BRING:
  • Old climbing boots (lots of water travel involved)
  • Extra socks and foot gear for camp
  • One carabiner
  • Enough sling material (12' - 15')for swami belt
  • Stove Backpack equipment
  • Other essentials

STRAGEDY:

(another
Vitizm)
Send John Vitz and assorted Vitzians ahead on Friday to scout Russell Gulch to see if it "goes." Climb South Guardian Angel on Saturday or Sunday and North Guardian Angel on Monday and then drive home.

TRANSPORTATION:
GORDON MACLEOD
CAR 1: Barbara & Gordon MacLeod, Harvey Hickman & Eric Schumacher
CAR 2: Barbara & Roy Magnuson, Art De Goede
CAR 3: Graham Stephenson, Bill Sanders & Andy Smatko
CAR 4+: John Vitz and asordid Vitzians
       
Another Vitzism  

..and with that set of instructions, sent out by Gordon, Larry Fink and I set out Thursday afternoon and drove to St. George. Awakened by a slight drizzle, we had breakfast in St. George and drove to Virgin. After following the Kolob Reservoir Road up onto the Kolob Terrace north of the Guardian Angels, we ventured my MG over a muddy, rocky road for a short distance. After a sudden attack of cowardice (otherwise known as sanity) at an extremely rocky pitch, we continued on foot to the head of Russell Gulch.

In a constant drizzle we descended over the slickrock into the canyon bottom where a small stream was encountered. A 75-foot waterfall was encountered near the junction of two forks in the upper gulch, but we were able to descend the ridge between them. At least a dozen mule deer were spotted on the slickrock above us. The main gulch was attempted but soon proved impassable at a 50-foot waterfall. We backtracked to the junction and traversed the slickrock east of the gulch and descended to the rim of the inner canyon, which was about 10 feet wide and 40 feet deep.

We followed the rim upstream for a quarter mile before finding a break which allowed us to descend to the stream. After a few yards in knee deep quicksand we came to a small waterfall and we guessed by the looks of the area that it would be a miserable traverse downstream and probably impassable without a rope and/or considerable wading. Not having a rope and increased rain forced us to retreat to the car and an early dinner in Springdale.

We met with the other Vitzians (Jerry Haven, Chuck McQuillan, Jim Eder and Don Dumont) and with Gordon's Trolls the next morning. We reported our findings and suggested that the new route would probably be more difficult and that the best chance of success would be to try the standard route. Andy of course figured that you could climb it anywhere and started searching for nonexistent breaks in the cliffs around the South Guardian Angel. After explaining to him that Western Zion is not the Sierra we decided upon the standard route up the Left Fork of North Creek.
 
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