High Spur WARNING

[marc olivares]

spent the last week in the Robbers Roost w/ some friends, we tried to do High Spur on wednesday and got DENIED!!!

seems there is a log jam or something in the large chamber just passed the corkscrew. there was over head water from the main chamber all the way down the corridor to the start of this section. i'm guessing about 200 yards.

BRING A WET SUIT IF YOUR ATTEMPTING THIS SECTION NOW!!!!!

i tried to swim this section, as i've done this canyon before and knew what to expect, but it was way to cold to do without a wettie! i did not actually see a log Jam, but the section i swam held about 8 inches of debris along the top of the water.

be careful, we bail'd and up climbed one of the drainage sections

[CarpeyBiggs]

wow. Any idea how far up from the last chamber with the huge rockfall in it you were? That canyon is clearly changing conditions very frequently...

[stefan]

seems there is a log jam or in the large chamber just passed the corkscrew.
there was over head water all the way from the main chamber all the way down the corridor to the start of this section. i'm guessing about 200 yards.




that's interesting. ram mentioned the filling potential for this spot in a post on canyons a little bit ago.

thanks for the info marc, good to know! got any photos of the before(dry)/after(wet)?

one more reason to take the warning of canyon changes seriously.

[CarpeyBiggs]

These two are from the end of the corkscrew section, but there was obvious debris just a few yards upcanyon from here of floods that had exceeded 8 feet in depth. I could see this section filling up. This is within a few yards of what I believe Kelsey described as a water filled pothole, or maybe a rap from an arch? Notice the deadfall on the ground.

http://danransom.com/TripReports/HighSpur/images/IMG_3830.jpg

http://danransom.com/TripReports/HighSpur/images/IMG_3799.jpg

Here is the pic from Shane when he went through, which is in the same stretch of slot. When we went through in early April, there was tons of deadfall here, and it seems like it could hold pretty deep water.

http://uutah.com/forum/files/pothole.jpg

[marc olivares]

wow. Any idea how far up from the last chamber with the huge rockfall in it you were? That canyon is clearly changing conditions very frequently...

from about 15 yards from the start of the "corkscrew", about 6 or 8 small potholes from the start where it doglegs to the left and drops.

your photo above with the single tree choked in the canyon,
i swam below this and it was about 4 feet above my head. the last time i walked through this spot ant the tree was 20 feet over my head.
i dont have any photos, but my buddy "Montanablur" (on this site) took some great ones of me looking like a serious "victim"...lol it was really really cold.

oh and that tiny little arch that Shane shot, was completely submerged. :frustrated:

[rockgremlin]

WOW!!! :eek2:

Looks like Dan and I got in there just in the nick of time!! Crazy!!

[nosivad_bor]

Note to self, always pack wetsuit when it rains for three days prior to entering a young canyon :)

I took very few pictures because a couple other dudes were on camera duty. when the shit got deep and scary i went into survival mode and didn't snap any picts. but there are a few pictures of marc reemerging from the bowels of this canyon, hypothermia already kicking in on a few of us. "montanablur" isn't home yet hopefully he posts them soon.


here are the only few picts i have of the trip in this canyon.

[jumar]

We went through it on Saturday. No swimmers, but lots of wading up to chest deep. Sat was a much warmer day for air temperature, but we still pushed pretty quick through the wet stuff since we didn't have wet suits. It actually made for a really fun trip. Didn't see any logjams that were problematic.
I'll have to post some pics soon.


oh and that tiny little arch that Shane shot, was completely submerged.
We could see the arch, so it's no longer submerged.

[Iceaxe]

Wow... the speed at which this canyon is rotating its obstacles is amazing.

:eek2:

[marc olivares]

Jeff, post up some photos, now i'm really curious

there was an insane amount of water when we went in.
crazy how a few warm days will change it.

[jumar]

Yeah the water must drain at a pretty good rate. It was about the right amount of water on Saturday. We got cold, but then it was nice and warm outside so it wasn't too big of a problem.
Here's a few pics. Notice the new uutah t-shirt.

It figures that there'd be water in this canyon, the one time in years I wear cotton pants. :frustrated:

[CarpeyBiggs]

I'm still amazed by these pics. Here are three from the exact same spot. Cool comparison.

RockGremlin and I from early April:

http://www.danransom.com/TripReports/HighSpur/images/IMG_3784.jpg

One from Marc

http://uutah.com/forum/files/rr07_042b.jpg

One from Jumar

http://uutah.com/forum/files/hsaustin.jpg

[marc olivares]

man that's just crazy, how much the water was lower in just 3 days

[CarpeyBiggs]

Nice pics Jumar. Crazy to see the different conditions.

While Justin and I were in the slot, I joked with him that if this secret got out among the nature photographers, this place would be packed with tripods. I think it had better light than alot of upper antelope, at least while we were there. Now, seeing these pics, I realize why it will remain fairly untouched: You never know what you are going to get.


Oh yeah.... And it is clear the hell out in the middle of nowhere.

[Iceaxe]

Oh yeah.... And it is clear the hell out in the middle of nowhere.

When you get to Nowhere turn left and it's only 12 more miles down a bumpy dirt road. :lol8:

[price1869]

http://uutah.com/forum/files/hsbean2.jpg

Chacos? The whole way through? :hail2thechief:

[jumar]

Yeah, she's got tough feet.

She had them resoled with sticky rubber too. :2thumbs:

[snatch]

hey marc,
there was a sketchy climb at the beginning of the canyon with some really loose crud. in an earlier topic shane said kelsey didn't know anything about the slide and that it was probably a new development. anyway, had all that crud been washed out from flashing?

[nosivad_bor]

crud was still there and very powdery, looks like that part of the canyon doesnt get tons of drainage. it appeared the wall blew out and a one car garage sized chunck of rock pinched off the slot, you climb up the side and over the top and down. not too difficult but still very loose and crumbly.

one of the other guys in our crew took tons of picts, once he sends out a disc there are precise pictures of that rock fall and picts of some of us climbing up and over it. as well as other areas of the canyon itself.

-rob

[montanablur]

I can't wait to go back when it's dry...

[marc olivares]

Mem'ries,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were

[stefan]

water + pretty slot = fun :2thumbs:

[hank moon]

man that's just crazy, how much the water was lower in just 3 days

A few years ago i did a canyon off Powell with Ram, TJ Hooker, and others. It had rained 2 nights prior (the night Ram, TJ, et al were trapped in Silo Canyon / aka 'Psycho Damage') and the canyon was full of sparkling clear water all the way down to the lake. Near the end, it seemed as if we were gonna get hit with a little dose of 'business' but it all seemed to open up as if by magic. One pothole in particular seemed way too easy. If the water went down only 6 inches, could be a keeper.

5 days after we did it, another party went through and reported the final section to be more business than anticipated. The 'couldabeenakeeper' was now a serious keeper with the water level 6 feet lower than before! Still a swimmer, still a nasty lip. Some of these slots change a lot more frequently than we know. Pot Shots

[steverupp]

Here are the pics of the rock fall.

[montanablur]

Here is a rough cut of a little video from the trip... Still waiting on some high def footage to come in...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0yvxYn2ozQ

[nosivad_bor]

:2thumbs: :rockon:

[snatch]

alright, now that the canyon has been given the name, "high spur," lets get some creative juices flowing.

instead of high spur, i opted for...

spurrific
spurawesome
spurtacular
shane spurrrows


and my personal favorite...
SPURSIMMON

and my next to favorite name...
quite la boca pinchi shane spurro.

any other players of the game?

[rockgremlin]

Dude, I don't wanna hear the word SPUR right now....

[montanablur]

How about BFE Canyon?

[Iceaxe]

I think Kelsey named it first and his official name was "Northest Spur Fork of Spur Canyon"

:roll: :roll: :roll:

[montanablur]

In that case I refuse to ever call it "Northest Spur Fork of Spur Canyon"...