Although not one of my favorite canyons, I was in the area with a friend and it is always entertaining, Medieval Chamber offers a couple good rappels and some good sight seeing. The problem was that we did not have a car spot. Having made it before heading down canyon and then up over the rim I was determined to find a faster, easier route back up.
So back to the trip report...
My friend Kathy was visiting from town, if you reference a past trip report on Pine Hollow you would know the history I carry with her (canyon wise). Of course she was nervous as we hiked up to morning glory arch and I told her we could rappell off of it tommorow if I could only find a way back up. She looked at me and laughed, "do you remember our past? Or the time with Randy (another adventure) where you had to hitch hike into town in a rain storm and finally ended up at motel six in the hot tub in your boxers because your car was still at the top?" She had a point but I new their was a way.
After a little coxing I ended up buying a couple topo maps of the area and convinced her that we had a way to get up just up canyon... Uh-huh...
That night I studied the maps and formulated a plan, which is better than I usually do. We would drive to the wash, park their, do the canyon and then head up canyon to the next canyon coming in and head up, cruise cross-country (no gps or compass, may bad) back to the car. I convinced her that it was bullet proof. Yup, bullet proof.
Of course I got lost on the 4x4 trails, but eventually found a nice wash that I could swear was the one we needed. Well I was close, so as we circled the car two times I finally found some familiar features and we headed down.
The first drop... I rigged the rope and threw a prussik back-up on her rope, all confident Kathy drops off only to have the prussik lock up on her 20 feet down. What happened I may never know but she was scared. I lowered another rope with carabiner which she hooked into, pulled as much slack as I could and slid my scissors down to her. "You have to cut the back up knot, not the blue rope, the back up!" I yelled down to her, "Oh yeah you may jerk a little when you cut it but I got you on the purple rope so you will not fall." She looked at me like I was nuts for a bit and finally cut it. Whoo, that sucked. Ok on with the story...
We finished the raps, packed our gear in the awe of some tourists and headed up canyon. For reference, the best spot is up canyon about 1 mile maybe, just before the next main canyon to the right (LUC) their is small canyon with mild slopes. After a couple non-exposed 5.4 moves and a traverse we where on top. Whoo-hoo! Now to find the car. We headed in some direction (yeah no compass!) feeling that it was right. Finally standing on top of a point I spotted the white 4-runner amongst the snow and we had it made.
Total time 4 hours, and not to bad of a hike. Next time I recommend brining a GPS or at least a compasss, and oh yeah, a ATC or rappell device for each person is recommended, dont ask. Anyways, fun was had by all and thats what really matters!
