Not Imlay - Scenic Tour and Rope Recovery Expedition - Nov 2014

Canyoneering? It is getting kinda cold at night, but the fine weather in Zion National Park is holding so, when someone mentioned that ropes were hanging on the last rap in Not-Imlay, we thought we would throw together a trip and go get em sooner rather than later. Invites went out and were quickly returned - guess more people than me have a touch of the cabin fever. Weekday travel would allow driving into Zion Canyon. Sweet temps would allow a reasonable start.

The posse gathered on this occasion: Andy Archabald (aka Double-A), Louis Johnson and Everett Boutillet from St George; plus Amanda Jessop and Diana Hall from Springdale/Zion Adventures. We spotted a car down at the Temple of Sinawava and hit the trail about 8:20. Pretty cold in Sdale at the early hour - nice to be doing a dry canyon this time of year. The vigorous uphill hike had most of us stripping off the down jackets fairly early, and once we made it into the sunshine atop Scout Lookout, many of us stripped down to shirtsleeves.

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The approach was fine. After a remarkably dry summer and fall, the Imlay righthand Sneak route trail was quite well-defined. A touch of snow was found in this deep, shaded canyon from the storm a couple weeks prior. We zagged right at the head of Not Imlay, deftly avoided the water and brush in the canyon bottom by side-hilling, and soon found ourselves at the beautiful slabs overlooking the first rappel, the actual river and Narrows below hidden by the folds of the landscape.

Last time I did this canyon, we rapped off a tree to the left of the watercourse to a dirty ledge, then precariously climbed down to a lower tree, and did a complex rap down from there. Not the most elegant. Some person I had talked to since had rapped directly down the watercourse from a tree at the top, and said it worked well. We selected a stout tree in the watercourse, and Double-A went down first... and it quickly became apparent that the line of descent was too far to the left (looking out), forcing the rappeller into the messy corner that was one of the undesirable parts of the previous rappel sequence. After AA was down, we transferred the anchor to a different tree to the right of the watercourse, putting the line of descent down the MIDDLE of the watercourse, and this turned out to be a good choice. We rapped a full 300 feet to a ledge, from which a reasonable downclimb/traverse could be made to the big ledge below.

http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...ti04-jpg.7410/

Rappels and downclimbs followed. I like that Not-Imlay Canyon is almost completely dry, though I did succeed in tossing one of the ropes into the ONLY puddle capable of getting it fully wet. There's a nice V-Slot to downclimb, reminiscent of North Wash, and an old bolt for a rap that I had viewed with suspicion last trip - but this trip it somehow seemed better. Old, for sure, and there are easy to get natural anchors available... A couple more raps, and we paused to eat lunch atop the last rappel, looking down into the Narrows. Ropes from the previous group were hanging there, and we pulled them up to have a look. A pretty ugly coreshot was found more than half way down one of the two strands, but otherwise the ropes looked fairly new.

http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...ti10-jpg.7411/

I rapped down first, hoping to get a shot of the coreshot lying in-situ with the edge that 'shot' it - no such luck. The ropes had been shifted in the process of getting the last two people down, so the coreshot was not lined up with anything in particular. Before rapping, I stone-knotted the stuck ropes, then used them as an anchor halfway down on a ledge, so I could take photos of everyone going by. "Everyone" in this case being Louis and Everett, after which I was tired of hanging out on a small ledge, and took the opportunity to descend to the ground. A mighty fine rappel it is, too.

http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...ti17-jpg.7412/

Ropes got re-arranged. People rappelled down. After each rappeller, we shifted the rope a few feet to move the rub spot. Rappellers were pulled a bit at the bottom so they could land on dry ground. Pictures were taken. Narrows Hikers were amused. Ropes were pulled, coiled and stacked onto packs. We hiked out.

http://canyoncollective.com/attachme...ti21-jpg.7413/

A fine day in a fine canyon with fine people. Pizza and beer at the Noodle after was also pretty fine. Thanks everyone for coming out on short notice, AND insisting we have a great time!

More Pictures available at the Latest Rave

Nice job Tom and crew!

That was a quick retrieval!

Last thing that we need is more regulations or whippings from the NPS saying us canyoneers are out of control.

:)

Good job, Tom and friends, for getting that rope out of there quickly. I'm glad you were able to stay dry. It's a cold time of year to be in a wet canyon in Zion!

The "sharp edge" that ended up getting the rope is shown in the shot of Everett, about 100 feet down from the top, and 150 above the ground. The edge at his feet is where the rappel goes free. My conversations with the previous party indicate that most likely, the cause of the core shot was people setting their rappel device with too much friction, and having to feed the rope through their device, which even with fully static ropes results in constant bouncing down the free section - leading to an up and down motion across the (rather mild) edge => core shot.

They did a good job of managing the situation and, thankfully, were using "real rope" for the pull on the other side. There are decent but small ledges in the first 100 feet of this rappel that would allow a relatively easy passing of a knot. They were able to re-rig their ropes and rappel down the pull side - though not to retrieve their ropes, and ended up leaving two strands of rope. Here is a shot of two gobis on the "pull side" rope after they rappelled on it, probably made by the same edge. The one on the right what I would call a core shot, at least the start of a core shot. The other section is roughed up, but not core shot.


****


What is there to do?


A. Bringing real rope for your pull side is a good idea.


B. Having the skills to stop on rappel, tie off, isolate a bad section, pass a knot and return to rappel are a good idea.


C. Rigging your rappel device with the right friction for a smooth descent (even on a long rappel) is a good idea.


D. Especially on long rappels, it is a good idea to move the rope a few feet after each rappeller. We have gotten in the habit of pulling the rope upward a few feet after each rappel and re-blocking. Accidentally, this seems like a good way to do it, as then the bad part, wherever it is, tends to move upward where it will be MORE visible, rather than moving it down where it would be LESS visible.


In this case, I imagine the fourth person rapping down to the ledge Everett's feet are on and seeing the YIKES core shot. Thankfully, they would be in a place where they could communicate with whomever is still at the top, get them to lock off the other side, then switch strands and descend to the ground.


If you were the last person down and found that, what could you do? What would be the easiest way to make your way safely to the ground?


Tom