blamkin86
10-08-2013, 06:41 AM
8 of us knuckleheads chose "Little White Roost" as our second-day canyon, on our two-night car camping extrava
As always for me, the best part is being with my friends, as my skills are ok, but not great, and I have a terrible fear of heights that keeps my raps under 100'.
Anyway, we headed south from the White Roost camping area on Sunday morning. Drove, I don't know exactly, a couple miles following the beta. It appears you can either drop in near the head of the canyon, or I did spot a closer drop in further down the way that would save some walking, but I failed to take coords, sorry.
Drop in to the obvious first canyon you come to and head southish down "stream." There are some early stems that can be easily avoided by walking right LDC, but we all wanted the practice so we got on the rocks and stayed.
After a short while, the canyon narrows up and the floor is just breathtaking.
Few more minutes walk, and you come to a pool that you *could* rap into - however we walked on the left rim LDC to discover a pile of rocks with an anchor. We added a few more rocks... one comically we chucked down there but then it was too big to roll into place so we just left it for the next crew. We backed this rap with meat, but it was entirely unecessary as the existing pile never budged even with a 220 pound canyoneer-er. The rap is short, about 30 feet, and very simple.
There are more drops and squeezes - reminds me of an easier slideanide. There's one interesting stem over a pool - the stem turns 90 degrees which was a little challenging but fun - very easy for the experienced I'm sure.
The last pool was about 20' long, and probably 4-5 feet deep. Some of the party stemmed the entire thing,which was very impressive to me - I just walked into the water as I didn't want to fall in half way. I wound up "underwater stemming" and never found the bottom of the thing, so I can't report on that.
The last drop in this one - if you have a fear of heights like I do you won't like it. I managed to do it just fine tho, and I'm sure most folks won't blink an eye. It's basically 100' of rope from the anchor to the ground. The first 20-30 feet is a simple walk down - but you are walking off the end of the rock and it seems like the end of the world... then you're free all the way to the ground - probably 45-55 feet. I was too gripped to have good form, and did the newb thing of not dropping my butt over the ledge, instead scraping my pirana on the lip - something kicked up and I managed to realize i was screwing up and did just fine from that point down. Someone from the bottom told me it was beautiful and I should look around - that wasn't good :) Anyway I did fine but it wasn't my finest hour. Too many months since my last rap and I hate the free ones.
To exit the canyon, simple turn left at the confluence and head up stream. IT's about an hour walk to the exit point... you'll pass one other confluence and take the left fork. At this point the canyon narrows somewhat and gets pretty vegetated. The next confluence is main and west white roost confluence - and you just missed your exit on the left UC.
Someone's beta says the exit was used for horses, and if it gets too hard, you're going the wrong way. That's a perfect description as I usually hate the exits and this one is a walk out.
We spotted a car 1M south of the camping area and saved that walk in the sand.
VERY highly recommended canyon for those trying to improve from beginner technical, as the stems and drops took a little work.
69923699246992569926
As always for me, the best part is being with my friends, as my skills are ok, but not great, and I have a terrible fear of heights that keeps my raps under 100'.
Anyway, we headed south from the White Roost camping area on Sunday morning. Drove, I don't know exactly, a couple miles following the beta. It appears you can either drop in near the head of the canyon, or I did spot a closer drop in further down the way that would save some walking, but I failed to take coords, sorry.
Drop in to the obvious first canyon you come to and head southish down "stream." There are some early stems that can be easily avoided by walking right LDC, but we all wanted the practice so we got on the rocks and stayed.
After a short while, the canyon narrows up and the floor is just breathtaking.
Few more minutes walk, and you come to a pool that you *could* rap into - however we walked on the left rim LDC to discover a pile of rocks with an anchor. We added a few more rocks... one comically we chucked down there but then it was too big to roll into place so we just left it for the next crew. We backed this rap with meat, but it was entirely unecessary as the existing pile never budged even with a 220 pound canyoneer-er. The rap is short, about 30 feet, and very simple.
There are more drops and squeezes - reminds me of an easier slideanide. There's one interesting stem over a pool - the stem turns 90 degrees which was a little challenging but fun - very easy for the experienced I'm sure.
The last pool was about 20' long, and probably 4-5 feet deep. Some of the party stemmed the entire thing,which was very impressive to me - I just walked into the water as I didn't want to fall in half way. I wound up "underwater stemming" and never found the bottom of the thing, so I can't report on that.
The last drop in this one - if you have a fear of heights like I do you won't like it. I managed to do it just fine tho, and I'm sure most folks won't blink an eye. It's basically 100' of rope from the anchor to the ground. The first 20-30 feet is a simple walk down - but you are walking off the end of the rock and it seems like the end of the world... then you're free all the way to the ground - probably 45-55 feet. I was too gripped to have good form, and did the newb thing of not dropping my butt over the ledge, instead scraping my pirana on the lip - something kicked up and I managed to realize i was screwing up and did just fine from that point down. Someone from the bottom told me it was beautiful and I should look around - that wasn't good :) Anyway I did fine but it wasn't my finest hour. Too many months since my last rap and I hate the free ones.
To exit the canyon, simple turn left at the confluence and head up stream. IT's about an hour walk to the exit point... you'll pass one other confluence and take the left fork. At this point the canyon narrows somewhat and gets pretty vegetated. The next confluence is main and west white roost confluence - and you just missed your exit on the left UC.
Someone's beta says the exit was used for horses, and if it gets too hard, you're going the wrong way. That's a perfect description as I usually hate the exits and this one is a walk out.
We spotted a car 1M south of the camping area and saved that walk in the sand.
VERY highly recommended canyon for those trying to improve from beginner technical, as the stems and drops took a little work.
69923699246992569926