20110604 Iron Mountain and Allison Gulch

Post by **Taco** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:10 pm

Anyone wanna write up a TR?

Went up Iron with a big group of great friends, then a handful of us broke off and descended via Allison Gulch.

Summit of Iron with everyone

First couple rapps

Mark on rapp

ZACH!

Big rapp

Zach on the big/last rapp!

Legs are tired. Feet got beat up bad, probably because my Smartwool socks are worn out and no longer provide any cushioning, and were wet.

Thanks everyone for the great day!

Elwood · Post by **Elwood** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:12 pm

Beautiful! How was the brush into Allison?

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:51 pm

TR... black flies bite. next day those bites itch like hell.

seriously, how do you make a long, strenuous hike fun?

share the brutality with 13 other crazed junkies. what started out as a hike with a couple people morphed into a way fun group hike. it was great to see Steve, Fern and Zé too as they descended from their mining expedition.

Taco, glad you and the boys had fun rapping the water, while some of us drank fire water back at the TH. 8)

gotta take a look at my pix... if, i can ever stop scratching!

Sam Page · Post by **Sam Page** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 4:48 pm

Wow. That one waterfall is amazing! How popular is that canyoneering route?

Post by **Taco** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:37 am

Not much brush, Elwood. The Yuccas are uncut for the most part, so there's a lotta that.

Sam, not sure. It's got good anchors though. My scientific wild ass guess would be maybe 5 parties a year?

Burchey · Post by **Burchey** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 7:54 am

Man, that looks like a frickin blast. I'm sorry I missed out. Question: you basically count on getting completely soaked through, right? I would imagine there is no staying dry no matter what kind of water-proof jacket/pants you had on.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:34 am

Burchey wrote: Man, that looks like a frickin blast. I'm sorry I missed out. Question: you basically count on getting completely soaked through, right? I would imagine there is no staying dry no matter what kind of water-proof jacket/pants you had on.

serious canyoneers own drysuits. i'll be wearing a wetsuit this weekend for Eaton since all the falls there are wet and it's a long day.

how many waterfalls did you have in Allison, Taco?

Burchey · Post by **Burchey** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:55 am

norma r wrote: serious canyoneers own drysuits.

One man's serious is another man's wimpy.

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:41 am

Burchey wrote: Man, that looks like a frickin blast. I'm sorry I missed out. Question: you basically count on getting completely soaked through, right? I would imagine there is no staying dry no matter what kind of water-proof jacket/pants you had on.

For this canyon you can avoid a lot of the water... depending on your footwork you can probably get by with wet legs... nobody in our group got wet above the waist.

Cy Kaicener · Post by **Cy Kaicener** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:11 pm

Nice pictures
Two other groups went up Big Iron via the Baldy traverse. They started at Baldy Village.
One was a Sierra Club group and the other party was Rick Kent, Gigamike and Rick Graham.
http://digitalalpine.smugmug.com/2011Pictures-1

TracieB · Post by **TracieB** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:29 pm

That last rapp sure looks like fun! I would do it just to avoid that horrible descent on the trail!!!

It was sure nice seeing everyone and meeting people I've heard mentioned in other TRs. A fun day that wrecked my knees and only remaining toenail...

Steele · Post by **Steele** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:44 pm

Looks like it was a fun day, beautiful looking canyon!

Post by **Taco** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:05 pm

abbyNORMAl, I think there were 3-4 rapps total. We skipped one. It's an arright canyon insofar as canyoneering is concerned. It felt like a very, very small slice of Fish Fork.

A whole lot less work than FF. Real nice waterfalls. There wasn't much canyoneering there, but it's all high quality.

bluerail · Post by **bluerail** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:38 pm

Nice running into the folks we did see. Rick, Rick and Mike after the ridge and the rest on the trail...sorry we missed you guys that were in the canyon Ryan.

After doing the trip with Ze saturday gotta little interested in where we had gone..this is what I found from Hugh Blanchards site:

"We will now view high altitude lode mining in the most inaccessible gold mines of all - the Gold Dollar, Eagle and Baldora located below the San Antonio Ridge between Iron MountaIn and Mount Baldy in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness area."

...I shoulda known.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:00 pm

bluerail wrote: ...I shoulda known.

aw, quit trying to make us feel sorry for you. you loved every blood-letting moment of it. i saw that smile on your face! Steve, did you do c2c the next day as planned?

bluerail · Post by **bluerail** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 7:59 pm

Thank God Patti was having stomach issues and I only had to go tram to peak...we saw more deer over by Cornell than I've ever seen in one day up there..over a dozen..I think they were having a party.