Excursion Through Egypt One

Tuesday Kim, Jim squared and I went canyoneering with Escalante Excursions. It was an amazing experience. Here is the canyon opening. Before one canyoneers, one must get down there. One rappels into the canyon.

Play this AVI. I was first up to go over the edge.



I felt very ungainly - especially after watching Rick go down it gracefully and with twinkle toes.

Here is Jim.

Here is my Jim.

Here is Kim.

After we were all down, basic skills were taught. At this point, I still had no idea what to expect from the day. Basic skill instruction suggested this would be more than just a hike. This is a sitting bridge, it's used to get across something too deep or narrow to walk through. You press your butt against the wall with your feet, and then use your arms to help ooch your butt along.


This is a body bridge. Feet and hands move you along. I think it's less intimidating than the sitting bridge.

Rick and Mac were the guides. They were really good. Here is Rick helping Jim with foot placement. Note the mud on Jim's shoe.

This is when it really hit me that this was an outing with possible consequences. Slipping here would have been bad. Notice how Jim's backpack is dangling from his harness.

This is why one goes into the canyons. Just beautiful.

I had a fair amount of anxiety with this drop, at one point I thought I might freeze from fear. My harness was getting caught on the ridges of the wall and I was stuck. It took arms to get the butt away from the wall enough to move down.

Narrow! Really narrow. One foot in front of the other.

Rick was always ready to lend a hand.

Look behind us, see where we've been.

More narrowness.

There were 3 rappels. I like doing that, it's not scary and is fun.

Jim is having fun.

Mac and Rick are like lizards. Their feet are sticky. My goal right there was to keep my feet out of the water.

More canyon magnificence.

I'm not sure I would call this fun. It was challenging and exhilarating. It's a tough sport, both on your clothing and your body. At the end of it, I was dirtier than I have ever been in my life.

Thanks to Kim for photos.