Tuesday, March 15, 2016: Red Hollow with Paragon Adventures

My stay in St. George started with a day of guided exploration and climbing. Todd Goss, owner of Paragon Adventures, picked me up at 7:30 and then we picked up Eric, a second guide. Two guides? That is so that one can manage the rappelling (pulling the rope from below as a safety measure) while the other focuses on photography. This is unusual and certainly great for the client. We drove a long way out of town to the Red Hollow area and spent the day in that maze of Navajo Sandstone, where Todd had cleaned and bolted some very nice sport climbs, as well as set rappel anchors for a half-dozen or more rappels. I had never climbed like this on Navajo sandstone before (really, I have never sport-climbed before) and indeed it was quite good and fun, as the desert varnish makes for good holds. A few small section were at 5.9 or 5.7, but mostly is was sustained 5.8. And the day ended with a rappel over an arch which was fun. The climbing pictures here are by Todd Goss or his assistant Eric.

This next climb, the second of the day, started with an easy stem of two walls, but the space expanded and one had to move to one wall. Interesting.

A little higher on the wall. We had dropped through the slot in the rear. The day contained many such sections of weaving through the Navajo maze. The lower section of this image shows the two-wall stem that culminates in the step above.

The terrain was varied, with a couple of little caves. Earthquakes are very rare here!

Lots of good tafoni.

We finished the day near Lone Pine Arch with very nice one-pitch climbs, and then a rappel off the arch. The desert varnish provides remarkably good holds on the Navajo sandstone.

A short rest.

The face was certainly steep in spots.

And a rappel off Lone Pine Arch to finish the tour.

The following image, from <http://offroadinghome.blogspot.com/2012/05/offroad-red-hollow-arch-trails.html> shows Lone Pine Arch, together with the climbing wall in black on the left. Note how the arch is split in two at its apex.

On the drive back to town we detoured to visit the Naming Cave, a cave with a rock inside it, well-protected, with ancient petroglyphs by Ancestral Pueblans. The writing is on the flat surface of the large boulder in the cave.

A wonderful thunderbird.

A large part of the slab.

Outside the cave are several petroglyphs, like these very very old sheep.