‘Canyons and Crags’ Offers Resources for Adventure Sports

The Canyons and Crags store has been open since May 2008, but owner Rich Carlson said when it opened, it was primarily intended to be a classroom for canyoneering courses rather than a retail store. Carlson said Canyons and Crags started selling retail canyoneering equipment because the owner of The Mountain Shop moved out of town.

“With him gone, there was kind of a hole in the market for a retail outdoor store, and I decided to fill that hole,” Carlson said.

He said even though he has filled the hole in the retail market, he still offers classes that include beginning to advanced canyoneering as well as rescue classes. The beginning class starts in the classroom so students can learn the basics before tackling any real canyons. After classroom time, students start with cliffs of about 30 feet.

He said the mission of Canyons and Crags is to provide training, quality gear and guiding for rock climbing, canyoneering and other adventure sports.

However, he said, the only guiding he does with Canyons and Crags is with the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona and some trips to Mexico and Costa Rica he has put together.

He said that although he has worked with corporate groups on team building programs with as many as 600 people at a time, a typical canyon trip might have from 6 to 24 people.

Carlson said he started rock climbing in Boulder, Colo. in 1973, and after he left the Army in 1977, he was traveling in Utah and became interested in canyoneering.

He said it is very difficult to narrow down a favorite place for the sport.

“Canyons are so beautiful, but they are extremely diverse,” he said.

He said the canyons in Southern Utah are generally sandstone, and they are sculpted by the water and wind. In other places, such as Colorado, Arizona and the state of Washington, he finds canyons made of different kinds of rocks with flowing water all the time.

Carlson said in 1990 he started the first canyoneering guide service in the United States, and in 1999 he founded the American Canyoneering Association. However, he said the ACA and Canyons and Crags are two separate entities. The ACA is a non-profit organization that does canyoneering courses and rendezvous only.

Carlson said because he is an ACA instructor, he allows them to conduct courses in his shop. The two entities work together on many occasions as the result of his ACA involvement and the fact that he owns the store.

He recently led a five-day rendezvous sponsored by the ACA to Zion National Park. The rendezvous included more than 90 people showing up from all over the United States and other countries. The ACA provided technical workshops there in subject matter such as ascending and basic rescue techniques.

He said because he is constantly traveling, the Canyons and Crags shop is only open on Thursdays and Fridays. It primarily carries gear for canyoneering, rock climbing and wilderness first aid.

“Every Thursday evening there will be something going on in this classroom that’s free to the public,” Carlson said.

Some of the classes he has done free for the public have been map reading, wilderness first aid and a slide presentation on the canyons of Asia.

He said he traveled in Taiwan and Nepal during January of this year, and has gone to canyons on five continents in his lifetime. He also said he is hoping to go to the canyons in Africa some day, but does not ever expect to go to any in Antartica.

Carlson said he and his wife, Judy, moved to Cedar City in 2002. They have four children between them.

His two grown sons live in Denver and his two teenage daughters live in Cedar City.