Saturday, May 26, 2012

Retreat from U-Turn, Arches Nationl Park

Attempted the U-Turn canyoneering route in Arches NP today, but we were forced to retreat before completing it by 60 mph gusts in the saddled which prevented us from proceeding safely.

From 2012 Spring trip
Diane crawling on her stomach to keep from being blown off the high wide pass we tried to cross to rach the normal decent portion of this tour. To each side was a sizable drop, and the wind kept literally knocking us over.

From 2012 Spring trip
Down climbing on a short rope belay. We retreat down the way we came up. No rappelling today....
From 2012 Spring trip
Short hike back to the car, where a heavy women was blown off her feet on the sidewalk in front of our eyes and fractured her ankle. I did an initial assessment, organized the family to make shade and stabilze the injury and then 911 was called. We retreated down the mountain to town to listen to music t the festival and rest on the cool grass in the shade...then limbs started falling out of trees, and craft peoples booths started blowing down. We retreated again to a gelato shop to post this release.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Your post is definitely worth reading. I love the captured snapshots you have for such a unique national park. Arches National Park was really awesome as I visited the place a couple of years back. You can look into my own photos regarding Arches National Park Pictures right at this link:
http://www.darkeclipse.com/landscape-pictures/national-park-pictures/arches-pictures/