Deathcricket
06-29-2009, 09:21 AM
What a day, what a day! So I had the privilege of getting to tag along with the englestead crew. It was Tom Jones, Jaxx, Desert Nomad, Chabidiah, Jaxx's BIL, and myself. I was definitely the most inexperienced guy there, but I made up for it slightly by taking lots of pictures to share, hehe.
We started at the Mean Bean then carpooled up to the trailhead. Once at the trail we divvied up ropes and took off. Jaxx ended up getting the heaviest pack. By my estimation it weighed 60-80 pounds! I can't believe he carried that thing all day. I woulda died I think. We hiked down what I suspect was an old logging trail but it was so overgrown at this point I doubt you could get anything but a quad down it. Saw some really pretty red flowers and yellow butterflies, and even some ancient logging equipment. I think Tom said it might have been there since the 1920's.
We get the first big drop. Wow it's a doosie! There was another group there so we set up on the other side. I then found out they were rappelling off the same side we were, but the guy was just strapped in so he could hang off the end and get some good video footage of his group. So we get everything setup and guess who gets to go first? That's right the Cricket of Death :P I had this cool little toy a wanted to test out (Petzl STOP http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/descenders/stop ) but it has an auto brake built in, so technically I should be able to let completely go of the descender and rope and stop immediately. So I lock in and off I go. Now technically I was expecting this to be the scariest rappel of my life. So mentally I was prepared for the worst. But to be honest it wasn't that scary at all. And I think the main contributing factors are the slope is not so bad, the approach is a simple graduated rock face, and there is no free hanging aspects. For me the hardest rappels are the ones with hard starts, once I get fully weighted on the rope and committed, I'm pretty comfortable, but your mileage may vary. I believe if I recall Tom correctly, he said it was 85% most of the way down. So I get half way down and I figure I will let go of the device and see if it brakes properly and take a couple pictures from the view. Well due to the thickness of the rope (8.5 I think) it doesn't stop but slows to a slow walk down the rock face. Oh well, no half way down pictures, haha. Then I get about 70% down and my fear kicks in hardcore. I detect a burning smell coming from the descender (no smoke though). Holy $#!+ I'm gonne melt through my rope and fall to my death AHHHH!! So I decided to speed up my descent and calculated that the less time the hot metal spends in contact with the rope, the better off I'll be ( I later discovered a burning smell was no biggie, but I admit the smell did send me into a small state of shock, hehe). I reach the bottom without incident and help belay the other guys down. One of our group did get a little fatigued coming down, and another time I was belaying the rope I came down on and someone was coming down the other one, but nothing significant happened on what was the hardest drop of the trip.
So then Englestead turns into drop after drop after drop. It was definitely the hardest canyon I've done to date. Tom turned the group into a discussion on almost every rappel, which I really really really enjoyed. And gave me so much information I'll be lucky to retain 15% of it. I couldn't believe the amount of tricks this guy has, truly an expert in his field. He's a tough critic but that was also appreciated since a person can die making a single mistake and that just shows he cares. For instance I was using a quick draw with 4 feet of webbing to hang my pack off when needed, which I guess is a big "no-no", lesson learned. We inspected each rappel and the webbing. We re-tied anything that looked "fishy" and removed loads of webbing from the canyon and left it better or improved in some way. We learned to use a body anchor or a "meat anchor" and tie "stone knots". At pretty much every rappel he would encourage us to examine the situation and make assessments, not just jump on the rope and go. Then after a bit he would just sit at the back of the group and let us figure the entire thing out ourselves and give pointers if needed.
Eventually we dropped into Ordeville and starting walking the dry rock bed, after about a mile it started flowing. First a trickle then enough to actually make some pools to splash in. The water was actually very nice! Chilly but no wetsuit needed. The 4 of us made a game of jumping every pool deep enough calling it the "full meal deal" and trying to navigate staying ONLY in the waterways. Tom and Bill made a game of navigating only on dry land and avoiding the chilly water unless absolutely required. It was a blast.
Then we came to a little cliff towards the end or Orderville where everyone had to jump. Probably an 8-foot drop into 8 feet of water. There was a group in front of us who could use a rope and verified there were no rocks or roots hidden in the pool to jack us up. I actually have a cool video I took while treading water I will try to add later. I made a critical error though and recorded it in 320x240! Ugh I should have checked my settings before and feel like a total retard now. Maybe with a little "manipulation" I can increase the size to decent youtube standards. We'll see. If anyone has any advice on that it would be truly appreciated.
At long last we reached the Narrows. The 4 of us floated for 30-200 foot intervals while Tom and Bill booked it to make the dinner gathering. My throat is still sore from yelling "wooohooo" so much as we jumped in rapids after rapids and let the current beat us to a living pulp. My pack got soaked and gained about 20 pounds. I think it was the rope probably. But I didn't care, feeling weightless for short intervals and having tourists stare at us was so worth it.
Got back to the cars, I went home since I've been in Vegas for 2 weeks and missed the family, rest of the crew went to the dinner and hopefully there was still some grub left when they got there. Jaxx deserves a 2nd or 3rd helping for carrying that huge ass pack!
Special thanks to Tom for being patient and teaching me so much. It was really appreciated. Rest of the crew, I also TOTALLY enjoyed meeting each and every one of you, and will go again with you ANYTIME. It was soooo much fun.
Lessons learned.
1. Gotta get a bigger pack. My camelpack just not cutting it. I might be able to get a separate rope bag and avoid this but we'll see. Tom lent me one of his Imlay packs and it was really great (except for no hidden zipper to keep my car keys safe safe safe :). Especially loved the quick drain holes built in the bottom and oversize shoulder straps with extra padding.
2. Learn to tie stone knots, and join webbing together. practice practice practice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqVYGuptLeg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8taoaMptKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0688qGfIQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZNI9l1X22A
We started at the Mean Bean then carpooled up to the trailhead. Once at the trail we divvied up ropes and took off. Jaxx ended up getting the heaviest pack. By my estimation it weighed 60-80 pounds! I can't believe he carried that thing all day. I woulda died I think. We hiked down what I suspect was an old logging trail but it was so overgrown at this point I doubt you could get anything but a quad down it. Saw some really pretty red flowers and yellow butterflies, and even some ancient logging equipment. I think Tom said it might have been there since the 1920's.
We get the first big drop. Wow it's a doosie! There was another group there so we set up on the other side. I then found out they were rappelling off the same side we were, but the guy was just strapped in so he could hang off the end and get some good video footage of his group. So we get everything setup and guess who gets to go first? That's right the Cricket of Death :P I had this cool little toy a wanted to test out (Petzl STOP http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/descenders/stop ) but it has an auto brake built in, so technically I should be able to let completely go of the descender and rope and stop immediately. So I lock in and off I go. Now technically I was expecting this to be the scariest rappel of my life. So mentally I was prepared for the worst. But to be honest it wasn't that scary at all. And I think the main contributing factors are the slope is not so bad, the approach is a simple graduated rock face, and there is no free hanging aspects. For me the hardest rappels are the ones with hard starts, once I get fully weighted on the rope and committed, I'm pretty comfortable, but your mileage may vary. I believe if I recall Tom correctly, he said it was 85% most of the way down. So I get half way down and I figure I will let go of the device and see if it brakes properly and take a couple pictures from the view. Well due to the thickness of the rope (8.5 I think) it doesn't stop but slows to a slow walk down the rock face. Oh well, no half way down pictures, haha. Then I get about 70% down and my fear kicks in hardcore. I detect a burning smell coming from the descender (no smoke though). Holy $#!+ I'm gonne melt through my rope and fall to my death AHHHH!! So I decided to speed up my descent and calculated that the less time the hot metal spends in contact with the rope, the better off I'll be ( I later discovered a burning smell was no biggie, but I admit the smell did send me into a small state of shock, hehe). I reach the bottom without incident and help belay the other guys down. One of our group did get a little fatigued coming down, and another time I was belaying the rope I came down on and someone was coming down the other one, but nothing significant happened on what was the hardest drop of the trip.
So then Englestead turns into drop after drop after drop. It was definitely the hardest canyon I've done to date. Tom turned the group into a discussion on almost every rappel, which I really really really enjoyed. And gave me so much information I'll be lucky to retain 15% of it. I couldn't believe the amount of tricks this guy has, truly an expert in his field. He's a tough critic but that was also appreciated since a person can die making a single mistake and that just shows he cares. For instance I was using a quick draw with 4 feet of webbing to hang my pack off when needed, which I guess is a big "no-no", lesson learned. We inspected each rappel and the webbing. We re-tied anything that looked "fishy" and removed loads of webbing from the canyon and left it better or improved in some way. We learned to use a body anchor or a "meat anchor" and tie "stone knots". At pretty much every rappel he would encourage us to examine the situation and make assessments, not just jump on the rope and go. Then after a bit he would just sit at the back of the group and let us figure the entire thing out ourselves and give pointers if needed.
Eventually we dropped into Ordeville and starting walking the dry rock bed, after about a mile it started flowing. First a trickle then enough to actually make some pools to splash in. The water was actually very nice! Chilly but no wetsuit needed. The 4 of us made a game of jumping every pool deep enough calling it the "full meal deal" and trying to navigate staying ONLY in the waterways. Tom and Bill made a game of navigating only on dry land and avoiding the chilly water unless absolutely required. It was a blast.
Then we came to a little cliff towards the end or Orderville where everyone had to jump. Probably an 8-foot drop into 8 feet of water. There was a group in front of us who could use a rope and verified there were no rocks or roots hidden in the pool to jack us up. I actually have a cool video I took while treading water I will try to add later. I made a critical error though and recorded it in 320x240! Ugh I should have checked my settings before and feel like a total retard now. Maybe with a little "manipulation" I can increase the size to decent youtube standards. We'll see. If anyone has any advice on that it would be truly appreciated.
At long last we reached the Narrows. The 4 of us floated for 30-200 foot intervals while Tom and Bill booked it to make the dinner gathering. My throat is still sore from yelling "wooohooo" so much as we jumped in rapids after rapids and let the current beat us to a living pulp. My pack got soaked and gained about 20 pounds. I think it was the rope probably. But I didn't care, feeling weightless for short intervals and having tourists stare at us was so worth it.
Got back to the cars, I went home since I've been in Vegas for 2 weeks and missed the family, rest of the crew went to the dinner and hopefully there was still some grub left when they got there. Jaxx deserves a 2nd or 3rd helping for carrying that huge ass pack!
Special thanks to Tom for being patient and teaching me so much. It was really appreciated. Rest of the crew, I also TOTALLY enjoyed meeting each and every one of you, and will go again with you ANYTIME. It was soooo much fun.
Lessons learned.
1. Gotta get a bigger pack. My camelpack just not cutting it. I might be able to get a separate rope bag and avoid this but we'll see. Tom lent me one of his Imlay packs and it was really great (except for no hidden zipper to keep my car keys safe safe safe :). Especially loved the quick drain holes built in the bottom and oversize shoulder straps with extra padding.
2. Learn to tie stone knots, and join webbing together. practice practice practice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqVYGuptLeg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8taoaMptKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0688qGfIQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZNI9l1X22A