03-08-12 - Upper Three Canyon (ice)

My friend Jeff Guest was invited by a few of his friends to a Swell adventure last year, but that fell through. They were able to do it his last weekend.

Quoting from the Youtube Page:
"We tried to do this canyon the previous year but plans fell through and we weren't able to do it. We finally got to go and it was sprinkling rain all day. This is a good canyon to do on wet days since it is not a big drainage and potential for flash floods are very minimal. We were very surprised and in a way relieved that all the pools were frozen over with 6-12in of ice on top and some cool air bubble formations trapped in the clear ice. It was a cold day so not having to get wet was a big bonus! We took our time doing Upper Three Canyon since we didn't have enough daylight to do Upper Greasewood Draw in the same day, plus we got a little lost trying to find the right path to get to the canyon so we ended up adding about 1.3 miles and maybe 1 hour to our trip. I got to explore a little further down the canyon where you don't usually go because you need to exit. You can still go down pretty far with some route finding and the frozen pools helped too! I didn't take the camera down there. We did have a little trouble finding a straight path back to the trailhead too, but it was a beautiful hike with a great view of the Roost! Too bad it was cloudy all day.

We were planning on doing Upper Greasewood Draw the next day, but it ended up snowing 3 inches overnight and sandstone and snow are not a good mix (slippery) so we decided to head home early. He will be going back and doing both canyons again when the ice is all melted so I can show the canyons how they are meant to be done!

I shot this video with my GoPro HERO3 Black Edition camera 1080p at 60fps and edited with iMovie. I had the camera mounted onto my helmet for most of the canyon so I could use my hands to escape from the potholes that I thought we would be in. Outside of the canyon I had my GoPro mounted to my GoScope which is a telescoping pole and it works great with the J-Hook mount! Get your GoScope at http://go-scope.com/store/goscope-gop..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6IHQi3mr3k

Subscribe to his Youtube Page if you want to stay current with our Adventures! But as always, Bogley comes first on the TR reports. :cool2: :haha:

This will also be posted on CC as well. Enjoy Bogleyites!

PS, that's actually Three Fingers Canyon, not Three Canyon. Three Canyon is actually a completely different canyon not far to the east of there.

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Originally Posted by Scott P

PS, that's actually Three Fingers Canyon, not Three Canyon. Three Canyon is actually a completely different canyon not far to the east of there.

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Thanks for the clarification. I will change the name. And so that means AJroadtrips will need to change the name as that's where we got the beta from.

Is Three Canyon any good?

I saw some ice! :cold:

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Is Three Canyon any good?

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It depends on what you are looking for. The main fork is deep, narrow, and pretty, but is not a slot. It's pretty enough and worth doing. Only one rappel, so other than the rappel, it is more a nice hike than a technical canyon.

The two north forks are nice, fairly short slots and a good way to kill a couple hours.

jman,

How did you guys NOT stick that retrievable anchor you highlighted in your video? From what I saw, it seems very likely that either a ring or knot would have jammed into the cracks under the boulder as you pulled your webbing. Did you reset the way it wraps around the boulder for LMAR?

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Originally Posted by jman

Is Three Canyon any good?

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I've done it, and I enjoyed myself, but absolutely hated the exit and would not go again without an improvement in my skills.

Three canyon is south of Green River, not far from Moonshine Wash. It runs basically parallel to the gravel road, a mile or so over to the east. Because of the proximity of the road, dropping off a shuttle vehicle at the exit saves a lot of walking time.

Another good reason to drop a car at the exit, is that the canyon exit itself is quite steep and I consider it risky for beginners. Luckily there are two existing bolts, supposedly placed by a farmer so he could raise his sheep up the canyon exit. The move is to have an experienced canyoneer (Mike in our case) head down the exit with two handlines. Attach a handline to each Sheep Bolt, one 1/3 of the way down, and the other 2/3 of the way down.

(If you have an AJRoadTrip subscription, he has pix of the bolts, and of someone being belayed out of the canyon in a harness.)

Enough beginner warnings - On to the canyon:

AJ's beta is not exactly correct - it suggests there's two 50 raps. In reality, there's one 90' rap, which is bolted and straightforward. Next to that rap, there is another alternate rap, which is shorter, which dumps you onto a ledge that you would then have to rap. I guess that's where the two 50' raps comes from, but I'm not sure. I can tell you there's not two separate raps during your trip through the canyon, even for a beginner/intermediate...


Looking at the first and only Rap
Attachment 64123

The canyon itself is pretty. The rap is fun - there's even a place to hang out and watch the rap from another ledge. Unfortunately the exit is several miles after the last rap, through some mud and a lot of vegetation when we did it Oct '12.

Once you locate the exit canyon, you'll have to walk along a narrow shelf about 30' above the canyon floor. Once you've done that, you're looking at a 300' climb out. It's steep and I found it scary but I have a fear of heights. Without the handlines we dropped, there's absolutely no way I would have gone out that way. About 1/2 way up the climb, you have to negotiate over a cave-like hole in the rock face; a fall there would mean you'd likely be rolling and tumbling all the way back to the canyon floor.

Looking across the exit, watching our experienced Canyoneer Mike place the handlines.
Attachment 64124

I wish I could say I was bad mouthing it so it wouldn't get too crowded - but honestly that's not the case. It's a long drive for one rap, all the vegetation, and the lousy exit.

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and the lousy exit.

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Most people (that I know) find the exit really fun. It's really short, just challenging enough to be interesting, and only takes a few minutes to get to the rim. Definitely easy enough that I'd take my 8 year old girl on (with a belay), no problem. Setting a rope beforehand is always a good idea though and recommended.

As you said though, the canyon only has one rappel and is more a hike with one rappel than it is a technical canyon.

No problem with vegetation on or visits (1995, 1998 and 2002), but that could have changed.

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Originally Posted by schrods

jman,

How did you guys NOT stick that retrievable anchor you highlighted in your video? From what I saw, it seems very likely that either a ring or knot would have jammed into the cracks under the boulder as you pulled your webbing. Did you reset the way it wraps around the boulder for LMAR?

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Sorry for the late reply:

I asked Jeff and this is his reply:

"We were actually concerned about it getting stuck and ended up sticking it in our test pull when we set it up. We found if we give it a quick jerk the ring would fly away from the cracks and "hopefully" not get stuck. It worked! Two quick jerks got it down. We did not reset for LMAR. We also choose to pull on the side that would be least likely to get stuck."

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Originally Posted by blamkin86

I've done it, and I enjoyed myself, but absolutely hated the exit and would not go again without an improvement in my skills.

Three canyon is south of Green River, not far from Moonshine Wash. It runs basically parallel to the gravel road, a mile or so over to the east. Because of the proximity of the road, dropping off a shuttle vehicle at the exit saves a lot of walking time.

Another good reason to drop a car at the exit, is that the canyon exit itself is quite steep and I consider it risky for beginners. Luckily there are two existing bolts, supposedly placed by a farmer so he could raise his sheep up the canyon exit. The move is to have an experienced canyoneer (Mike in our case) head down the exit with two handlines. Attach a handline to each Sheep Bolt, one 1/3 of the way down, and the other 2/3 of the way down.

(If you have an AJRoadTrip subscription, he has pix of the bolts, and of someone being belayed out of the canyon in a harness.)

Enough beginner warnings - On to the canyon:

AJ's beta is not exactly correct - it suggests there's two 50 raps. In reality, there's one 90' rap, which is bolted and straightforward. Next to that rap, there is another alternate rap, which is shorter, which dumps you onto a ledge that you would then have to rap. I guess that's where the two 50' raps comes from, but I'm not sure. I can tell you there's not two separate raps during your trip through the canyon, even for a beginner/intermediate...


Looking at the first and only Rap
Attachment 64123

The canyon itself is pretty. The rap is fun - there's even a place to hang out and watch the rap from another ledge. Unfortunately the exit is several miles after the last rap, through some mud and a lot of vegetation when we did it Oct '12.

Once you locate the exit canyon, you'll have to walk along a narrow shelf about 30' above the canyon floor. Once you've done that, you're looking at a 300' climb out. It's steep and I found it scary but I have a fear of heights. Without the handlines we dropped, there's absolutely no way I would have gone out that way. About 1/2 way up the climb, you have to negotiate over a cave-like hole in the rock face; a fall there would mean you'd likely be rolling and tumbling all the way back to the canyon floor.

Looking across the exit, watching our experienced Canyoneer Mike place the handlines.
Attachment 64124

I wish I could say I was bad mouthing it so it wouldn't get too crowded - but honestly that's not the case. It's a long drive for one rap, all the vegetation, and the lousy exit.

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Wow! Thanks for the details!

are you sure?
we took Lucy, and the exit we harness her up i am not a very good climber but do not remember an hard exit.
with all the things i can say about him it is almost impossible he did a mistake in the description he is VERY ACCURATE and precise and never gave wrong information about a place!!!
let me add pictures so you can tell if is the same spot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blamkin86

I've done it, and I enjoyed myself, but absolutely hated the exit and would not go again without an improvement in my skills.

Three canyon is south of Green River, not far from Moonshine Wash. It runs basically parallel to the gravel road, a mile or so over to the east. Because of the proximity of the road, dropping off a shuttle vehicle at the exit saves a lot of walking time.

Another good reason to drop a car at the exit, is that the canyon exit itself is quite steep and I consider it risky for beginners. Luckily there are two existing bolts, supposedly placed by a farmer so he could raise his sheep up the canyon exit. The move is to have an experienced canyoneer (Mike in our case) head down the exit with two handlines. Attach a handline to each Sheep Bolt, one 1/3 of the way down, and the other 2/3 of the way down.

(If you have an AJRoadTrip subscription, he has pix of the bolts, and of someone being belayed out of the canyon in a harness.)

Enough beginner warnings - On to the canyon:

AJ's beta is not exactly correct - it suggests there's two 50 raps. In reality, there's one 90' rap, which is bolted and straightforward. Next to that rap, there is another alternate rap, which is shorter, which dumps you onto a ledge that you would then have to rap. I guess that's where the two 50' raps comes from, but I'm not sure. I can tell you there's not two separate raps during your trip through the canyon, even for a beginner/intermediate...


Looking at the first and only Rap
Attachment 64123

The canyon itself is pretty. The rap is fun - there's even a place to hang out and watch the rap from another ledge. Unfortunately the exit is several miles after the last rap, through some mud and a lot of vegetation when we did it Oct '12.

Once you locate the exit canyon, you'll have to walk along a narrow shelf about 30' above the canyon floor. Once you've done that, you're looking at a 300' climb out. It's steep and I found it scary but I have a fear of heights. Without the handlines we dropped, there's absolutely no way I would have gone out that way. About 1/2 way up the climb, you have to negotiate over a cave-like hole in the rock face; a fall there would mean you'd likely be rolling and tumbling all the way back to the canyon floor.

Looking across the exit, watching our experienced Canyoneer Mike place the handlines.
Attachment 64124

I wish I could say I was bad mouthing it so it wouldn't get too crowded - but honestly that's not the case. It's a long drive for one rap, all the vegetation, and the lousy exit.

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Attachment 64373