Middle Leprechaun Canyon (Shimrock)

Steph, Tyler and I tackled Middle Leprechaun on January 12th. None of us had been in that canyon before. Steph and I did East Lep last August. Tyler had never been to the North Wash before, but is a good climber and a strong dude.

I know the stats to throw out: I'm 5' 9" and weigh 174 lbs. My chest is 42" and I can barely squeeze through a 9 inch gap (2x4's, 9 inches apart). Tyler is also 174 lbs and about 6 foot with a 43" chest. Steph is much too thin to stress about getting stuck in such a canyon (about 110 lbs). Tyler and I got beat down, Steph simply strolled trough :cool2:.

Some thoughts:

There are two entrances at the top of Main Lep. We chose the west entrance and it was spectacular in the morning light. It was not difficult, although we did not have to build/rebuild the dead man anchor on rap 1.

Middle Lep is much, much more difficult than East Lep. If you are over 180lbs or not in that great of shape, don't even consider hiking Middle Lep.

The obstacles get more difficult as the canyon progresses. The nastiest stuff is after the last rappel and reaches a crescendo just before Belfast Boulevard.

Doing this canyon without others that have done it was very exciting - it dialed the sense of adventure to a 10.

A bunny strap can be your best friend. Learn to use one. (I never used one before this hike)

A skinny teammate can be an even better friend. Steph helped us out a bunch by dragging our packs when we were about ready to abandon them out of frustration. She thought Middle Lep wasn't that tough. :hail2thechief:

Right now the North wash is bone dry, perfect conditions in Middle Lep. It was 20 degrees when we started and 40 when we finished.

We only got a few pictures. You risk losing or smashing your camera in the really good skinny parts, and we didn't want to risk a forced bivy by taking a million photos. :cold:
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Frozen spring by the parking area.

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Above is the only non blurry photo we got of the spicy stuff. Tyler and I went much higher than Steph in this section. For people over 150 lbs, there is much grunting and/or swearing involved with these sections. Sometimes the higher you go the easier it gets.

Round trip through Middle Lep took us 6 hours.

http://amazingslots.blogspot.com/201...un-canyon.html

Excellent job!! :hail2thechief::hail2thechief: Going in at 20 degrees is way too cold for these old skinny bones. :cold: And all the extra clothes would make the squeezing/climbing mucho harder. 1st time went thru stayed way high and had a blast. My partner however, new to the skinnies, tied his maewest to his harness instead of bareback. And got wedged in and stuck down low! And panicked a little cause I was way ahead having fun and almost out of voice range. Still trying to get him to try again - he no like the skinny stuff.

Amazing photos! Thanks for the report :2thumbs:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flatiron

And all the extra clothes would make the squeezing/climbing mucho harder.

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Thanks! Wearing a hoodie proved to be a huge mistake :facepalm1:. Squeezing through was nearly impossible. I had two layers on underneath to add to the challenge. After some time in one of the first tight sections I decided to remove the hoodie and literally couldn't due to the walls pinning the hoodie to my body. I ended up leaving it on the entire time.

I can understand how one could panic as I was nearly wedged a couple of times. :eek2:

:2thumbs:

Yeah, I did Alcatraz on Saturday and wished I had one layer less than what I did. Too many layers in that canyon and it's a squeeze! Another nice trip report!

We were in Mid Lep on Sat and found a knee/elbow pad and a blue glove. If they are yours, I can send them to you. PM me with your address.
Penny

Love the frozen river pic. Very cool looking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by penmartens

We were in Mid Lep on Sat and found a knee/elbow pad and a blue glove. If they are yours, I can send them to you. PM me with your address.
Penny

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Penny,

Tyler's knee pad was torn clean off somewhere in the skinnies. We retreated up canyon as far as was reasonable to find it but to no avail. Thanks for picking that up, we apolgize for leaving it. No need to send it back, I'm sure it is destroyed, but thanks for offering to return it!

The blue glove must be from another party. We managed to only lose small bits of our gloves and fingers. :haha:

That's really cool. I did the east fork, but this one looks like a lot of fun and worth the challenge. Gotta love the skinnies! :nod:

Very nice. Thanks for the pics! Nature is more amazing to me than any art!

I guess another group must have gone down Mid Lep between Slot Machine's group on Thurs and my group on Sat. We found a perfectly good knee pad (it looked fresh out of the package), and a blue glove which was also in pristine condition.
If they belong to someone here, I will be glad to send them back.
Penny

I left quite a bit of skin in there... any way I can get that back?