Blackhole *photos up*

[alusul]

Headed down to the blackhole yesterday w/ a friend of mine who hadn't been there before. Had a decent amount more flow than during the n00bfest, suited up a couple sections earlier. We noticed the marks on the sign said no logjams as of 7/7/07

Was fun negotiating through a lot more sections that had flowing water poring through. I was a bit concerned about the black hole section as a I remembered a few chock stones seemed to require swimming under if the water level was any higher but didn't think that would be a show stopper.

We got to the hand line thats tied to a log to enter the black hole section (water pounding us as we went down that) that starts with a logjam we went under in the n00bfest. The logjam had so much water flowing into it there was nothing to see but foam and seemed to be almost filled to the brim. So we climbed to the top of this log jam, only to be surprised by the most stale, rank, awful, uninspiring water I've ever seen . It was basically a "green room" As I'm trying to work out why our log jammed area is fine, and pumping water into this room but everything in there is stale I notice that the crack to the next section has one log in it... about 30 feet at least (it was my whole field of view) 2 -3 feet wide vertically placed in the crack, with a few inch wide window several feet from the pool.

There appeared to be no way around it, though we did not enter the room as this logjam seemed quite overhung, and we had only webbing to setup the reverse (do-able, but a lot of time in green goop to get back). Unfortunately with the smell overpowering us we retreated without even taking a photo of the log. The hike back up canyon was fun with all that water and made some interesting reverse challanges but not much so all in all it was a good trip.

I would have liked to have solved this log jam, but seemed rather difficult to dislodge such a massive log without a crow bar or dynamite (how the hell did it get there? did I just forget this? other log jams looked similar, handline was the same, part we went under seemed the same but maybe the logjams just usually form similarly)

Only thing I could think of is that there was a swim under this log we couldn't see. The complete lack of motion in the pool and the lower water on the other side that I could see through the 'window' made this seem dubious though.

Didn't leave a note on the board as we had nothing to write it with, if anyone feels this is serious please mark it for us if you go by.

-John

[Canyonbug]

Glad to hear that you didn't let ego override your decisions to go through the canyon and everyone is safe.

This is a sketchy time of year to be going through the Black Hole. We have hit the monsoon season on Cedar Mesa and everyday needs to be looked at and see what the weather is doing. We had major flashing on the Mesa last night. The highway's by Natural Bridges NM have debris in the road and all washes were flowing. I ended up being out late last night rescuing river runners that were caught in the rising water level when the wash they were camping in turned into a river. They lost a lot of equipment including vehicle keys.

I was hoping to get in a BH trip this Friday, but it looks like that is going to be post poned.

Have fun out there and be safe.

[Iceaxe]

I've bailed twice on the Black Hole in past years because of sketchy conditions and never felt regret at my choice. The BH is a great canyon but it has a nasty side that shows its head occasionally..... looking forward to the pics.

[AFI]

Yes - we are hoping to hit BH soon so some recent pics would be awesome.

[alusul]

Photos

Please note we had to reverse the canyon, there are no photos of the logjams, we didn't see any "logness monsters" as the logjam we encountered was easily climbable, but there was a forbidding log that seemed to seal the whole crack up at a point we saw no way to continue further from.

I am curious if entering the black hole from the exit route would allow one to enter the black hole area and bypass the logjams.

[alusul]

Video of flow on google
eh, not fond of the quality of those upload sites...

Recommend right-click+save as, then open with VLC or Quicktime Player
http://www.xmission.com/~arrakis/flow.mov

[hesse15]

wow amazing pictures
glad you are ok

Video of flow on google
eh, not fond of the quality of those upload sites...

Recommend right-click+save as, then open with VLC or Quicktime Player
http://www.xmission.com/~arrakis/flow.mov

[AFI]

Cool - thanks for the pics!