After Weehawken Creek we had two more canyons we wanted to get in while in Ouray. Corbett Canyon and the full descent of Oak Canyon. Each one would be a step up from the previous day, and we were happy to have a few new members to our group: the infamous Ram and his daughter Amy for both days, and Steve Morga for Oak Canyon. Ram has been around the canyoneering community for quite some time. Let's just say that he started canyoneering the year I was born. We would all learn a lot from him on this trip from old techniques and new, and how he still manages to spend at least 120 days a year in the backcountry.
For Corbett we decided to do the Main Fork of the canyon since we heard it contained a 240 ft waterfall rappel. After two days in Ouray we felt like we had gotten enough experience with these types of canyons to step it up a bit. Corbett was the longest canyon of the week due to the distance covered: 11 hours, 3500 ft approach hike and 6 miles of travel with 15+ rappels.
The approach hike would take us up towards the head of the canyon below treeline.
Top of the first drop. Approximately 160-170 ft.
Top of the 240 footer. Now things are getting interesting!
Ram and Amy. This was Amy's first Class C (moving water) canyon, but she started doing canyons with her father at the age of 6. Pretty amazing family if you ask me.
The next day had us headed to do the full descent of Oak Canyon: Upper, Middle, and Lower sections with Ram, Amy, and Steve Morga. I've met Steve once or twice but have never done a canyon with him. He turned out to be a great asset to our team and someone who I'm sure we'll do a lot of trips with in the future. This would be the most technical canyon of the week with 20+ rappels, not to mention the 3200 ft approach hike and 5 miles covered over 8 hours.
Another beautiful Ouray morning.
Beautiful sections of Upper Oak.
Steve dropping into Middle Oak.
Best waterfall rappel of the entire trip. You couldn't get out of the flow. We were forced to take the full brunt of the water's force.
Lunch stop after our group of 7 caught up with a group of 3 at the next drop.
As with any good adventure, things start to go astray from the very beginning. We had a big trip planned heading up to Ouray to hit some canyons outside Page in Northern Arizona, then up to Cedar Mesa in Southern Utah for another canyon, and lastly arriving in Ouray, Colorado for a couple days of canyoneering topped off with summitting a 14er before heading home. Mike and Clint were already up in Page exploring some canyons in the area, and were getting chased by afternoon storms. The monsoon storms never really got going here in Phoenix, but it seemed that in Northern Arizona the storms were on schedule. Plans changed for safety reasons, some gear got left behind (pack rafts and ascending equipment), and it would be a whole week in Ouray.
Driving through Flagstaff we were treated to a complete Double Rainbow! With this, we knew this trip was going to be good. Since I'm not up on pop culture, Mark had to fill me in about the Double Rainbow guy. I think we felt the same way... what does this mean?
We got into Ouray mid-morning the next day, hooked up with Clint and Mike and descended a short canyon just outside of where we were camping - Ivan's Tail. Park by the bridge and you're in. 55 ft rappel right under the bridge. We even rigged up a guided rappel to practice some techniques and give us a reason to hang out in the canyon for a little longer.
The next day brought the first big canyon of the trip - Weehawken Creek. 7.5 hour day, 3500 ft of ascent on the approach hike and 10-12 rappels over 4.5 miles. Ouray is called the Switzerland of America due to it's steep walled canyons and high mountains that surround this beautiful little mountain town. It's truly a special place where you feel like you've been transported to somewhere far away that still feels familiar thanks to the locals' warm embrace of us tourists.
The approach hikes themselves were beautiful and enabled us to see much of the valley during our stay with most of these approaches cresting over 10,000 in elevation. In this area, they refer to Canyoneering as Canyoning, just like in Europe. It's very fitting since we wouldn't see the tight slot canyons we're used to in Northern AZ and Southern Utah. These canyons would all contain good levels of moving water from the peaks surrounding town. Needless to say, water temps were in the high 40's and dropped to the mid 40's by the end of the trip.
