Benign and Bloodhound

[Mountaineer]

Clear skies and 30 degrees out. Much better than all this smog and -10F in Cache Valley.

This past Monday Tyler and I tackled Benign and Bloodhound canyons. We tried getting out there in December, but the roads were too much for our previous vehicle. Better equipped, we easily pushed through the deep snow and washes.



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Benign is an easy canyon. I would take my family through, as it seemed beginner friendly. There are some potholes, but most of them can be bypassed on either side of the canyon. The ones you can't bypass, are not hard.


Time to get back out the mittens.

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Quite a few ice bridges. You never knew if you would hit liquid freezing water, or just fall through a few feet. Luckily always the latter! I was amazed how the ice sheets would cover open bowls. A false bottom, as the canyon floor was often much further down.


Bypassing a drop, and easy slope out here.


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And the exit crack. There is an anchor for a rap, but it is not needed. A very simple and fun "wedge and slide down".


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Once we completed Benign, we had low expectations for Bloodhound. Thought it would be easy and short, but it turned out to offer a lot more challenges. Here, we had to find places to put an anchor, or test webbing frozen in ice. There are some great slides and downclimbs in this canyon. Even a semi-keeper we had to hit direct due to the snow all around the sides. Risky and slippery!


Bob - note the rope groove, we made sure we extended past that!


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Below is the semi-keeper. You can get around it with a slide then quick jump to the right (left side in this picture). Otherwise, a partner assist should defeat it, if the sand levels don't change too much...


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The exit option(s) out of Bloodhound seemed sketchy in the snow. We couldn't find anything that looked reasonably safe. So, we crossed some washes and followed the Beaver Wash until we got to a side drainage next to Benign. Having done this exit earlier in the day, we were soon back to the starting point and road.


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And, poking fun at our canyoneering clothes... is welcome... :nono:

Trying to protect my cheap pants.:lol8:

[SRG]

Like the TR, seems like you guys had fun!
Thanks for posting

[TheBird]

Well, i know when I'm wedged in above a Mae West slot, or dragging myself out of a keeper, all I'm worried about is how fashionable my outfit is. :lol8:

[Slot Machine]

Bob - note the rope groove, we made sure we extended past that!

NICE!! :rock:


Trying to protect my cheap pants.

Inspired by your $3 blue pants, I visited the D.I. recently hoping to score a pair. No luck.

Another nice TR!! Thanks for sharing. :2thumbs:

[penmartens]

Thanks for the TR on the Beaver Canyons. We don't hear about them very often.
I mentioned to Dave you had posted and this is what he had to say:

So it turns out that these days people are finding the minislots to be good for off-season canyoneering.
Remember a while back we were talking about how people seemed to be making foolhardy choices during rainstorms? "It looks like it's going to rain -- Maybe we should just do a minislot."
Well, now I can say that people are taking up "risky" winter canyoneering, but at least they are doing the "correct" canyons.

I never expected to see rope grooves in Bloodhound.
The canyon is so easy I did the "first descent" by myself.
At the spot in the photo with the rope grooves the anchor is a deadman in the watercourse.
You can easily get rocks to build an anchor you will trust.
The start of the rappel is not difficult and the length of the rappel is not intimidating, so you can extend the webbing to the lip and not freak anyone out.
So the explanation I come up with is that people must not be aware that you can stop grooves by backing away from the drop before pulling the rope.

BTW the drop in the photo with rope grooves is where I had my "incredible wind incident."
It was so bad that when I intended to throw my rope down the drop it came flying back and sailed over my shoulder. It occurred to me that there are a few instances when a rope bag can be a life saver.

[Mountaineer]

Thanks for the TR on the Beaver Canyons. We don't hear about them very often.
I mentioned to Dave you had posted and this is what he had to say:


A big thank you to Dave for posting the beta. Descriptions were good, although we had trouble with the Bloodhound exit as I mentioned. I agree, they are good winter canyons.

When I first started, I challenged and questioned why a rope bag was needed. I thought just stuffing rope into your pack would be adequate, rather than lugging another bag around. For lots of reasons, I now always use a rope bag. Throwing into the wind is another. Thanks for the comments.

[stefan]

nice report, thanks :2thumbs: