MrAdam
02-12-2012, 03:37 PM
Headdress Canyon is a short canyon in the Superstion Wilderness near Tortilla Flat. One of the guys I went with found this canyon and has been exploring and posting beta on the canyons in the Superstitions. It was a fun little canyon with 3 rappels, a couple downclimbs and a couple swims.
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After Headdress we decided to go explore another drainage in the area. The drainage turned out to only have one rappel and TONS of catclaw and other sharp vegetation which shredded my legs, thats what I get for wearing shorts! The rappel was 90' from a featureless lip with a pothole behind it. We found a 60lb boulder, wrapped it and dropped it in the pothole for our anchor. 3 of us rappelled down with a meat backup, but the last man decided to add his pack with some rocks in it, set up retrievable in line with the rappel strand, for some added backup. The anchor held, but when we pulled the pack retrieval line, it wouldnt budge. Two of the party used rope grabs to gain advantage while I was behind a boulder keeping the rappel line taught so the pack could zip down. Two guys using all thier weight and mechanical ascenders and the pull line finally started to move, but it was quite a bit of work. The pack finally came over the edge after a few more pulls with the ascenders....... and was follwed by some green webbing and..... ROCK!!!! The boulder that we used as an anchor fell 90' and exploded on impact. Luckily no one was hurt, although the rock landed on my brand new rope and severed it!
Afterwards we figured out that the tension being applied to the rappel strand was not allowing the biner attached to the pack to move and was keeping it pressed against the lip of the rappel. When they were pulling the rope, we assumed the friction from the lip and pack was causing the pull issue, but due to the biner being pinned down, they were actually pulling the boulder up and out of the pothole!
The evil, sharp vegetation
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Some cool dissolotion holes
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The anchor before being set in the pothole
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The rappel
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The aftermath of the boulder falling
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My poor rope!
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51254
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51251
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After Headdress we decided to go explore another drainage in the area. The drainage turned out to only have one rappel and TONS of catclaw and other sharp vegetation which shredded my legs, thats what I get for wearing shorts! The rappel was 90' from a featureless lip with a pothole behind it. We found a 60lb boulder, wrapped it and dropped it in the pothole for our anchor. 3 of us rappelled down with a meat backup, but the last man decided to add his pack with some rocks in it, set up retrievable in line with the rappel strand, for some added backup. The anchor held, but when we pulled the pack retrieval line, it wouldnt budge. Two of the party used rope grabs to gain advantage while I was behind a boulder keeping the rappel line taught so the pack could zip down. Two guys using all thier weight and mechanical ascenders and the pull line finally started to move, but it was quite a bit of work. The pack finally came over the edge after a few more pulls with the ascenders....... and was follwed by some green webbing and..... ROCK!!!! The boulder that we used as an anchor fell 90' and exploded on impact. Luckily no one was hurt, although the rock landed on my brand new rope and severed it!
Afterwards we figured out that the tension being applied to the rappel strand was not allowing the biner attached to the pack to move and was keeping it pressed against the lip of the rappel. When they were pulling the rope, we assumed the friction from the lip and pack was causing the pull issue, but due to the biner being pinned down, they were actually pulling the boulder up and out of the pothole!
The evil, sharp vegetation
51255
Some cool dissolotion holes
51253
The anchor before being set in the pothole
51244
The rappel
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The aftermath of the boulder falling
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My poor rope!
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