french_de
04-27-2009, 03:49 PM
Arches NP covers an amazing spread of sandstone with not only arches but spires, fins, hoodoos, towers and pinnacles. The Entrada sandstone that makes up a lot of this area doesn’t lend itself to the long deep slots typically found elsewhere in Navajo sandstone and so canyoneering in Arches, at least in the Park Avenue section, is really about the scenery and big rappels. The views from the top of Not-Tierdrop and down are spectacular. Up top you get a great view of the Park
Friday morning started off a little windy but the temps were perfect. The wind picked up speed the higher we climbed the entrance crack. Ridge hopping in the wind is a little unnerving. We ghosted all of the drops. As was stated earlier in another post, the bolts at the first drop have been chopped. We rigged a temporary 75 foot web anchor off of a tree that was located up, over and down the backside of the Swiss cheese wall. We removed this anchor later in the day on our way back up to do Tierdrop. On the second and third rappel we rigged a retrievable sling. Once down from there is was an easy hop to the Park Avenue TH. Not-Tierdrop is a very fast canyon with eye popping views all the way down.
At the trailhead we waited for the weather to clear and then headed up to remove our temporary anchor and descend Tierdrop.
Friday morning started off a little windy but the temps were perfect. The wind picked up speed the higher we climbed the entrance crack. Ridge hopping in the wind is a little unnerving. We ghosted all of the drops. As was stated earlier in another post, the bolts at the first drop have been chopped. We rigged a temporary 75 foot web anchor off of a tree that was located up, over and down the backside of the Swiss cheese wall. We removed this anchor later in the day on our way back up to do Tierdrop. On the second and third rappel we rigged a retrievable sling. Once down from there is was an easy hop to the Park Avenue TH. Not-Tierdrop is a very fast canyon with eye popping views all the way down.
At the trailhead we waited for the weather to clear and then headed up to remove our temporary anchor and descend Tierdrop.