Extreme Misdirection

07/03/2018 By Denali41
Well, after reading icezebra11's report on his find I knew I was in for an exciting outing–one that my puppies Orizaba and Chimborazo were not “up” for because of the potential need for raps and assisted climbing. So they were alarmed when they saw me pack my gear into the car without including their standard stuff. I managed to get to the Stage 1 information without scuba gear but still needed a dry suit. Despite lots of recent hot weather the lake water was COLD!! I’ve always been able to go deep with my snorkeling mask and fins and felt fortunate to find and snag the first stage material pretty quickly. I swam back to shore, studied the information, and then had trouble relocating exactly where the stage hide was to replace the information. My temporary buoy saved the day.

After lots of map work I developed a route I hoped would be effective in getting me to the final. The canyon configuration was ideal for a parasailing approach, but I had concern about the jagged towers/pinnacles I’d need to navigate past. Luckily, I’ve recently upgraded my parasailing skills with some hefty lessons and field trials, so I felt reasonably comfortable as I lifted off from the side of the canyon opposite the cache location. All went well until a wind gust blew me off course. It was a sickening sound when my parasail ripped to shreds on a jagged rock; I was thrown onto a small ledge almost 180 feet above the cache. A scary, EXTREME situation, indeed. Looking down, I noted that if I could reach the significant nook the cache must be hidden in, I could probably down-climb from there to safer ground. But the rappel to the cache was too long for my rope to be doubled as is customary for a rappel in order to “pull” the rope after completion of the rap. I would need to do a single line rappel, which means one rope end must be tied to a rock (one was present that was perfect for this anchor) and it could not be recovered by pulling. And I had no rappel device. I thought about triggering the SOS on my personal beacon, but instead continued to study the situation. In the end, I made a body rappel to the cache site and after signing it made an extremely delicate unbelayed descent. Fortunately, I found a much easier route than the one used by icezebra11in his ascent. I still had the difficult hike out. So I’ve got the cache at the cost of lots of fear and of an almost new $250 climbing rope that’s still tied to a rock 180 feet above the cache. Perhaps someday I’ll return with another 60-m rope, prusik up the fixed rope to the anchor, tie the two ropes together with a triple fisherman’s knot, rappel down, and pull my ropes. Oh my...future adventures, indeed.

I believe I have now found all of the CEGT Extreme caches. And I’ve found each legitimately, from beginning to end. No "beta test give-aways"! Thanks for the adventures, Bary and Jesse.

06/17/2017 By icezebra11
What an amazing day! I got two FTFs on a couple great caches in the high country and boy was this one an adventure!!!

After making the very steep climb of Mt Bethel to get FTF on Denali41's new "Snow Fences" cache, I headed to Clear Lake to begin this epic endeavor. I had been waiting for the ice to melt off the lake so I could give this one a shot. After arriving at the lake I donned all my SCUBA gear - dry suit (the water's still very cold), mask, tank, fins, buoyancy device, and dive watch/GPS. Since I didn't have an inflatable boat I had to swim quite a ways to get to GZ for the first stage but I eventually made it there. The water was fairly clear but it still took some time to find the information needed to project the location of the final stage. After successfully finding that, I headed back to my truck to get out of my gear, dry off, and change back into my hiking clothes. Then I made the necessary calculations for the final and headed that direction.

After arriving at the trailhead I loaded up all my climbing gear in my pack including a 60 meter 9.8 mm rope, harness, belay/rappel device, prussik loops of various lengths, some pro and slings for setting anchors, and an assortment of carabiners. My legs were pretty tired from the Bethel climb but I pushed through it to arrive at the general location of the final. Wow, this was going to be tough. No way to rappel down to it so I decided to free solo it up from the bottom. That 5.14 route was the toughest I'd ever done but I made it to the cache. After anchoring on a convenient tree growing out of the formation I opened the container to find a blank log, which I signed in the {FTF} location!!!

After signing the log and replacing the container, it was a simple 50-foot free air rappel back down to the point I had started up. I was sure glad to get back to my truck for the ride home as I was beat.

Thanks CEGT for another extreme cache!!! I'll be interested to hear how all the beta testers tackled this one.

11/29/2016 By HighCountryAdmin
Published