General Sherman, Sequioa NP, CA

Went and saw the biggest living thing in the world (along with half of California). General Sherman is a coupla thousand year old Sequoia tree and is pretty darn impressive.

So impressive it made us late and me nearly miss my return flight to NZ...

Seven Teacups Canyon, Kernville, CA

Also known as Dry Meadows Ck, this granite canyon runs through a series of plunge pools known as the seven teacups. We descended the canyon later in the afternoon out of the direct sun. Would have been a bit warmer had we begun around midday.. Lots of amazing formations, a little natural arch, some jumps and a tiny slide.

Half Dome Hike, Yosemite NP, CA

Did this as a daytrip from Bakersfield. 4hr drive to the park, 9hrs of hiking then 4 hr drive home. 22 hours between sleeping ;0)

Amazingly beautiful area, too bad I didn't have more time to hang around and check it out. Cables were nice and scary for the last bit to the summit.

Gorge Ck Recce, North Cascades NP, WA

Well, it didn't stop raining like we'd hoped and both Gorge and Thornton were white death.

Bummer.. So we bailed to Seattle and then onwards to California for some sun an lower water levels..

Castle Rock, Leavenworth, WA

Since it had begun raining rather hard on us up in the Cascades, we bailed back east of the range for some sun and a chance to dry out gear.

We climbed at Castle Rock in Icicle Ck Canyon. Did "Saber *** 2p 5.4" and "Midway *** 3p 5.6".

Ladder Ck, North Cascades NP, WA

Went for a walk to marvel at this futuristic death canyon. Lots of water, continous slot, non stop drops. Would be rappelling/swimming from anchor to anchor in an attempt to survive. Would also need to be rap bolted from the rim... Scary/exciting stuff.. Maybe when global warming melts the glacier that feeds it, maybe when some frenchy canyoners come over and show us how its done.....

Thornton Ck, North Cascades NP, WA

One rather exciting canyon. Essentially a huge granite chute, thornton gets steeper the lower you enter. Since the middle and lower sections had been done, we hiked up higher to add an extra 4hr section; Upper Thornton. Still plenty of canyon upstream, so it might end up being Middle Thornton. The whole thing would probably take upwards of 10hrs even with previous knowledge and established anchors..

HEAPS of water, couple of the most scary raps of my life. One was directly down the center of a nasty chute, with no way to traverse or deviate around the flow. The landing was good, so the last part was more of a slide than a rap. The other scary was a delicate traverse through one waterfall to reach a deviation block. One false move would have seen you slip into a death hydraulic on the other side of the canyon!!

Super good fun though ;0) Check out the video at www.canyoningvideos.com under 'canyoning video of the week'

Little Wentatchee River, WA

This is a class 5 Kayak run when it is in condition, but today it was a fun scramble/combat swimming exercise. All the nasty bits could be avoided with careful scouting and eddy hopping. Found a few chutes that were worth swimming..

Lake Ck, Wenatchee, WA

Another neat short canyon. Plenty of water and a little combat swimming. Took Rob's flatmate through as his first canyon. Rob wins the bonehead award for rapping off the 3rd pitch without his pack. Had to climb out of the canyon and back to the stance to retrieve it.

Not Snoqualmie, WA

It had been raining a lot in the mountains. Snoqualmie River was running at a coupla hundred CFS, (max safe being apparently about 100CFS) so we just took photos and video in the rain of the main falls..

French Cabin Ck, Lk Wenatchee, WA

Another canyon in the rain. Lots of time consuming slippery rock downclimbing with a short sweet tech section in the middle. Worth doing once if there's nothing else to do ;0)

Learnt how to (and how not to) put in bolted anchors as we replaced a dodgey natural anchor with a solid two bolt station on the big rap. Also got to place a chockstone deviation on the same rap.

Davis Ck, Randle, WA

Robo Cobb won this years mouse competition, with a total of 4 mice in two traps.. Kudos bro.

Davis Ck could (should?) be called Deliverance Canyon... The locals weren't so friendly.

Canyon was awesome though, almost a continual slot, deep walls, pot holes, slides, little jumps, tons of greenery and at times a lot of water through narrow sections.

Got to rap of a knot chock (on the hardest rap in the canyon) which was interesting.