EISPIRATEN

A group of us (12 in total) descended Eaton on Saturday. Most of you are familiar with this TR by now, as it's a popular place, so I'll try to keep it short and interesting.

We headed up the Mt. Wilson toll road at 8am in a cold fog. The running joke of the morning was pointing out (invisible) landmarks to the people in the group who hadn't been there before (aka "And on your left, you can see Mt Wilson" "Whaah??"). In many places, visibility was maybe 100' or so.

In the canyon, we found slideable pools again (though we did have one minor foot injury, so you still need to go a bit cautiously). I skipped the 2nd to last rappel mostly because I had never taken the bypass trail, and wanted to check it out. The water flow on the last two rappels is strong, but fine. More of an issue is the algae slime, which will be worse by summer. (When is rappelling like wrestling a greased pig? When it's Eaton Canyon in August!)

All photos and video are by NormaR, who graciously helped me out once again with her great photography skill! Somehow she notices wonderful little details that I just stumble past.

( the way, does anyone know how to keep drops off the camera lens? Once water gets on there, wiping the lens just kind of smears it around. It would be impossible to have a dry cloth to clean it each time in a canyon like this.)



Look ma, no hands!









Ta da!

I hate when my camera lens gets wet. I even managed to submerge one of my cameras on a descent with Turtle (go figure). The water droplets add a nice creative touch to some of these pictures anyway. Thanks for posting.

Reima (snowmobile) gloves had a nifty finger squeegee, and came in handy for my glasses. I hear chamois leather works in these cases, but havent given it a try. Even when wet, it can be wrung out to work again..supposedly.

Excellent pics though.....Eaton always on the list

Thanks to Johanna, Kirk, Peter and Randy W. for a great romp in Eaton Canyon! It was even better than last year as the pools were deeper which allowed us to slide down some of the falls. Wheee!... I gotta admit when i can run, jump and slide like when i was a kid, i really do still feel like a kid! But when it was time to rappel Johanna and Kirk were setting up solid gear and ropes for rappel or even providing a meat (themself as) anchor, giving tips and instruction while Randy and Peter provided a fireman's belay as needed. Eaton Canyon is pristine and the 6-7 hours you spend dropping, sliding, boulder scrambling and hiking is pure fun with some adrenaline thrown in the mix. It was pretty chilly in there Saturday with temps in the mid-60's but it was worth the shivering to play in such beauty!

I look forward to the next time, and the next, and the next...