how difficult is the right fork of Leprechaun??

[davidheape]

In a week my two brothers, father, and I are coming out to utah for a week. We will be backpacking in Slickhorn Canyon and doing some day hiking in the Cedar Mesa.We are also interested in hiking the Right fork of Leprechaun Canyon. My father has never seen a slot canyon before. One of my brothers has done rappeling in the past, the rest of us (including my 67 yr old father) have not. Is the trip down the Right fork that challenging? Are there any true "free" rappels or are the rappels more along the lines of walking down a slope with the aid of a rappel rope? I think my dad could do the latter but not the "free" rappel. Yes, he is in fairly good shape. Another thought was for my dad to hike to the junction by himself or with one of us and the others meet him there from the top.
We are also planning on hiking Lucky Charms while there. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Thanks

David Heape
DavidHMD@aol.com

[Scott P]

It's not very difficult. You may want to try it.

As an alternate in the area, if you are worried about the raps, try lower Maidenwater below the highway. It only has one short drop and is a pretty interesting canyon.

[marc olivares]

i drug my 4 year old and 56 year old dad through Lucky Charms last week, and w/ it's current amount of water, it makes for a more than challenging hike. bunch of stemming or wet to the waist.
there are also a couple of spots that do require a fair amount of strength to get up.
@ 67 i can only hope your dad is up to the task. my dads in better shape than me and it tuckered the both of us.
although keep in mind, we carried a 4 year old through most of it.

which i wouldnt recommend to anyone.

[rock_ski_cowboy]

Lucky Charms... :roflol:

[Caddis]

My wife and I went down right fork two weeks ago, it was alot of fun. We are noobs, and it was a good break in canyon for us we thought. If you go all the way to the top to drop in, don't pull your rope until you make it down the second drop. We pulled ours and in between the two drops is a pot hole. I hunkered down in the pot hole and anchored for my wife, and then had to climb out and throw my long rope to get get down.

Have fun, we did!

[Iceaxe]

We are noobs, and it was a good break in canyon for us we thought. If you go all the way to the top to drop in, don't pull your rope until you make it down the second drop. We pulled ours and in between the two drops is a pot hole.

Actually, this is good advise for any canyon. I never pull my ropes until I peek around the next corner to see if there is anther obstacle.

Now.... if you are talking about the rappel and pothole just before Leprechaun junction we pull our ropes in the pothole and downclimb the remainder. It looks a little scary peeking over from the top but it is amazingly simple with almost no exposure. This is a good section to teach noobs about downclimbing.

:cool2:

[Scott Card]

.We are also interested in hiking the Right fork of Leprechaun Canyon. My father has never seen a slot canyon before. One of my brothers has done rappeling in the past, the rest of us (including my 67 yr old father) have not. Is the trip down the Right fork that challenging? Are there any true "free" rappels or are the rappels more along the lines of walking down a slope with the aid of a rappel rope? I think my dad could do the latter but not the "free" rappel. Yes, he is in fairly good shape. Another thought was for my dad to hike to the junction by himself or with one of us and the others meet him there from the top.DavidHMD@aol.com

Ok. To answer the questions to the best of my recollection, there are no true "free rappels" and no "walking down the slope" rappels. There are twisty tight shoulder scraping rappels. If you drive to the top, you can skip the first rap if you desire and enter the canyon on either the left or right with a little route finding just prior to the second rap. If memory serves me correctly, there is a slight overhang on one rap. Short answer, the raps are not straight forward lean back and go type raps. There are natural anchors that require sitting down for the start on some. Also keeping your break hand where it needs to be while scraping your way through may be a bit of a new experience for those with no prior raping experience. Physically it is not that tough. But to a noobie, it may be. There are a few down climbs and I would suggest that you keep a hand line handy or your rope handy to assist those who become perplexed at the 8-10 foot drops with no anchors. Did anyone state the obvious yet? It is tight in spots, belly scrapin' tight for some, go light and don't wear your fancy schmancy city clothes. They will be rags when done. If you haven't had enough when you are done with the East fork, up climb aways the middle fork of Lep for added entertainment. The junction between the forks is obvious. It is good fun and even tighter. If your dad walks to the junction from the bottom, it is an easy and pretty short stroll but with some nice scenic spots. Be safe, have fun.

Scott Card

[Iceaxe]

Below is a picture of the only "required" rappel in the RF of Leprechaun. it's about 20'. I have lowered non-techies and kids down this section so they didn't need to rappel. The RF can be done by most groups with one competent climber or canyoneer along. YMMV

[Scott Card]

Below is a picture of the only "required" rappel in the RF of Leprechaun. it's about 20'. I have lowered non-techies and kids down this section so they didn't need to rappel. The RF can be done by most groups with one competent climber or canyoneer along. YMMV

Emphasis on "YMMV" and the "RF can be done by most groups with one COMPETENT climber or canyoneer." Mr. Heaps, consider the source. IceAxe, as he is now known, is also one of the most experienced and competent guys out there. Like anything, experience and skill makes some difficult things look easy. The Gurus of this sport sometimes forget the fear factor, newness and difficulty of starting something new. :nod: I was trying to put this thing in perspective from one not as experienced as Ice Axe and one who loves to take new folks out. Shane, the comment that concerned me from Mr. Heaps original post was that only one in the group "has done rappelling in the past". That suggests neither climbing or canyoneering experience. Hence, the more detailed description from my perspective of one with less skill and experience.

[Iceaxe]

Scott, I thought your post was great. Mostly I just wanted to provide a picture of the biggest obstacle the group would face.

[Iceaxe]

Here are three photo albums with some excellent pictures of Leprechaun Canyon. Just remember a lot of these pictures were taken in the Middle Fork, which is much more difficult then the Right Fork.

http://canyonquest.com/leprechaun


http://canyonquest.com/pics/leprechaun_2003/aaw.sized.jpg

[davidheape]

Thanks everyone for taking the time and effort to respond. You'll have been very helpful. This however, is with the exception of the "response" by rock_ski_cowboy which I donot know how to interpret. :bootyshake:
Three of us do have some slot canyon experience in the Hole in the rock road area of Escalante (Egypt 3, etc.). I am new to the forum stuff. can I ask what YMMV means?
Thanks again.

[Iceaxe]

can I ask what YMMV means?

Your Mileage May Vary

Oh yeah... and welcome to the forum :2thumbs:

[Scott Card]

ymmv means "your mileage may vary". Shane, that is a fantastic photo. My comments to you were only because I have a father-in-law in pretty good shape and who is in that age category and would make me a bit concerned to take through this canyon. I misinterpreted your post as meaning that there was only one real obstacle. Sorry. Yes, it is one of the tame canyons in the area. I didn't want Mr. Heaps to think no big deal for an older but new canyoneer.

[rock_ski_cowboy]

This however, is with the exception of the "response" by rock_ski_cowboy which I donot know how to interpret. :bootyshake:

Sorry about that. Everyone else was being so helpful, I figured I'd keep quiet for once. Thats just typically my and my friends' reaction whenever someone mentions "Lucky Charms". Didn't want to bag on it because its one of Shane's bastard children and he's quite protective of them; and I maybe some people out there like it; you may actually find it quite "charming" and didn't want to discourage you from going. This route (because its not really a slot, unless you call 20 foot deep canyons slots) is a good example of YMMV. I found it quite disappointing and even a little embarassed that I would waste my groups' time in taking them through there. If you have two hours of free time and want to see some slots, hike up Leprechaun into Belfast Blvd., go up Blarney or Shillelagh as far as you can, go crawl up the bottom of Sandthrax as far as you dare, or go explore the slot (Little Leper) that comes into Leprechaun to the left of the buttress approach (take 60 feet of rope and a 10 foot piece of webbing and rapide, we left it clean).

[Iceaxe]

Shane, that is a fantastic photo.

All the pictures on the Canyonquest site belong to Wade Christensen. The site contains some of the best canyoneering pictures around.

Recommending routes for seniors and children is extra difficult because of the wide difference in abilities.

:duel:

[Iceaxe]

Thats just typically my and my friends' reaction whenever someone mentions "Lucky Charms". Didn't want to bag on it because its one of Shane's bastard children and he's quite protective of them;

I pretty much agree with everything Rock said..... Lucky Charms is more a way to kill an hour and not something to plan an adventure around.

But it is much better then that butt crack that you are calling Little Leper :roflol: :lol8:

[rock_ski_cowboy]

But it is much better then that butt crack that you are calling Little Leper :roflol: :lol8:

I admist, some butt cracks are rather nice. Next time you're bored and have 2 hours, try it from the top down and let me know what you think. You might agree that its a better use of canyoneering time than Lucky Charms (but not publicly of course). You may be pleasantly surprised. Tain't a Leprechaun, and tain't classic, but tain't too bad, neither. There is a little slanted narrows up high, a short downclimbing section through a layer of the uber narrow, squeezy, stemmy kind of stuff (reminded me of the narrowest sections of Hog), some easy downclimbs through boulders, and then a nice downclimb through and under big boulders to a mean downclimb or short rappell, however you choose to do it.

[Iceaxe]

Next time you're bored and have 2 hours, try it from the top down and let me know what you think.

We did Leper when we first discovered the Irish Canyons. There are a couple of other interesting "butt cracks" as we call them in the area and they are all fun. I posted Lucky Charms because it only took us 30 minutes to do, it was a scramble (not tech) and I could put together something resembling a reasonable loop route that visited some interesting rock formations.

http://climb-utah.com/Powell/Files/lucky01.jpg

[davidheape]

Ouch, I didnt mean to stir up that hornet nest. :twisted:
My understanding of the entry into the east fork is that it is a scramble descent and not a lengthy rappel as in the other two forks. Correct? I donot think we will have difficulty with the squeezing and downclimbing (assisting with a handline at times). Short stretches of stemming shouldnt be a problem either. I was mainly concerned about there being a length undercut rappel.
Concerning Lucky Charms, we will not be prepared for wading in waist deep water so if it is wet as mentioned by Marc we will do something else.
My alternative plan all along has been to hike up canyon as for a possible in several different slots if we were not able to decend the East Fork. We must think alike afterall rock, thanks for the info. :hail2thechief:
Thanks again everyone

[Iceaxe]

You didn't stir up a hornet's nest. I think its pretty much agreed that skipping Lucky Charms is a good idea for your group and plans. Sometimes its hard to judge emotions on the net and most of us know each other pretty well and do canyons together. Guess I should have used more smiley faces.... :mrgreen: :haha: :bootyshake:

If you enter the RF of Leprechaun right at the head it can involve a rappel and or difficult downclimbing. Or you can just walk around the very top section until you can simply walk in. Which is the method I would highly recommend for your group. Depending on exactly how you approach the canyon you can simply walk to the canyon bottom by entering 100 yards downstream. You can then hike up the short section you missed if you are interested in seeing it.

:five: