Not Not Mindbender

[ilipichicuma]

Six of our crew headed down to the Roost to do Not Mindbender on Labor Day. We had a good night's sleep and woke up in the morning and went and set up the car spot at the Moki Exit. Then we set out, ready for an adventure. Looking at the map, it looked like we just needed to drop into the first drainage we came to, and so we did. This is where we made our navigation mistake. It had rained just a couple days before and so all of the drainages were more pronounced. We therefore ended up accidentally dropping into the wrong one. We didn't realize this until later, however. There were a couple of short slot sections before we finally got to the main technical section, and it seemed to me that it wasn't as difficult as the description had made it sound. However, we had a blast in there. The canyon had tons of water in it (at least for a Roost canyon) and there were a few swims and we had to rebuild just about every anchor, which we thought was tons of fun. We came to the final rappel faster than I expected and it looked like it was a lot higher than the 90 feet that it was supposed to be. I tossed our 120 foot rope (the longest rope we had) and didn't hear it hit the ground, so I pulled it up and tossed it again. I still didn't hear it hit but figured it had tangled and even if it didn't we couldn't go back, so I started down. I got down about 20 feet and saw that the rope was dangling about 30 feet off the deck. I yelled up at everyone else to warn them. Then I locked off my belay device and had them send down our 50 foot rope, which I tied very securely onto the bottom of our long rope. Then I gave them instructions to lower everyone down on the short rope except for the last person, who we would have pass the knot. I then proceeded down the rope, passed the knot, and landed safely on the ground. After that things went smoothly. We even got to keep our ropes! Mckell came last and she was able to climb into a tree and untie the knot and then climb down the tree. It was about that time that I realized that we were in Mindbender, rather than Not Mindbender, which explained all of the other discrepancies I'd noticed. So, things worked out. We weren't lost and we handled things pretty well in my opinion, and I'll say, not having a long enough rope makes things a little more exciting!

Here's a few pictures. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of Mckell in the tree because my camera battery died.

Rapping into the technical section
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Water!
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The rock was wet and slippery so we decided to do a meat anchored rappel and partner assist the last person here instead of just downclimbing
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Last rappel. This is Dustin being lowered.
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Overall an awesome day out in the Roost! It wasn't too hot and we all had a great time. :cool2:

[SRG]

Nice TR :2thumbs:

Sounds like not not an awesome adventure. Glad everyone made it out safe.

[agostinone]

Cool trip. Can you share more detail on how you handled the 120 and 50 foot rope situation. I've tried to picture it in my head and can't figure it all out. Your experience may benefit others. Thanks.

[ratagonia]

Good problem-solving, I guess. Hope you were using the other guyz beta, ... well I guess you were because my beta is not really officially up on the site, though it is on the map, where it says "Be really, really sure you are in the correct drainage."

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/roost/mindbender/

T

[ilipichicuma]

Cool trip. Can you share more detail on how you handled the 120 and 50 foot rope situation. I've tried to picture it in my head and can't figure it all out. Your experience may benefit others. Thanks.

Well, I'm not sure I handled it particularly well. It just worked. I went first and when I found out that the rope didn't reach I had them attach the 50 foot rope to the rope I was on with a carabiner and slide it down to me. (I was only about 20 feet down.) I then pulled up the end of the long rope and tied on the 50 footer. Then I rappelled down and passed the knot, using a foot loop to take my weight off of my belay device and switch to a different one. After that they pulled up the whole rope and switched it so the short rope was at the top. Then we had all but the last person hook in and lock off below the knot and lowered them until the rope reached the ground and they rappelled the rest of the way. Then Mckell pulled the rope up again and switched it so the short rope was at the bottom and rappelled down into the tree and untied the short rope and climbed down the tree. Then we pulled our ropes. Make sense?

[Eric Holden]

Great report! Also good job thinking on the fly, this is one of the things I love about canyoneering. Seeing a problem, and then figuring how to overcome it with the gear on hand.

[ratagonia]

Good to have a nimble tree-climber on hand... have to add that to the list of "canyon skills it is good to have on hand".

Tom

[Slot Machine]

Then I locked off my belay device and had them send down our 50 foot rope, which I tied very securely onto the bottom of our long rope. Then I gave them instructions to lower everyone down on the short rope except for the last person, who we would have pass the knot. I then proceeded down the rope, passed the knot, and landed safely on the ground. :cool2:

Like a boss!! Way to improvise! Nice TR!

[Mountaineer]

I'll bet the Carabiner slide down of the other rope became a spaghetti mess?

Great report and pics. Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[Sandstone Addiction]

Loved the TR and problem solving! :2thumbs:

How were the Moki Steps?

[ilipichicuma]

Loved the TR and problem solving! :2thumbs:

How were the Moki Steps?

A little hairy but easy otherwise. I went first and then tied myself to a tree and belayed everyone else.