Escalaneplooza!

sunday, may 23, 2010

Escalaneplooza!

Oh yea, it's on! I love Escalante. It's generally the first big run of the season and it's out in the desert where we can get away from the cold - at least for a bit. Plus there's this Disney Land style to it when the flows are right. Esca is not super intimidating and generally keeps to the IV+ region of creeking. A few weeks ago the Mank crew hit it up at perfect flows! We had a campfire, some whiskey and tons of drops to go around. An all around excellent weekend.

Here's C.Mo starting it off nicely on Escalante falls.

One of the funniest thing about this canyon is that you are always herding cows when driving in and out. They never want to leave the road.

This is one of my favorites from the weekend of M.Hagadorn routing into the Magnetic Wall.

This shot pretty well demonstrates my love of the new Villain - stylin.

The Hagadorn mobile all loaded up for a weekend huck fest!

So the Mank Crew has a long standing policy for good luck - kiss the ducky at the putin. He's been saving us ever since a fateful day on Gore, years back. Joel's givin'er the smooch.

One of my happy places.

Escalanteplooza!

(Photo: Lori Merritt)

So as the flow comes up on Escalante, it mostly just gets more fun. However, the hole at 57 Chevy can start to get interesting. It's not that sticky in the traditional sense, but it feeds into a river right pocket that can start to cause trouble.

(Photo: Lori Merritt)

I'd call this flow medium. The falls is runnable casually and the Magnetic Wall isn't too bad. The boof off the top at Waterslide was marginally in. Once that boof becomes mandatory the flow is high.

Alex Clayton slip/slidding through the Wall shot by Lori Merritt.

Laying the stomp down with the Villain. (Photo: Justin Merritt)

Lori got this great shot of her husband going airborne.

Alex getting awesome seperation!

The inner gorge.

CKS Squad's very own Chris Menges laying a sick fiddler grab!

Going vertical

And I saved the best for last. Menges laying it down for all the players world wide! As MC Hammer once said, "Can't touch this!"

(Photo: Joe Keck)

In the end, I'd say if you haven't been here - what are you waiting for? The upper gorge is class IV creeking and fairly pool drop. It's a fantastic place to step it up in preparation for the season. The inner gorge is a bit more committing and difficult, but still far from hair boating. Get out there!

Get out there!

So you just never know what curve balls life will throw at you... Make sure to get out every single day possible this summer - you never know, next summer you might be moving to Texass. Seriously. It's all good though, because after just one season sucking Texan heat, I'll be off to the best paddling destinations in the US - the southeast followed by a three year stint in Seattle! So anyway, I've been charging hard as usual, including a single day Denver to Denver two time Embudo mash. Get after it boys and girls!

Onto more interesting paddling news. The new Jackson Kayak Villian is the cat's pajamas, all that 'n a bucket of chicken, or da bomb in the parlance of our times. Here's a shot of me strokin' my Villian into MJ falls by Chris Roberts.

It's really that good. The boat is extremely fast and maintains a great rocker profile for boofing ability. It's not quite as quick side-to-side as the Rocker or Super Hero, but the speed more than makes up for it. So much fun to paddle! If you have the means, I highly recommend it - so choice.

Just another bluebird day on the 'buda!

Here's Chris. He had a really bumpy line up to this point, but Golden Stroked it right over the hole. Like butta on the 'buda.

Homie and fellow ICU nurse Oliver had a smooth line through the Slots and avoided the slot jacking.

I was so close to beating McCutchen at his own ice cream game, but he pulled this brace off with help from some of the Embudo's trout.

This here is Chris again showing that the East side gots the skills to pay the bills.

It was a bit chilly on the first runs this season. We got snowed on a couple times this weekend.

But we also got some fantastic sunsets!

Paul Siratovich lining out his first Slots run.

And Ben West showing how it gets done on the river right side....

Stout - first booty of the season! The Embudo is like that. Dave here had a great day even with the booty, but some other people this season have had serious issues. Take the Embudo seriously. I've routed it with a heavy hitting 8 person crew in under two hours. I've also lost my boat and had to hike out over the course of 7 hours. Respect the river, take a real rope, first aid, headlamp and serious creeking clothes.

And finally a huge shout out to the King and Queen of the Embudo and New Mexico zone in general. You are true ambassadors to the sport and make the Embudo experience 100% than it already was. This Bud's for you!