grand outdoors
LESSONS FROM THE BLACK CANYON Words by Erin Phillips | Photos by Walker Brice
W
e can only meet others at the depth that
Climbing ranger Vic Zeilman describes the
we’ve met ourselves, and Colorado’s
canyon as “chossy rock as old as time marred by
2,722 foot-deep chasm of the Black Canyon of
thick bands of loose pegmatite, steep approach
The Gunnison is one heck of a metaphor for that.
drainages
It takes ability, willingness and courage to bring
vampire-like ticks, chupacabras and god knows
yourself to the base of the dark canyon floor and
what else” in The Climbing Zine. When you
to climb the massive shadowed walls back out.
choose to go to the bottom of a place like this
Walker Brice — EMT, student of nursing and
and start placing gear up the fissured wall, well,
member of the Black Canyon Search and Rescue
you’re committed now.
(SAR) team — has learned some of the most valuable life lessons within those walls.
64
filled
with
poison
ivy
thickets,
Brice first heard about the Black on a Wilderness Medicine and Rescue National