Mike,
That wasn't bad at all for your first time in those conditions. We can't run up the canyon walls here, but I hike several miles back up into some of them and they are over a mile deep and trying to climb out by going up the side is a very long and tiring day. Mostly loose shale and very steep. You grab a bush or something, pull yourself a foot or so up and then slide back half that distance before you can get hold of something else to pull on. I have spent three hours hiking up one of these canyons along the river, and 5 1/2 hours climbing the side to get to an old fire road that goes along near the top of the wall.
But there is a lot of history back in those places where no one goes. That stuff had to have been hauled in by men and mules in the 1800s.
Ron