flash in the maze

[goofball]

headed to vegas to do the full maze over the long weekend. didn't happen... pattern had been clear mornings, afternoon dumps in the mountains west of vegas. forecast for the day was 30% chance. that along w/ the pattern, and knowing long stretches would be escape-less, kept us readily out. we went (tried to went) up mummy mountain instead. got pushed down early due to much very loud thunder and lightning strikes, along w/ high wind, heavy rain, and large hail (ouch !). afterwards we headed to red rocks to comfort ourselves by seeing first hand why we made the right decision. w/in 5 minutes of reaching a good view point it came roaring out. WOW. as we watched, we could imagine our bodies coming out scraps at a time and the trauma our children would go thru due to one very bad decision, and were glad we had had no problem scrapping that canyon. its not goin' anywhere... we talked of how many times a canyon day had been scrapped only to have turned out just fine and the bad influence that could have upon future choices of "go" or "no go". it was very good to have seen this to dramatically reinforce the danger and consequences of bad decisaions.


thats our drainage




before




after



click on any pic to see a few more if you like

[rockgremlin]

Sobering...

When it comes to flash floods in slot canyons I'm a total scare-D-cat. Even a 20% chance makes my palms sweat.

I'm glad I'm looking at your amazing photos as opposed to reading your obituary!

[Scott Card]

Yikes..... BTW, That water is surprisingly clean. Not like the Utah bean with bacon flood water.

[nosivad_bor]

Stumped Again! I still want to go back
and finish those canyons someday though
I moved back home so wont be anytime too soon.

My next Vegas vacation will be heavy on Red Rock fun.
I really want to do that bridge mountain hike, also.

Tried to make a google map from that dankat coords and my memory

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...&t=k&z=14&om=1


Great Picts



Rob

[goofball]

Stumped Again! I still want to go back
and finish those canyons someday though
I moved back home so wont be anytime too soon.

My next Vegas vacation will be heavy on Red Rock fun.
I really want to do that bridge mountain hike, also.

Tried to make a google map from that dankat coords and my memory

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...&t=k&z=14&om=1


Great Picts



Rob

lots of fun to be had at red rocks for sure. we thought about going in and reassesing at the 1/2 way point (where you, i and lori took out) but decided against it, as well as entering there to make it a shorter day. glad we did neither ! a couple more canyons right there beta'd as well - icebox and hidden falls. both look like fun.

[cilantro13]

We were in the canyon Labor Day weekend -- weather prediction was for clear skies. Then after about the 3rd rappel, the clouds started to form. And at the point where you rappel through the "tunnel" formed by the chokestone we started to hear thunder.

Nothing like the sound of thunder in a narrow drainage to get one to hit the jets. Thus, we have some great pics and video for the first half and none for the second half.

Naturally, aside from a few sprinkles, there was no rain whatsoever.

[goofball]

We were in the canyon Labor Day weekend -- weather prediction was for clear skies. Then after about the 3rd rappel, the clouds started to form. And at the point where you rappel through the "tunnel" formed by the chokestone we started to hear thunder.

Nothing like the sound of thunder in a narrow drainage to get one to hit the jets. Thus, we have some great pics and video for the first half and none for the second half.

Naturally, aside from a few sprinkles, there was no rain whatsoever.

you sure it was labor day weekend? you got LUCKY. i headed to vegas sunnday and before i got an hour from slc my friend called and said it was raining, and teh pattern for teh preceding 3-4 days had been rainy afternoons throughout the area, and forecast for weekend was 30% chance every day up to monday. then after talking to her they went for a hike on mt charleston and got dumped on big time.

they went back a couple weekends ago after a week of clear skies, and that day was 10% chance of rain dwindling to 0 by noon. clear skies all week, and that morning. they got in the 2nd 1/2 and heard thunder and the canyon started to flow. no big flash thank god but they were plenty scared.

i think that canyon don't like people...

so you got a link to pics and vid ?

[cilantro13]

It was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. On the trip home from St. George, we passed through Vegas in the early afternoon and microcell was dumping on Red Rocks. We were lucky, and not an experience (hearing thunder in the canyon) that I want to repeat any time soon.

Icecube (the Maze) is a SWEET canyon, especially the lower section. The last rappel where you have wiggle out of the crack as you sit 200 feet about the canyon is great.

I posted some pictures at (warning: not a professional site or photographer):
http://www.kolobcreek.com/main.php?g2_itemId=2756

but as I said, we put the camera away when we started hearing thunder and don't have too many pictures in the lower half. I have video, but haven't posted it yet.

[goofball]

It was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. On the trip home from St. George, we passed through Vegas in the early afternoon and microcell was dumping on Red Rocks. We were lucky, and not an experience (hearing thunder in the canyon) that I want to repeat any time soon.

Icecube (the Maze) is a SWEET canyon, especially the lower section. The last rappel where you have wiggle out of the crack as you sit 200 feet about the canyon is great.

I posted some pictures at (warning: not a professional site or photographer):
http://www.kolobcreek.com/main.php?g2_itemId=2756

but as I said, we put the camera away when we started hearing thunder and don't have too many pictures in the lower half. I have video, but haven't posted it yet.

nice pics. i have only done the top so far and it was way cool all in itself. did you guys shortcut it in or do it complete from teh top ? the walk up from below is actually not too bad and eliminates that silly drive up twice.

when my friends got flow the last guy down got stuck in that crack. didn't remove the pack... my friend below didn't know what was going on, only heard him yelling "oh crap i did it wrong"! she was afraid he was falling and stepped away so as not to get squished. lucky for him he got unstuck.

so you made it out before the aftrenoon dump. *whew* ! i have heard thunder in a few canyons anbd it is a puckerer. even worse, a few of those w/ no consequences and you get complacent and think its gonna be just another false alarm. then one day.... bam, right in the kisser !

[cilantro13]

I too thought the upper section was great. I was a little disappointed where the slot really narrows at one point you rap down off a ledge and by-pass the zig-zag drops, but I can understand that the zigs and zags would make a quite a tough rope pull. From what I saw, they are all short enough that I wonder if they can be downclimbed. But owing the the fact you can only see the first three or so drops before it goes around a corner, we elected to rap off the ledge.

The rain actually came the Monday after we were on our way home (we hiked Saturday).

And for the record, IMHO that "right in the kisser" = you're whole body having a wet flying lesson. Hey maybe you would get flung out far enough to have some bushes break your fall right before you break your neck...

[nosivad_bor]

Is that zig zag you speak of the cork screw into the pot hole and then a 20ft drop into the pool just before the early exit? I loved that part!

I moved my photos of the Maze to Flicker here is my new link.

http://flickr.com/photos/nosivad_bor...16688643/show/

[cilantro13]

My memory isn't too good as to the sequence of the zig-zags. It think it is toward the middle of the upper section. You come out of a couple of 20-30 raps into a pretty narrow section. As you exit the section, the waterline turns abruptly left in the the zigs zags, which veer off to the right. We jumped over the waterline and there is a small ledge (table really) and the anchor is bush up against a wall. The edge is about 20 feet away from the bush down a gentle slope on the ledge until you hit the drop.

The rappel from the ledge totally avoids the section of little pot holes that zig and zag.