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No Kidding w/Sandtrap and Potshots
I rarely post Trip Reports, but am doing so in light of current conversations related to the sandtrap and potshots.
Had a great time in No Kidding today with 2 friends, 1 of which had never rappelled before. The canyon starts out with a few fun narrow sections.
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It then opens up and there is an escape on LDC (there are actually are several in the canyon). This drop can be bypassed on the left by walking down the ramp LDC. The 2nd drop starts in the pothole that can be seen towards the top of the photo.
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We decided to set up the sandtrap rather than bypass the drop. We had to dig out a depression in the sand, and then filled the sandtrap. Thank you Tom (ratagonia) for the idea of using a hose on the pull rope. It seemed to make the pulls easier and helped to avoid rope grooves. Scott took the honor of first man down.
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At the 2nd drop, there is another escape, either LDC or RDC. Tom recommended that we set up a 200 ft rope to a horn just up canyon, so we could return and retrieve it, but the pull looked easy enough, so we set up the sandtrap again. We got some rocks and piled sand over them to build a ramp.
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This is Shawn's 2nd rappel, ever. Afterwards, the pull was clean.
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This is the spot where a sandtrap had been set up by others who got it stuck on the boulder. We looked down canyon from it, and it was an easy downclimb to the next ledge, so we did.
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At the next drop (#3), it looked like potshots would work well. We stacked 6 of them about 1/3 full for the bottom 4 and a little more for the top 2. They did not budge!
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The pull again was easy. In general potshots are easier to pull than a sandtrap.
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The next drop (#4) was from a small ledge that again looked best for potshots. It had a little ramp about the width of a potshot. We stacked 6 again.
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The pull again was easy
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At the next drop (#5), because of the small depression in the ledge, we decided for potshots again. Again, we stacked 6.
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This is the view for me (LAMAR - LAst Man At Risk)
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Pull was clean
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The next drop was tricky. The location was not well suited for the sandtrap, unless it was set up far back, causing a questionable pull, so we opted again for potshots. Again, we stacked 6. Since the location and geometry weren't the best, we went heavier this time.
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Pulling down potshots is great.
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At the last drop, we had to ferry sand. We found a nice indentation for the potshots, but were concerned about the pull, since this is the other place that a sandtrap has been stuck. We decided to bring every bag full to the point of setup. We poured most of the sand in a pile in front of the set up location, so when we pulled the potshots they would slide over the sand and jagged edges, rather than get snagged.
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After the rappel, the potshots pulled fine. All we had left was to slog up the Kelsey exit and back to the truck. All in all, a fun day in a fun canyon.