TR: 20070412 - UT, Swell Canyons

Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...61/t_=38054161


Jonas and I were planning on heading to North Wash, to do some aggressive canyons there. Unfortunately, Jonas had to cancel due to work; so I was heading out alone. I was going to meet another canyoneer, Jeff, out there; for Saturday. Yet another canyoneer, Scott Patterson invited me along to explore some new canyons in the Swell with Mike Kelsey. Scott and Mike are who I canyoneered with to explore the Dinosaur canyons in Colorado over Labor Day 2006 (where we discovered the arch.) I made sure Jeff wasn't going to be inconvenienced if I joined Scott. He wasn't, so I planned on heading out with Scott.


Thursday 4/12/07:

Left home and drove to Parachute. Pretty good timing, Scott made it there around 5 minutes later. We had a quick Subway meal, loaded my stuff into his truck, and were on our way. We met Mike near exit 108, and just camped out there. Scott and Mike were sleeping in their trucks, and I just threw a tarp down on the ground and slept outside. It was a little cloudy, so I was a little concerned it would rain; but the tarp was big enough that I could just pull it over me. It wouldn't be pleasant, but it would work. Fortunately, it didn't rain; though it was a little chilly. Probably around 25F. Quite a difference from the 60's at night I had about a month ago... Wild weather.


Friday 4/13/07:

Everything had a frost layer when we woke up. We quickly packed up camp, and headed out to the trailhead. There was some rough sections of road, definitely requires a 4wd to hit these canyons. We got to the head of Poncho canyon, prepped, and headed into the canyon around 9am. Poncho was a new canyon, so we didn't really know what to expect. We knew the properties of the canyons nearby; but canyons right next to each other can have completely different properties. It did in this instance as well.

We soon came to around a 10m drop, and was able to skirt it on the left, Looking Down Canyon (LDC). The descent was a little loose. The wash was generally pretty open. There was a decent downclimb, and then a 7m rappel at around 10:45am. The wash then remained open again until the bottom dropped out, around 11:45am. There was a drop that we didn't know if we had enough rope for. It looked to be a total of more than 200' (our longest rope) but looked like you could do it in at least two stages. We rigged our 100' rope, and Mike went down to check it out. Sure enough, it was more than 200', but we could do it in two stages as we thought. Mike started rigging the 200' rope for the final drop. Scott and I dropped in to join him; not pulling the 100' until we got Mike on the ground. The first stage of this drop (the second rappel) was 25m, and the second stage of this drop (the third rappel) was 55m. About 265 feet overall, which was significant. Definitely more than the other canyons in the area. We backed up the second stage for all but the last person (me.) From the big rap, the canyon was open all the way down to the Muddy Creek, around 2pm. Overall, Poncho had the interesting big drop (which had an awkward pull), but was overall not that interesting and didn't have any tight slots. All canyons are worth doing once; but I don't know if I'd go back to do Poncho again.

On the way out to Muddy Creek, we saw a cairn marking a chute which headed up and could have been a possible exit (after all, who would build a cairn if it wasn't an exit?) We made a mental note of it, and explored up river on the Muddy Creek hoping to find another exit closer to Gem Canyon (which was our plan for Saturday.) On our way up Muddy Creek, we took a small side excursion to see the last rappel in Enigma canyon. We then made our way upstream up through Muddy Creek to our hopeful exit, but it didn't look like it would go. On our way back downcanyon, I stopped and checked out a gully that was a possible exit. I made it all the way within what looked to be 10 feet from the rim. The last 300' was really loose and high angle dirt; but the gully was narrow enough, where you could do a careful chimney up it. Pushing against the sides was much safer than trying to ascend it by hiking. I was able to chimney up a small drop, but didn't feel safe trying to pull myself over the lip (nor climbing back down to Scott and Mike if I did make it up.) However, it did look like it went; so I'd be comfortable going over with a spot from below; then the rest could follow with a belay from above. I went back down and we discussed it. It wasn't that far from the cairned exit gully, so we decided to go check that out instead. When we got to the gully, Mike decided that he would go check it out. It didn't look like it would go to me; looked like it would cliff out; but you never really know until you look. Again, why would there be a cairn built there?

Mike went up and checked it out, and sure enough, it cliffed out. The gully just went up, and then continued down the other side. We knocked down the cairn, and tried yet another gully. Scott went first on this one. Mike and I soon followed. This one went. It was very loose (normal for Utah) and did have a very muddy section, which made it interesting; but we were able to get back to the top. (Note, we had another known exit around a mile downcanyon. Do NOT go into a canyon without making sure you have a sure way out. we were just scouting to find out if we could find a closer exit.)

We hiked back to our vehicles, and got back around 7pm. We made dinner, and prepped for the next day. Mike and Scott were going to sleep in their vehicles again, and tonight looked clear so I just threw the tarp down again. Shortly after dark we saw another vehicle driving around. Scott invited another canyoneer, RockGremlin from Uutah, out and it must be him. It was highly unlikely to be anyone else in this area; it was quite remote. Scott drove off to fetch him. Sure enough, it was him. RockGremlin is Justin Etchel. We discussed the plans for the next day; waking up early, and doing Middle Fork of Gem; hiking out the same gully we just did in Poncho. It would be a long day.


Saturday 4/14/07:

We woke up with the sun around 6am. It was again pretty cold, but maybe a little warmer; probably 28 or 30F. We made a quick breakfast and headed out around 7am. Mike took the lead with the navigation. After all the years being a navigator in Adventure Racing, I was happy to hand that baton to someone else, and let them take the lead on it. It was nice just to follow. I was still keeping a lazy eye on things; and had a GPS to verify our position if necessary. It wasn't necessary, as I would expect, Mike knew what he was doing. We hit the head of East Gem around 8:15am, after a significant downclimb. We took a quick break, enjoying the views. We then checked out East Gem; and took note of possible entrances. We found a way that looked like a 200' rope would work; though it looked like the canyon might not slot up as the head dropped all the way through the Navajo layer of sandstone, which is the most common layer to have good slot canyons. You never know until you check it out though; so maybe another time.

We continued on towards Middle Gem; skirting around a few towers to find a drop in point. We found a decent downclimb in; down a bushy gully, then across some medium angle slickrock. The end result was getting into the canyon without a rap, around 9:45am.

We quickly came to a slot section, which had a lot more water than we anticipated. Everything we came to could be stemmed across though. We got to the first small rap of 5m around 10:30am. The slot wasn't all that long, but it was pretty. We exited the slot section around 10:45am. From there, it was mostly open hiking until the bottom again dropped out. This drop was 58m from a large boulder. It was totally secure, but everyone was joking around, which made me nervous. We were using a piece of Mike's rope (which I didn't know the history on, so that was the main reason I was nervous) for the anchor. As soon as I was over the lip though, it was much better. Funny how that works; I'm still over 150 feet off the deck, but feeling better.

After the big drop, the canyon makes a sharp bend to the left LDC. This is where we came across a strand of Ponderosa Pines that were remnants of earlier and more lush times. Interesting. They were still surviving because the tall canyon walls provided shade. Mike went up to count them, and we took a break here for lunch around 1:30pm. It was hot now, but we found some shade to have lunch at. Probably around 75 or 80F in the sun, which is Warm when you are walking and climbing for sure.

We then continued walking downcanyon, reaching the Muddy River around 2:45pm. From here, it was pretty much a slog back to Poncho canyon with many river crossings. A slog, but a pretty slog. No other real possible exits were seen. We reached Enigma Canyon around 4:45pm, and the exit gully in Poncho around 5:30pm. We climbed up the exit gully again, and got back to camp around 7pm. A decent day.
Back at camp, we discussed the plans for the next day. We decided to head down Enigma canyon. We made dinner and chatted. Justin decided to head out to Goblin Valley and take some photos in the morning light. We said goodbye, and then prepped for the canyon tomorrow. Scott said that Enigma only had a 60 foot rap. I must say, I was a little skeptical, as Poncho had a 260' rap, and Gem had a 200' rap. Enigma was in between them. We ended up listening to Scott though, and only brought a 100' rope and pull cord. Sacked down for the night; and it again was cloudy and looked like rain. I again just did the tarp, and was hoping for no rain. It was a bit windy tonight too, so I set up my bags around me as a windblock. It kind of worked, but sand got everywhere.


Sunday 4/15/07:

We again woke with the sunrise; around 6am. It was warmer last night; likely around 35F. For once, we didn't have frost. We made breakfast, did last minute prep work, and was on our way around 7am. We were going to explore the West Fork of Enigma; Scott had done the Main Fork. We skirted around a downclimb on Left LDC, and soon came to a rap. We looked to skirt it on the Left, but didn't look like we could. I wanted to just rap down and check it out, but Mike wanted to see if we could skirt it and/or traverse over to Main Enigma if we couldn't. We ended up not being able to skirt the drop, so we traversed over and reached Main Enigma around 8:30am.

Hiking downcanyon, we reached the confluence with West Enigma around 8:45am. We hiked up, and looked at the drop. It definitely looked like it would be two different raps, or maybe one long one. The two raps looked to be around 8m and 10m. We continued downcanyon, and got to the first of three downclimbs. Some people might want to rappel all three of these, but they weren't that bad. When Scott went down, DC3 used to be a rappel. It filled in with sand since then. Just goes to show the dynamic nature of the canyons. We then came to the first rap in Main Enigma, around 10m at 9:30am. Mike went off a hook, and I set up a retrievable anchor for Scott and I. Mike and I had a discussion about the merits of using hooks and other anchor systems.

We got down near the end of the canyon, and Scott led us up the side to a small plateau. Here, we could inspect some very solid conglomerate rock. Very cool. There were also some volcanic rocks on sandstone pedestals. We made it down to the last rappel at 11:15am. Here, we decided to split into two groups. Mike wanted to do the final rap, and hike out the same exit gully in Poncho yet a third time. Scott and I thought it would be fun to try to upclimb Main Enigma. We made sure Mike got down the rap safely, and made sure he saw our footprints from when we checked it out from the bottom on Friday (to make sure we were definitely in the right canyon and that Mike wouldn't neeed ther opes anymore.) We then pulled the ropes, and took them with us upcanyon.

The upclimbs were quite interesting; especially the 10m rap. There was some loose rock, so you had to be careful. It wasn't super challenging, probably around 5.6; but the low-grip tennis shoes I was wearing still had me being quite careful. (I hadn't planned on upclimbing, or I would have worn stickier shoes.) We made it up the rap, and up the three successive downclimbs around 11:45am. At the top of DC2, my foot slipped. I was easily able to get it back into the crack and stop the slide, but it definitely woke me up; Scott too I think. Would have been a 20 foot fall; certainly enough to be trouble out here in the middle of nowhere. Just goes to show the value of good sticky shoes.

We finished upclimbing Enigma, and got back to the cars around 1pm. Mike was already there, not surprising. He can motor along pretty good. Hope I can move as fast when I'm his age. Scott and I packed up camp, and Mike took off, as he drove slower than Scott. We drove out, and drove back to Parachute to pick up my car (Jonas' actually; Jonas was nice enough to trade cars with me for the weekend so I could save money on gas. It worked out well.) From there, Scott and I parted ways, and I headed back to Boulder.

Another great weekend of fun canyon explorations, and even got to meet a new canyoneer; Justin. Thanks to Scott for the invite, Mike for the navigations, and all for the great company! Thanks to Mike also for some pics, I included a few of his at the end.


Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.


Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...61/t_=38054161

Thanks for the TR, A.J. It amazes me that you remember so many details! For some reason I couldn't get the link to your photos to work. Do I need to set up an account with snapfish first?

wow, sounds like fun. That is awesome that you guys got to explore some new canyons. Thanks for the TR!

Hey Rock,

The pictures help me remember the details. As for joining, yeah, you probably have to sign up for Snapfish to see the pics. Just create a Yahoo or GMail account, and use that one if you are worried about spam, etc.

Jaxx,

Yeah, it was a good time. Glad you enjoyed the report/pics.

Later,
A.J.