TR Telephone Canyon May 8, 2010

[bretoyce]

So school finally ended and I needed an escape from all the stress that had been building up for weeks before my finals. I wanted to do a canyon that I really enjoyed last year, but knew that there might be a lot of snow and might have to just settle with a great hike. We left STG at 5 am I had to be back to work that night. Just as it started to get light we began our journey to the rim of Telephone Canyon. My first thoughs were is my pack usually this heavy jeez this is going to be a long hike. We ran into snow just before the junction of Behunin. The scenery was amazing the towering cliffs and all the spring flowers made the long hike all the more enjoyable. We skirted along the cliffs and we neared the enterance we could hear the thundering cascades of water. I thought I love class C, hope there isn't to much flow or that the snow in the bottom would make it impassable. I peeked down canyon from the stream bed it looked great and I didn't even see any snow. We set up the first rap and continued down ward canyon left to the scond rap station off a tree. The rappel was parallel to the water fall 100' to the bottom. The third rap was off a log that had been jammed into weak spots in the canyon walls. Many of the abseils where natural. I didn't even feel the cold icy water with my wet suit on it was very pleasant. I had done this canyon before but it didn't have flowing water and I had forgot how many rappels there were and how close together they were. Telephone was a great canyon to start my summer of canyoneering out right.

[ratagonia]

Niiiiiiice. Great Pics. Tom

[Brian in SLC]

Wow, nice with water!

Looks brrr cold...

[jman]

yea, telephone is awesome with water!

[Scott Card]

Very cool! :2thumbs:

[Wasatch]

Very nice, been 7 years since I've done that canyon with Behunin. Thinking about doing it again this year.

[Cirrus2000]

Wow - beautiful! Nice job, Bret! :2thumbs:

[Brian in SLC]

Very nice, been 7 years since I've done that canyon with Behunin. Thinking about doing it again this year.

Yeah, haven't done it since September 2000...

Be interesting to see how the season continues to shape up with all the snowpack still meltin' out...

[Don]

Nice! Looks cold and fun!

[Ryebrye]

you were'nt at the backcountry desk that morning around 7 were you? We were behind a group doing telephone.

[bretoyce]

Nope that wasn't me I got my permit online. I though I heard someone behind us.

[Jaxx]

Very cool pics. My canyon list is growing and I am not checking any off. Life is always getting in the way of fun.

[accadacca]

Awesome man, great pix. :2thumbs:

[Jaxx]

how long does Telephone take? on average. I am thinking of taking a noobster through telephone and behunin but I am thinking we need to pick one or the other.

[ratagonia]

how long does Telephone take? on average. I am thinking of taking a noobster through telephone and behunin but I am thinking we need to pick one or the other.

3 hour hike to the top, 3-5 hours through the canyon, 1-1/2 hours to hike down.

The second rap in Telephone is a doozy, and has crunched one fellow at least. Seems a bad place to take a noobster. The raps in Behunin save the hardest for last - a better choice. And, Behunin is a nicer canyon, overall.

Tom :moses:

[jhillock]

Tom nailed it. Did telephone on Saturday and it took us 2.5 hours to the top(pushing pretty hard and the two of us are in decent shape), 4 hours through the canyon, 1.5 hours down.

We wanted to do both Telephone and Behunin in one day, but ended up spending more time in telephone than expected and decided to just head down rather than get a late entry into Behunion. 13 raps take longer than you think. With a noob I think it would be hard to pull off both in a day, but who knows.

On the first rap in telephone you have to rappell a bit off of the fall line in order to reach the second rap station, this could be a bit tricky for a noob with little or no rappelling experience. The first rap is also above about an 80 foot cliff so it gets the blood going right from the start of the canyon, and like tom said the 2nd rap is a doozy

[tanya]

Fun! I love this canyon!

[Jaxx]

OK I think we are bagging the hole Telephone Behunin idea with the noobster. We will take him through another time. Thanks for the info guys!