[at-l] How about descents?

[hudsom@us.ibm.com (Mark Hudson)]

<<> I'm talking about the vertical kind.  How do you
> handle these?  Hanging there, face into granite,
> unable to see where my feet can go . .
> . .  What do you experts do?>>

It can be amazing how much a little change can make the trail more
difficult. I was talking to someone at the Gathering a few years ago, they
had just finished the trail...
And one of their questions was "How did you get down that damn rock on Old
Speck"...
Now, I have no idea of why the mental image of that short piece of trail
flashed into my mind so many years later, but in '92 there was a dead tree
in the middle of the rock face, so you sat at the top, skidded down about 3
or 4 feet on your butt to get to the tree, and then climbed down the roots.
Well, in the elapsed time the tree (and roots)had given way, leaving twenty
feet of so of open, pretty much featureless rock... and I'm not so sure
that they also didn't get there in the rain <g>.
Anyway, I belive that stretch has been rerouted...

Crazy work schedule this week, today is "Monday" and tomorrow is "Friday",
and I get to work 12 hour days : (

skeeter