Fun day doing what I believe was the first full descent of the Elkhorn Mountain Falls drainage. Still 3-4 feet of snow on the road above the drainage, which provides for a nice (cold) water flow. Literally a brain-freeze on rap-6. Out of 9-water falls, we got in 11-rappels. Strong team of 6 today….Karl, Keith, Kevin, Kaitlin, Wim, and Rebecca.
Was actually snowing a bit when we left the truck…
The snow was still 3-4 feet deep on the road…
The team in the moat…
After leaving the road we had a clear forest approach to the drainage…No thrashing š
This is where we get our feet wet…
Keith in the flow in today’s rap-2…
Rebecca on rap-2…
Keith testing the flow in the trough…
…easier to stem this one…
And the winner is…..!
Wim style…
Fun shit!!!
Nature break…This is a Lipstick Lichen, try not to step on. See the little mushroom standing tall (lower left)
Kevin in the flow…
Wim…
At the bottom of Falls #7, a four tier, 350’+ fall. We did it in 3-rappels…
Keith on the final rap-11, the purdy one…not Keith, the falls š
Brought this pic back for Deb, since she couldn’t join us today…
Today’s route…
Thanks for the lovely additional nature photos š Would have loved to be there ā¤ļø
Don’t know how you do it without totally freezing off your cajones. Does anything stay dry in your packs? Also, do you think Crown Creek would be worth doing?
Don,
Wetsuits required….the only thing that got cold this day was my feet…usually from standing around waiting for others to rappel. Navigating down the middle of the creek burns more energy than some think…keeping the blood pumping…keeping the body temps up. Everything in our packs get wet…that’s why we put everything that we want dry in dry-bags. The packs we use have holes in them to drain fast as you climb out or away from the water. Most of the gear we use is canyoneering specific.
I flew up Crown Creek in Google Earth…it showed a few smaller falls, nothing like Elkhorn, although Crown would be fun just because I’d get to visit the Crown Mine again.
I was wondering about dry stuff. Now I know. And the keeping warm part…I think it helps if you’re in really good shape for that stuff. My circulation couldn’t handle it for sure. Think I might hit Crown Mine again this summer now that I know there is a trail from the bottom. A little tough to see, but it’s better than the cross country route I took a couple times before I knew it was there. Sure like all your photos. Thanks for the vicarious pleasure.