Pine Creek - floating iPhone

Not sure if there's a thread for funny canyon photos...I absolutely needed to post this.

We had a group of 28 in Zion this past Memorial Day weekend and a group of 12 did pine creek on a very cold Saturday. One weather report said Orderville would get snow! It was gusting 30-50mph and very cold. (I was warm in the cabin when these events occurred)

On the last rap out of Pine Creek, one of our guys set his iPhone and camera down. They were together in 3 ziploc bags. The bags were temporarily open. A sudden gust of wind picked everything up causing the camera to fall out. A fast thinking member of the group in front of ours saved the camera before it went over the 90ft drop. The iPhone was not so lucky.

Several people watched the ziploc bags with iPhone float up into the canyon only to be seated on a ledge on the opposite side. Then, one by one, the wind pulled the bags off until only the iPhone was left sitting there, 30 feet away with a 10ft wide gorge in between! (See photo)

Attachment 54711

The owner had to leave his iPhone behind. On Sunday, we had a group of 6 do Pine Creek and sure enough the iPhone was still perched in its new home! No one had the moxy or rope to do a rescue so it may be up there for a while.

Bummer! :angryfire:

For some reason it looks like your picture is not showing up. Try uploading it again. :popcorn:

We went through monday afternoon and it was still sitting there. That will be an interesting retrieval

Wish the picture was up. I bet I could get it. :naughty:

I saw it on Monday myself and wondered how it got there.

Here's the pic...

calling canyonman....

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Originally Posted by accadacca

For some reason it looks like your picture is not showing up. Try uploading it again. :popcorn:

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I think it works now.

Hello I am the owner of the phone. It is not an iPhone but an older android phone in case you guys were curious. :naughty: I was leading a group down Pine Creek and the thing flew out of my bag at the last rappel. I must of stood there for 5 minutes in shock trying to figure out what happened. I thought about doing a traverse over and climbing over to grab it but after looking at the opening from the other side, it was about 10 ft.

I am planning to head to Pine Creek this saturday to retrieve it. Anybody interested doing a Pine Creek run with me? I have an idea of how to get this thing.

Solaris
Los Angeles, CA

If its not an iPhone then why bother... :lol8:
J/K! Good luck with the rescue mission. We need pictures of that too! :popcorn:

Cell phone has been recovered. That is all.

It must have happened after we were there at 4:00 pm.... It was still sitting on it's perch at that time.....

Would have needed to be after about 8 pm to see it gone.

Lots of small rocks by it. Looks like lots of attempts to knock it down. And a bird was starting to make its nest.

Phone still works. Owner is happy.

I got my phone back. :haha:

Attachment 54887Attachment 54888

How did you recover it?

Yeah come on! Can't leave out an awesome story like that! :cry1:

Maybe I missed something, but the
Phone in the picture is an android phone not an iPhone.

all smart phones are iphones like all copiers are xerox. :roflol:

I think I'll write a phone retrieval app....

:lol8:

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Originally Posted by denaliguide

all smart phones are iphones like all copiers are xerox. :roflol:

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Don't let the Mac boi's hear you say that. :roflol:

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Originally Posted by bigred72

Maybe I missed something, but the
Phone in the picture is an android phone not an iPhone.

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you did. see solaris' first post

Quote:

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Originally Posted by denaliguide

all smart phones are iphones like all copiers are xerox. :roflol:

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It's easy to tell the difference.... those that pee sitting down have an iPhone. Those that pee standing up have a real phone.

:bootyshake:

The story is not all that interesting, but I'll let Solaris tell it.

Of course, he won't be able to share any photos or details about the man who showed up out of nowhere to help. He asked we not talk about him or share any photos.

Part of the reason for the late run was to avoid causing a bottleneck at the last rappel and also to avoid rangers asking questions.

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Originally Posted by rurri

Of course, he won't be able to share any photos or details about the man who showed up out of nowhere to help. He asked we not talk about him or share any photos.

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And it came to pass that Canyonman appeared again, to renew the hope of the downcast hearts... then he was gone into the night... :hail2thechief:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

It's easy to tell the difference.... those that pee sitting down have an iPhone. Those that pee standing up have a real phone.

:bootyshake:

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apparently i STAND corrected. :fitz:

Attachment 54980Attachment 54981
So after a week of thinking about how to get my phone back from that cliff. I got word from my friends who did Pine Creek last friday that the cell phone was indeed still there. There was a few small rocks surrounding the phone and it seemed like the phone moved a little from it's original resting spot. Weather reports indicated that it did not rain since I left my phone there the previous saturday so there is a chance that the phone was still intact.

First thing saturday morning, I headed off to Zion from LA with a friend of mine and we brought wetsuits, climbing rack and 70m rope. I also picked up my newest piece of canyoneering gear. Mr. Longarm Painting Pole.

We make it to the start of Pine Creek at about 630pm and parked. In plain view across the street was a ranger waving traffic in and out of the tunnel. We decided to sit around and hide our gear behind the car and wait until the right moment to head into the slot. A few tourists walked over and peppered us with questions on hiking in the area and if we were canyoneering. Of course I denied doing any canyoneering and said I was gonna doing a short hike. After some time of shooing tourist away, we quickly moved into the slot with a 8 ft bright yellow pole and large packs, hoping the rangers didn't notice. I changed into my wetsuit and threw on my harness and soon it was time to get things done.

We made quick work going down the slots, the pole prussiked on harness or simply carried down with the non rap hand. After 5 rappels it was time for the moment of truth. My climbing partner had only seen pictures of the phone perched across the slot and thought it was ridiculous that we are here for a phone.

After some discussion on how to approach the other side of the gorge, going from crazy to complete insanity. One idea was to rap 10 ft, then swing over to the other wall. Then you had about 10 feet of 5.9 friction climbing to retrieve the phone. Of course the exit out of that area would required a 12 ft swing into the cathedral with no way of knowing if you would slam into a wall.

My climbing partner was clipped in with a sling on the anchor and was leaning off the 90 ft drop. Mr. Long Arm extended into 3 sections for a total of 24 ft. At this time there was sand and dirt between the sub poles and extending the pole became tough. We extended the pole out and sure enough it reached right over that gorge with about 5 ft to spare. In my dry bag I had brought an angled mount and paint pad attachment. We tore off the foam part of the pad and applied 3m outdoor double stick tape. It was rated 5 lbs. We stuck 3 strips on the pad and attempted to grab the phone.

The phone stuck on and we lifted it 2 feet and it dropped right back on the slope and we had the front face of the cover. We moved the pole back and I had retrieved my front cover. Now the cell phone was sitting under the back plastic cover. We then picked up the back cover and was able to bring the back cover to our side. Now it was time for the cell phone. We pressed the back side of the cell with double stick tape and lifted, the cell unbelievably was sticking on to the pad. It was amazing, we starting bringing the pole back and second by second of carefully moving the pole back my partner reached out and then had my cell in hand. We were all smiles at that point. I could not believe it. The sun was setting, we rapped down and begin our scramble out.

On the exit my climbing partner was way ahead of me and I didn't see him down the stream after a while. I walk up the usual exit and reached the road, sure enough he is nowhere to be found. It's about 9pm at this point, I sit around and yell for him for a while, no response. I start walking up the road towards the tunnel. There is cars going up the tunnel every 10 minutes and I try to flag a car for a ride. I finally bump into my partner and he exited higher up the road ahead of me. After a few attempts at hitch hiking, we hit the tunnel. We were jogging inside the tunnel and when ever there was an approaching car, we quickly cut to the side and feel a quick rush of wind and momentum of a moving car pushing past us. We hit a open window and looked out, the view is extends to a massive expanse of the canyon and valley with a large overlooking arch. A full moon is starting to shine over the valley. So finally a car pulls over to an open window and the people inside are shocked to see us walking towards them. We ask for a ride and their car is already full of people. They offer to give us a ride on their back bumper and soon after I am standing on the back bumper inside zion main tunnel with a roof rack as hand holds. A few cars start tailgating us and I had to wonder what they were thinking. Riding the back bumper inside Zion Main Tunnel was the coolest thing I had done in a long time. At the end we get out and inside the SUV were a group of 4 canyonneers who had just finished going down Ordervile Canyon. I tell them about our cell phone rescue and they were amazed about our story. We thank them heartily and soon after we were on our way to North Ridge, we finished the night with a sumptuous dinner, warm fireplace, and hospitable company.

Solaris

Ahaha! That's hilarious. I know it probably was not very funny at the time. In retrospect, all things are laughable I think.:mrgreen:

And the real item rescued? 739 contacts. Years of girls phone numbers.

Awesome and nice work!

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Originally Posted by rurri

The story is not all that interesting

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Every bit of that story was awesome! :haha: :2thumbs:

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Originally Posted by rurri

And the real item rescued? 739 contacts. Years of girls phone numbers.

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Can't lose the little black book!

OK that story was friggin awesome! thanks for sharing, now back up those contacts, haha.

awesome story.:2thumbs:

excellent rescue! :2thumbs:

nice :lol8:

That's a good story. I'm curious, why were you trying to hide from the ranger?

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Originally Posted by stefan

you did. see solaris' first post

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Besides the direct mention of iPhone seven times in the first post, it's all a mute point now.

Ditto dude9478's question. Didn't bother to get a permit-type of situation?

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Originally Posted by jbick

Ditto dude9478's question. Didn't bother to get a permit-type of situation?

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"bother" implies permits were left on a saturday night at 6 PM.

Not saying they weren't or that they didn't have one.... Not quite sure what kind of can of worms that kind of statement would open up on bogely... :cool2:

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Originally Posted by rurri

"bother" implies permits were left on a saturday night at 6 PM.

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Missed that part. :oops:

Gosh, you mean if you had your phone backed up, you wouldn't have needed to rescue the phone? Let that be a lesson. Helmet-check, rapides-check, rope and harnesses-check, phone backed up-check.:haha::haha:

This was definitely a job for Canyonman.

Classic.

Ken