Eardly, Baptist, Quandry – March 2006

In the spring of 2006, Cow (Chris Cowenhoven) and I ventured out to Moab for some bouldering. After a day of climbing, we wandered off on a hike one afternoon and stumbled upon a tiny, dry wash with some cool, swirly rock formations. It reminded us of those iconic photos of swirling canyons we’d seen at some point in our lives. We didn’t think much of it at the time, but after returning to Gunnison, Cow mentioned the trip and the cool rock formations to a co-worker, who asked if he’d ever tried canyoneering.

Long story short, we took the advice, grabbed a guidebook and some gear, and headed back to the San Rafael Swell in late March.

Eardly Canyon

I don’t remember much about the hike in, other than that it felt long. Eventually, we reached the canyon bottom and suited up for the water-filled, technical pothole section. Cow was in a high-quality 4-5mm full-body wetsuit, while I made do with a 1-2mm farmer john wetsuit, complete with a large rip up the crotch.

Eardly Canyon features a series of swims, many right before or after rappels. This meant having to unclip from the belay device while treading water and then swimming to the other side of the pothole. After just a couple of swims, I was already struggling to clip and unclip my belay device because my hands were so numb.

It was my first experience with cold water exposure, and I had no idea how much it would affect me. Cow, in much better shape thanks to his full-body suit, ended up doing most of the work. He set up the rappels, clipped me in, and sent me over the edge before following right behind. We repeated this process through six or seven rappels and as many swims.

Finally, we made it out. We changed into warm clothes and sat in the afternoon sun for over an hour, trying to thaw out.

That was one hell of an introduction to canyoneering. On to the next one!

Baptist Canyon

Baptist was beautiful, and thankfully bone-dry—aside from the snow on the ground. After the freezing ordeal in Eardly, Baptist felt like a welcome reprieve. 10/10, would do again.

Quandary Canyon

The guidebook warned us about water-filled potholes in Quandary, so we took it seriously. Given how poorly I’d handled Eardly in my “wetsuit” and knowing that Cow was tougher than I, we decided to swap suits for the day.

We started the technical section all suited up and braced for water. But this time, there wasn’t any. Not knowing if the next pothole would be flooded, we kept the hot, sweaty wetsuits on for the entire technical section. Unlike Eardly, Quandary has some sun exposure, so while Eardly’s technical section was shaded and cold, Quandary was much warmer. I went from nearly freezing to death a couple of days earlier to nearly giving myself heat exhaustion. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration—but still, it wasn’t fun.

Wrapping It Up

And there you have it—the canyons that started it all. I tried to track down the exact date of this trip and found an email I sent to Jen and James on April 2, 2006. The email included some pictures and asked them if they were ready to try canyoneering. Somehow, I conveniently forgot to mention the whole hypothermia ordeal.

Eardly

Eardly

Eardly

Eardly

Baptist

Baptist

Baptist

Baptist

Quandry

Quandry

Quandry

Quandry

Quandry

Quandry

Quandry