of anxiety, I reached the ledge Jason was on. Then Kristin came down, and the two of them finished the downclimb. The scariest part is the bottom, which is a drop into a pool (that's not usually a pool). It was exactly like that scene in 127 Hours, except we didn't drop into the beautiful Blue Hole. I chimneyed my way down, then dropped into Kristin and Jason's waiting hands. I think it would have been scarier if it was dry; falling into chest deep water isn't as bad.
After completing this move (like a boss, according to Jason) I started to walk out of the pool onto the sand and immediately backtracked. This sand was bad news. The first step created an avalanche back into the pool; the second step took me almost knee deep into the wet sand. I knew I couldn't make it out that way and quickly jumped back into the pool to reevaluate. Kristin was over on the far left side, where the sand seemed to be more stable. I went for the far right side. Meanwhile, Jason came full speed ahead of me straight up the middle and started sinking so fast. Not quite as quick as in the Princess Bride, but FAST. He threw himself down on his chest and crawled out. I'm so glad he knew what to do in quiksand; it was a really scary few seconds. Even he was a little freaked out afterwards.
We emerged from the canyon muddy, smelly, and wet.
And we still had the exit to deal with, which was not pretty. It involved climbing really steep slickrock, and there were two tricky moves. Kristin was behind me, spotting me as I climbed up a crack, when I grabbed a rock to pull myself up and it crumbled in my hand. If I hadn't fallen on her, it would've been a 15 foot drop to the nearest ledge. And honestly, I'm not sure if the ledge would have stopped me- it wasn't very wide or flat. And then I would've been totally screwed. I was a little shaken up after this incident, so Jason gave me a handline to make it up this part.
I handlined up another difficult part as well, which I'm not sure how Jason climbed on his own. There were no hand or foot holds; just friction climbing. He does stuff that terrifies me. I think a big part of it is just going for it with everything you've got and having the confidence that you will make it. Regardless of how he does it, I'm grateful that he can so I can have a handline. Funny how, last summer, I was terrified at the idea of using a handline. Now, they are a source of comfort on some of the difficult downclimbs and upclimbs.
Finally, we were back to the car. We enjoyed a late lunch at Blondie's, followed by a heavenly shower. Tonight we are camping near Little Egypt again. I love how remote camping is out here; a truck just drove by on the dirt road, and it was an event. We have one last canyon to hit tomorrow, and it sounds promising. Tonight my mom asked me if I was tired of canyoneering, and the answer to that is "never!"
*All photos taken by the amazing Jason Marshall of www.inthecanyons.com
We were excited at the prospect of doing a PG slot, but this one wasn't as great as I'd hoped. It was pretty short, and VERY sunny. Usually it's not so bad running canyons in the heat, because the slots almost feel air conditioned. But not this one.
(By the way, PG stands for Pretty Good. And it doesn't mean "pretty good" as in "okay, but kind of lame," like a PG movie. It means it's a pretty good slot, and you're going to have to have skills to get through it. An R slot is Risky, and you have to be pretty advanced. And an X slot means you could die. Gog was the first PG slot I've done; all the other slot canyons I've been through haven't been tight enough to be rated.)
There was some stemming, and some narrow parts.
(I think this was the part where I was going to skip stemming and squeeze through on the floor, but my little ATC made enough of a difference in my width that I couldn't do it.)
(Subway-like walls)
The crux of it was a 40-foot drop that Kelsey describes as a RISKY MOVE if you downclimb it and recommends rapping. I figured Jason and Kristin would DC, but after Jason went down, he insisted that I could make it.
After quite a bit of anxiety, I reached the ledge Jason was on. Then Kristin came down, and the two of them finished the downclimb. The scariest part is the bottom, which is a drop into a pool (that's not usually a pool). It was exactly like that scene in 127 Hours, except we didn't drop into the beautiful Blue Hole. I chimneyed my way down, then dropped into Kristin and Jason's waiting hands. I think it would have been scarier if it was dry; falling into chest deep water isn't as bad.
After completing this move (like a boss, according to Jason) I started to walk out of the pool onto the sand and immediately backtracked. This sand was bad news. The first step created an avalanche back into the pool; the second step took me almost knee deep into the wet sand. I knew I couldn't make it out that way and quickly jumped back into the pool to reevaluate. Kristin was over on the far left side, where the sand seemed to be more stable. I went for the far right side. Meanwhile, Jason came full speed ahead of me straight up the middle and started sinking so fast. Not quite as quick as in the Princess Bride, but FAST. He threw himself down on his chest and crawled out. I'm so glad he knew what to do in quiksand; it was a really scary few seconds. Even he was a little freaked out afterwards.
We emerged from the canyon muddy, smelly, and wet.
And we still had the exit to deal with, which was not pretty. It involved climbing really steep slickrock, and there were two tricky moves. Kristin was behind me, spotting me as I climbed up a crack, when I grabbed a rock to pull myself up and it crumbled in my hand. If I hadn't fallen on her, it would've been a 15 foot drop to the nearest ledge. And honestly, I'm not sure if the ledge would have stopped me- it wasn't very wide or flat. And then I would've been totally screwed. I was a little shaken up after this incident, so Jason gave me a handline to make it up this part.
I handlined up another difficult part as well, which I'm not sure how Jason climbed on his own. There were no hand or foot holds; just friction climbing. He does stuff that terrifies me. I think a big part of it is just going for it with everything you've got and having the confidence that you will make it. Regardless of how he does it, I'm grateful that he can so I can have a handline. Funny how, last summer, I was terrified at the idea of using a handline. Now, they are a source of comfort on some of the difficult downclimbs and upclimbs.
Finally, we were back to the car. We enjoyed a late lunch at Blondie's, followed by a heavenly shower. Tonight we are camping near Little Egypt again. I love how remote camping is out here; a truck just drove by on the dirt road, and it was an event. We have one last canyon to hit tomorrow, and it sounds promising. Tonight my mom asked me if I was tired of canyoneering, and the answer to that is "never!"
*All photos taken by the amazing Jason Marshall of www.inthecanyons.com
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