The Canyonlands, Utah

This photo on the left is a small piece of a much larger rock called Newspaper Rock. As the white men moved through to the west, a few began to carve their names and the dates above the Indian markings. I had half a mind to get drunk on tequila and carve my name and Katrina refugee into it -- but of course, I never would.

I have great stories from my time up in the Canyonlands... but now that I'm back here in New Orleans... they seem kind of gross.



I will have a post up either tonight or tomorrow explaining this and also describing the current situation down here... in the meantime, here are some photos from this part of my trip.





























Above: Myself and my old friend Chris Stewart, a New Orleans expatriate who left for college and has never returned. He now works as a technical climbing guide during the season.















Above: Chris' climbing partner Dana leads up a climb called Serrator - pretty serious route.




















Above: Chris about 60 feet in the air, resting his arms on a monster route called Layline or something.















Above: Chris walking up a route named Way Rambo.




















Above: Me on Way Rambo traversing the crux... just pleased that after not getting above sea level in 14 years that I wasn't simply passing out. By the way, those are 8.5 climbing shoes on 10.5 feet... smarts a little bit... a little bit.















Above: Dana and Chris working on a new mongo greeting all boozed up.















Above: Between us is South Six Shooter Tower... start out by driving down an arroyo for a few miles, hike up a butte, cross an alien marscape for a mile maybe, rocket up another few thousand feet into the thinner air, and then start technical climbing the tower to the top... This shot is about a third of the way up. It took us most of a day to get up there and then back down.