Moab Day Hikes
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This one was cheating a little bit, a rest area right off the highway.
The cliff base was a few miles in on a little day hike. I was still wearing a windshirt, it was a little chilly about 5:30 in the AM when I started. The cliff base if followed towards the camera leads to the bottom of the arch.
I chickened out about 20 feet above this rap station. The way up to the rap was not to bad. It's hard to tell from this angle but it was a little steeper than it looks. The rock angles away at the ascending crack to a good 200 foot drop into the valley below. There were foot steps dug into the sandstone on the way up. Above the rap point the foot steps became more shallow and were filled with wet sand. The higher I got the more wet and crumbly the sandstone became. I got another 30 feet above the rap station. This was one of the few places I have become really nervous when scrambling. The footsteps became so shallow and filled with wet sand that even using a friction slab technique my Hardrocks were slipping. I wanted to let poor instinct choices take over and sit on my butt, but I think I would have slid off the cliff. I would move about 10 feet, stop to relax and control my breathing and then move down again. Exhilarating but nerve wracking.
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