Re: O.T.

From: Jo Schaper (joschapern4ospam_at_2socketdot.no5net)
Date: 12/28/04 

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:23:30 -0600

rick++ wrote:

> Several people mentioned "crampons" for this time of year
> in the advice thread. Looks like the snow will keep coming
> for the next week or two. I was hoping to get to the Utah
> Canyonlands, but wan to avoid the snow.
>

This is true. We could not find real crampons (either full or instep) in
outdoor stores in St. Louis. With 170 miles inside the gorge in the last
25 years, all of which was in December and January, Eugene had never
encountered any more than a spotty icy patch, and pooh-poohed my (and
the NPS brochure's)suggestion. As a sop to my fretting, he came up with
one pair of 'ice creepers'-- 1/8" bumpy cleaty things to put over
galoshes. He carried them, and did not put them on until after his
fall--even so, they were fairly useless for him, functioning more like
skates than the 3/8" instep crampons with some bite. One of them flew
off his foot on the way up, but they were of such little use, he didn't
notice until he was almost to the top.

We both bought pairs at the Canyon store afterwards, since they seem
like they might be useful in a place like STL with lots of freezing rain.

To be fair, people at the Park HQ reported they got their first snow in
mid-October this year, and already had twice the snow of a "normal"
winter by mid-December. We were skating on the remains of a 5-6" snow of
the week before. Apparently, the desert is quite humid right now, so the
stuff is hanging around, and not sublimating.

Rick, we met a couple on the train who work at Bryce and Zion--they
reported snow on the ground there, as of last week.

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