Where: Silver Reef, Utah
When: September 2008
Partners: DB, Mike Cressman, Andy Archibald, John Styrnol, Tal from Israel, and Aaron & Ryan from SLC
Took a run through Boltergeist as part of a group of eight on Saturday. While not of Zion quality, like nearby Yankee Doodle the canyon has more charm and character than one might expect from Silver Reef. With a handful of rappels, only one or two of which seem mandatory, the final rappel (100' or so) can be done directly down the watercourse (nice) or from a tree on the left (LDC).
Once through the technical canyon, one hangs a left at a confluence and proceeds up a lush, vegetation-choked drainage with a delightful stream gurgling through it. After a couple hundred yards, you pass by a beautiful waterfall then gain a steep, loose slope that leads one back toward the car.
Bidding John, Aaron and Ryan farewell (thanks to John for putting this together in the first place), the rest of us then took another romp through Yankee Doodle before spending way too much money on dinner at nearby Cosmopolitan (good food, but pricey).
Photos by Mike Cressman
Boltergeist...& Another Run Thru Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle (Silver Reef)
Yankee Doodle is a regrettably short technical canyon outside of St. George, Utah. It is located in the neighborhood of two other technical canyons, Boltergeist and Shear Canyon.
With a 5-minute approach to the first of 2 rappels, the rest of Yankee Doodle is spent downclimbing, walking, and occcasionally, swimming or wading (in a spot or two).
On this, my second trip down Yankee Doodle, I was joined by Andy Archibald, a very friendly man from St. George who was taking his first-ever trip down a technical canyon, Jeff Bell, a gentleman from Santa Clara, Utah, DB, and Eiji Sugi, an alpine partner of mine for the last few years. Like Andy, Yankee Doodle would be Eiji's first technical canyon.
After the two rappels at the entrance, the rest of the canyon was spent enjoying the awesome, twisted walls, the frequent beefy downclimbs, and assisting each other through a frictional bypass of a shallow semi-keeper pothole.
All too soon, the fun ends and a steep slab is climbed out canyon-left to a gully leading back up to the road. With only two casual hours on the roundtrip, a motivated group could do this canyon as many times as they want, in the same day!
