Escalaneplooza!

Oh yea, it's on! I love Escalante. It's generally the first big run of the season and it's out in the desert where we can get away from the cold - at least for a bit. Plus there's this Disney Land style to it when the flows are right. Esca is not super intimidating and generally keeps to the IV+ region of creeking. A few weeks ago the Mank crew hit it up at perfect flows! We had a campfire, some whiskey and tons of drops to go around. An all around excellent weekend.

Here's C.Mo starting it off nicely on Escalante falls.

One of the funniest thing about this canyon is that you are always herding cows when driving in and out. They never want to leave the road.

This is one of my favorites from the weekend of M.Hagadorn routing into the Magnetic Wall.

This shot pretty well demonstrates my love of the new Villain - stylin.

The Hagadorn mobile all loaded up for a weekend huck fest!

So the Mank Crew has a long standing policy for good luck - kiss the ducky at the putin. He's been saving us ever since a fateful day on Gore, years back. Joel's givin'er the smooch.

One of my happy places.

Escalanteplooza!

(Photo: Lori Merritt)

So as the flow comes up on Escalante, it mostly just gets more fun. However, the hole at 57 Chevy can start to get interesting. It's not that sticky in the traditional sense, but it feeds into a river right pocket that can start to cause trouble.

(Photo: Lori Merritt)

I'd call this flow medium. The falls is runnable casually and the Magnetic Wall isn't too bad. The boof off the top at Waterslide was marginally in. Once that boof becomes mandatory the flow is high.

Alex Clayton slip/slidding through the Wall shot by Lori Merritt.

Laying the stomp down with the Villain. (Photo: Justin Merritt)

Lori got this great shot of her husband going airborne.

Alex getting awesome seperation!

The inner gorge.

CKS Squad's very own Chris Menges laying a sick fiddler grab!

Going vertical

And I saved the best for last. Menges laying it down for all the players world wide! As MC Hammer once said, "Can't touch this!"

(Photo: Joe Keck)

In the end, I'd say if you haven't been here - what are you waiting for? The upper gorge is class IV creeking and fairly pool drop. It's a fantastic place to step it up in preparation for the season. The inner gorge is a bit more committing and difficult, but still far from hair boating. Get out there!