Gear found in Baptist Draw

I got this message today:

Tom,

My name is JB and I was in Lower Baptist Draw 2 days ago and at the spot where Baptist meets upper Chute Canyon, the 80' rappel. I found quite a bit of canyoneering gear that someone abandoned with no sort of identity of the owners.

Among it was an Imlay tote bag(?) so I figured that the people canyoneering there were familiar with your website. Whoever left it there must have had a pretty darn good reason for leaving their gear, like an emergency or something.

I am writing to ask you to post some sort of message on your website stating that I found this gear and I hauled it out of the canyon. The owners can call me at 801 455 0892 to give a detailed description of the gear lost, upon which they can come and retrieve it. I'll only return the gear to the person who can accurately describe the lost items as there was quite a bit of stuff, about 30lbs worth. After a month of no one claiming this gear, I intend to keep it.

The best I can guess from the amount of sediment built up on the gear and some of the contents of the items, this stuff has been there for weeks, maybe even months.

Have you heard of any accidents in this area recently or earlier this year?

I think this is the most ethical thing I can think of to do; there was a lot of gear left down there and I'd like to keep it. However, gear is expensive these days and I'd like to afford some sort of opportunity for the owners to claim their stuff.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, JB

Huh. That's weird. I wonder what happened? :ne_nau:

This is an email I sent to Emery SAR on 11-24-05

I keep hearing reports of gear stashed at the junction of Chute and Baptist. It was first reported on November 13 and was still there on November 18.

On the 13th there was gear laid out (not tossed)--harnesses, two packs, hardware,rope, etc. There were no fresh footprints and no vehicles at any of the regular trailheads.

To date everyone has just left the gear figuring the owners will pick it up and not wanting to mess up anyone's gear stash which they might need to survive. I'm not sure what the story is, but thought it should be reported to someone in Emery SAR.

Shane Burrows
Climb Utah - Canyoneering & Mountaineering
http://Climb-Utah.com


Here was the response

Shane,

Just to let you know. We have people in the area this morning, 11-25-05. If we find anything I will let you know.


:ne_nau:

Hi, my name is Matt and I was browsing through canyoneering.com and got linked to this website. I read Tom's post about the gear in Chute canyon and I am hoping it is mine, but I highly doubt it. I have left messages with the number (JB) on Tom's email, but no answer. Me and two buddies were down in Baptist during the 3rd week of October 2005. I grew up in Emery county (ferron) and had been down the canyon numerous times on scout trips. My other two buddies were relatively new to canyoneering. One a tad more experienced than the other. Any how, we got to the rappel at the junction with chute and I set the rope and went down first. I didn't think to belay Jason(less experienced buddy) because he seemed fine on the first rappel. In retrospect, it was a bad move. He went down after me and did not have any rappelling gloves. He got down 1/2 way alright, but the rope started heating up his palm. Rather than friction the rope against his thigh he relaxed his brake hand and tried to get down quick to stop the burn. Well he didn't hit like a sack of potatoes, but he hit hard enough and in such a way that his right knee slid forward as he hit with his knee bent. He tore his ACL and could not support even the slightest body weight with it. It was early enough in the day that I figured with the other two of us, we could get him out considering the rest of chute wasn't to difficult. The problem was we had to much gear. We decided to leave the better part of it behind and get Jason out and then i would retreat back down Baptist and retrieve the rest of our gear. We loaded one pack with most of our food and the essential survival stuff and headed down chute. I started out with the pack and Neil helped Jason. We switched off every hour or so. Chute went by with a breeze, but the fault line exit proved to almost be our undoing. I took us nearly 11 hours to get back to the car and it was dark by the time we got there. I had a headlamp, but no where near the energy to go back down Baptist to get the gear. I figured it good as gone since I was heading back to Oregon, Neil to Vegas, and Jason, even though he lived in Orem, would be in no shape anytime soon to go get the gear. Neil took off for home and me and Jason headed for Utah Valley Medical center. I wish I had known about this site earlier, but I am new to this Internet stuff. Please let me know how I might reach JB to ID the gear if anyone on this site might know.
Thanks for the help,
Matt

He said call and leave a message. You did. Give him a few days to respond.

Tom

Tom, nice job :2thumbs:

Matt again here,
I left two messages on JB's phone last Sunday and still no reply. I guess I should resolve to the fact that my equipment has a new owner, but I just got my hopes up when I heard it had turned up. Oh well, I guess he needs it more than I do. Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Matt :ne_nau:

Matt -

I would continue trying if I were you. If JB was good enough to make a public announcement about finding your stuff, he should be willing to do the right thing and return it. If he wanted to just keep it, he wouldn't have said anything to anybody.

Matt again here,
I left two messages on JB's phone last Sunday and still no reply. I guess I should resolve to the fact that my equipment has a new owner, but I just got my hopes up when I heard it had turned up. Oh well, I guess he needs it more than I do. Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Matt Ne Nau

So, let me get this right.... You leave the stuff for a few months and now your having trouble waiting a few days? The guy will call back. He could be on vacation or his e-mail is down, or he's getting married, or he is getting over his disappointment. Regardless, the stuff should be coming you way....and I'm sure you have given a lot of thought to the fine reward you plan to give him for all the effort of bringing the gear out and the effort to find who it belongs too, right? :haha:

Definitely plan on offering him a monetary reward, but I can't seem to contact him. Most people that have cell phones these days don't go weeks without checking their messages. And if they do check a message, most people will return a phone call within a day or two. That is what makes me think he changed his mind. Just curious, how much of a reward do you think I should give him (assuming he calls back) for hauling 30 lbs of gear out the fault line exit? The gear itself is probably worth about 500 to 600 dollars if it were all brand new.
Matt