woowoo
10-21-2013, 12:31 PM
Hello everyone, I have not posted any trip reports but I think it is due time that I put up some information about my most current trip.
The beta received for the Pleiades was excellent all the rappels were straightforward and instead of combining some of the rappels, we decided to set all 7 of the rappels together to keep it simple
On the 4th rappel, we decided to do a double rope rappel because its straight forward and straight down. A totem was used and rigged for a left handed person to rappel, being that I am not use to looking at it left handed and the rappeller is experienced, I decided it looks fine. After weighting the rope for about 5 ft, the rope locked through the totem. We tried many things to get the weight off the rope. We throw another rope (single strand) down to ascend on, through a webbing step ladder, and tried pulling him up. Nothing was working and getting cold and tired and still had 3 more rappels after this, cutting the rope would be the best idea because we had 2 extra ropes to get us down. So the person on the rope, clipped in to both ropes (one to be cutting, one to rappel off), the rope was cut, and then rappelled down safely. The rope that was cut was a 200' piece and it was cut around the middle line.
*We are going to be investigating why the totem locked off. I will update with pictures when we reach a conclusion.
At the 7th rappel, it was getting really cold and we wanted to get out of the canyon. While someone was setting up the 7th rappel, the 6th rappel rope was being pulled. While observing the setup, I pulled the rope not noticing that the rope was knotted at the end, so this rope could not come down. Again we had enough rope to make it down safely. So there is a 100' piece of rope on the 6th rappel of this canyon. If its still there, you are more then welcome to have it. It has been rappelled on around 20 times and has been taken care of.
The canyon has lots of ice and the water is cold. A thick wetsuit really helped out
The trail back to the top of the canyon is mostly bushwhacking, so be prepared.
Overall, this is a beautiful canyon, worth going down and will do it again
The beta received for the Pleiades was excellent all the rappels were straightforward and instead of combining some of the rappels, we decided to set all 7 of the rappels together to keep it simple
On the 4th rappel, we decided to do a double rope rappel because its straight forward and straight down. A totem was used and rigged for a left handed person to rappel, being that I am not use to looking at it left handed and the rappeller is experienced, I decided it looks fine. After weighting the rope for about 5 ft, the rope locked through the totem. We tried many things to get the weight off the rope. We throw another rope (single strand) down to ascend on, through a webbing step ladder, and tried pulling him up. Nothing was working and getting cold and tired and still had 3 more rappels after this, cutting the rope would be the best idea because we had 2 extra ropes to get us down. So the person on the rope, clipped in to both ropes (one to be cutting, one to rappel off), the rope was cut, and then rappelled down safely. The rope that was cut was a 200' piece and it was cut around the middle line.
*We are going to be investigating why the totem locked off. I will update with pictures when we reach a conclusion.
At the 7th rappel, it was getting really cold and we wanted to get out of the canyon. While someone was setting up the 7th rappel, the 6th rappel rope was being pulled. While observing the setup, I pulled the rope not noticing that the rope was knotted at the end, so this rope could not come down. Again we had enough rope to make it down safely. So there is a 100' piece of rope on the 6th rappel of this canyon. If its still there, you are more then welcome to have it. It has been rappelled on around 20 times and has been taken care of.
The canyon has lots of ice and the water is cold. A thick wetsuit really helped out
The trail back to the top of the canyon is mostly bushwhacking, so be prepared.
Overall, this is a beautiful canyon, worth going down and will do it again