Met up with Marc, Rob, Chris and Frank (Marc's dad) to take advantage of the great weather over the weekend and tackle the infamous Shenanigans (aka Middle Fork of Butler Canyon's West Fork). There is a very good reason why Kelsey ranks Shenanigans at #11 on his top 40 list. This canyon is awesome, and should be considered a classic on all levels. I already want to do it again.
Unfortunately for some, this canyon is a little discriminating. If you are a hefty guy (or gal) there are certain sections of this canyon that are just plain impassable. I would put the weight cutoff at 190 pounds -- any heavier than that, and you are probably not gonna make it through. This canyon is tight, TIGHT, TIGHT!!! One of the appeals to this canyon is the seemingly endless stretches of gorgeous narrows. The narrows are sculpted, and in certain sections twisty and curvy. It is very difficult to get a good picture because most of the narrows are pretty dark as well.
Shenanigans is quite a physically demanding canyon. There are rarely stretches where you're walking upright with shoulders squared. It seemed like we were always either walking sideways, or hunched over, or bracing our body weight on both arms, and sometimes a combo of the above. For this reason, elbow pads, and knee pads are a valued item, as well as clothing that can withstand the sandy punishment.
In the final section of narrows, there is a 20 - 25 foot drop that may be bypassed by crawling on a ledge to the right (aka the "Grim Crawl of Death"). At the end of the crawl, there is a series of chokestones wedged between the walls that offers a place to downclimb. We sequenced guys down on a human anchor here, and I did the grim crawl, since there is no other anchor here from which to rappel, nor is there anything to build an anchor with. The downclimb is a little dicey as the ledges are sandy, and the exposure is high. A spot from the bottom is preferable, or possibly wrapping some webbing around one of the boulders, and rapping down from there.
Here's a few pics...