FOX
03-07-2006, 12:07 AM
Alright, I'm not sure if we are the first to do this canyon but I have not been able to find anything on it. No guidebooks, no web beta...nothing. So, I'm throwing this out to Shane, Tom, Ram or anyone else that may have done this route or know of someone who has. If no one bites, we're claiming it and naming it!
My friend Chuck and I set out to do Constrychnine and its neighbors last weekend. There were some reports of less than unpleasant weather for Friday in Hanksville but to our good fortune, it all cleared off. 60 degree temps made it almost perfect.
We began exploring from above and worked our way east to the lip of Poison Spring canyon. Later we learned that we were practically across the street from the Butler Forks. We decided not to return to do Constrychnine as a result of the time we had burned and instead chose to do one that was right in front of us. Constrychnine boasts the longest rappel in the North Wash area...about 190 feet. The canyon we were about to go down beat it! It began with a rap that was about 260 feet long which followed a 2 foot wide slot...all the way down to the bottom!
We anchored from the only cedar tree standing in the bowl at the top. We spent awhile looking around for any signs of previous descent and found none. No slings, bolts or anything for that matter. In fact, if anyone had descended this canyon before, they've gone back and removed all the slings or they did it with hooks, which I personally think is a little crazy, especially if one was used on the first rap.
Chuck descended first and we communicated via radios. He called me from a chokestone wedged about half way down the slot which was large enough for one person to stand on. He estimated that there was another 120 feet or so to go below that. When he reached bottom, he told me that he was holding the last two feet of our 300 foot rope in his hand!
I began tying everything we had together so we would have enough to somehow make the pull. Between our 60M and all of the webbing, we thought that would do it. I began my descent and reached the chokestone. Chuck looked like an ant! We quickly found out that what I had tied together wasn't enough. I happened to have one more length of rope that was roughly another 60 feet. Together with that and the 15 feet of our Prussik ropes, we were still ten feet short. Once I reached bottom, we stemmed back up to the pull line and tied one of the packs to the end of it. Chuck and I then took turns hanging from the pack to get the rope moving. After what seemed like hours, the rope finally began to give. The relief was short lived as we realized the next problem would be getting the rope to miss the chokestone and not drape itself around it. Well, it draped itself around it and wedged in tight. Incessant pulling and grunting yielded no results. By now it was almost 3PM and we knew we had to get moving and reach bottom so we could navigate out. The decision was made to cut the rope (almost half of it would be left behind)...OUCH!...and return to retrieve it later.
The canyon had a total of 4 rappels. The last one was a nice 70 foot free hang. There was a final deep section of narrows that could be bypassed if desired. Due to time and the lack of webbing (I was down to my last rapid link), we opted for the bypass as it looked like some rappelling would be necessary to navigate the narrows section. Once we hit bottom, it was a mad dash to get out before the sun was gone. The plan was to exit via the Arscenic climb out. That didn
My friend Chuck and I set out to do Constrychnine and its neighbors last weekend. There were some reports of less than unpleasant weather for Friday in Hanksville but to our good fortune, it all cleared off. 60 degree temps made it almost perfect.
We began exploring from above and worked our way east to the lip of Poison Spring canyon. Later we learned that we were practically across the street from the Butler Forks. We decided not to return to do Constrychnine as a result of the time we had burned and instead chose to do one that was right in front of us. Constrychnine boasts the longest rappel in the North Wash area...about 190 feet. The canyon we were about to go down beat it! It began with a rap that was about 260 feet long which followed a 2 foot wide slot...all the way down to the bottom!
We anchored from the only cedar tree standing in the bowl at the top. We spent awhile looking around for any signs of previous descent and found none. No slings, bolts or anything for that matter. In fact, if anyone had descended this canyon before, they've gone back and removed all the slings or they did it with hooks, which I personally think is a little crazy, especially if one was used on the first rap.
Chuck descended first and we communicated via radios. He called me from a chokestone wedged about half way down the slot which was large enough for one person to stand on. He estimated that there was another 120 feet or so to go below that. When he reached bottom, he told me that he was holding the last two feet of our 300 foot rope in his hand!
I began tying everything we had together so we would have enough to somehow make the pull. Between our 60M and all of the webbing, we thought that would do it. I began my descent and reached the chokestone. Chuck looked like an ant! We quickly found out that what I had tied together wasn't enough. I happened to have one more length of rope that was roughly another 60 feet. Together with that and the 15 feet of our Prussik ropes, we were still ten feet short. Once I reached bottom, we stemmed back up to the pull line and tied one of the packs to the end of it. Chuck and I then took turns hanging from the pack to get the rope moving. After what seemed like hours, the rope finally began to give. The relief was short lived as we realized the next problem would be getting the rope to miss the chokestone and not drape itself around it. Well, it draped itself around it and wedged in tight. Incessant pulling and grunting yielded no results. By now it was almost 3PM and we knew we had to get moving and reach bottom so we could navigate out. The decision was made to cut the rope (almost half of it would be left behind)...OUCH!...and return to retrieve it later.
The canyon had a total of 4 rappels. The last one was a nice 70 foot free hang. There was a final deep section of narrows that could be bypassed if desired. Due to time and the lack of webbing (I was down to my last rapid link), we opted for the bypass as it looked like some rappelling would be necessary to navigate the narrows section. Once we hit bottom, it was a mad dash to get out before the sun was gone. The plan was to exit via the Arscenic climb out. That didn