TR: 20070615 - UT, Zion Canyoneering (LONG)

[AJ]

Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...61/t_=38054161


Thursday 6/14:

Zion. This is the trip I had been waiting for... planning for... prepping for. Among other big days, we were going to attempt Imlay and Heaps; two of the bigger and most challenging canyons. Moreso, we were going to attempt to do them in a day (both were usually done in multiple days), and only one out of the four of us had done the Sneak route on Imlay. None of us had done full Imlay before. None of us had done any part of Heaps either. (I had previously hoped to drop in with another team that was doing either one, but that didn't happen and wasn't on the horizon; so I decided to descend the canyons on our own. I also had sent out an e-mail invitation for someone who had done them to join us on this trip. That didn't pan out either.) I had done as much research as I could though; reading route descriptions from different sources and several trip reports; and passing them on to the team as well. And personally, I love a challenge too. ;)

While I have a significant background in climbing, mountaineering, caving, many canyons and more; I had heard enough warnings about these canyons to make me wonder what we would run into. We were a strong team, so I was pretty sure we could make it through pretty much anything, it might just take us longer than we originally anticipated. Bringing even more thought was the fact that another competent canyoneer made a mistake and died descending Heaps just a week earlier. while we will never know exactly what happened, evidence points to a bad judgment call likely due to hypothermia. I wasn't really worried about our team, but I was definitely wondering what we would run into. Despite feeling some sadness (and a bit surrealistic) over the loss of life in the canyoneering community, I was still excited about the canyons.

To make sure we were all on the same page, I got the entire team together to discuss the canyons before leaving the next day. We went over our rope choices for each canyon, our gear, and I filled in with some gear where people were short. It worked out for me too, as a teammate had access to a drysuit that would fit me. Sweet! We again went over our plan of doing the canyons in a day, and made sure we all carried equivalent bivvy gear. We decided to carry a little more than survival mode; enough to be able to sleep if we got stuck in the canyon overnight, but not enough to really be comfortable. We finalized all our plans, including our driving plans and times for tomorrow.

We also talked about camping. We originally were planning on camping at either Mosquito Cove or another spot or two that I know of. However, Tom had space in his campsite. It didn't sound like he was going to be able to cover the group sites he reserved, so I made sure it was cool with the team to head over there to help him out with the expenses. I knew he had enough on his mind with the death in Heaps. He had passed that team in Heaps just a few hours before the accident. While the accident was in no way his fault, I'm sure it still weighed heavily on him. Thus, anything we could do to help (even if it was only piddly financial stuff); it was something I was more than willing to do. The rest of my group agreed.

I had also sent out an e-mail asking if anyone wanted to do a canyon on Saturday. The only catch is that they needed to pick up the permit, as my group would be leaving Boulder around 2:30pm on Friday and it's an 11 hour drive. Thus, I was asking someone to pick a canyon, and get a permit on Friday, and we'd jump in with them for Saturday. I wasn't really sure if anyone would jump at that, as they would have to wait in the wonderful permit line.

It was a pleasant surprise when I heard from Bruce from Bryce. He wanted to do Spry; which was a new one for several of us, and he was game to pick up the permit. Awesome! I was looking forward to meeting him. He seemed like an upstanding guy from his posts. We made plans to meet up with him on Saturday morning.


Friday 6/15:

We left on schedule, and drove over to Tom's campsite, arriving after 1am. The campsite across from Tom's was empty, so we just threw our sleeping bags on the ground and slept there (it was a nice, albeit warm night around the upper 70's); trying not to wake anyone else.


Saturday 6/16:

We woke up lazily, as we weren't going to meet up with Bruce until 8am. (Sunrise was around 6am.) We chatted with a few of the other canyoneers and asked if anyone else wanted to join us if there was still room on the permit. They all had plans for the day. We met up with Bruce and Nancy, and carpooled over to the entrance of Spry.
http://www.climb-utah.com/Zion/spry.htm We did last minute gear prep, and headed in around 9am. It was hot already. Really hot; probably mid to upper 80's already. Definitely was looking forward to any water that might be in the canyon. We got to the Petroglyphs around 9:30am and hammed it up; posing like the petroglyphs.

We crested the saddle, and found a downclimb into the head of the canyon. Before long, we got to the first rappel around 10:15am. It didn't look that bad. Marty wanted to try to downclimb it, I was game. We rigged the anchor, and gave them the rope just in case it turned out to be worse than it looked. Marty and I then downclimbed it. It really wasn't all that bad. The others chose to rappel it.

Around 11am, we came to a section that looked like an optional rappel down into water. Looked downclimbable too. Marty and I downclimbed into the chest deep water. It was cold, but it felt good. The others chose to go around and rap down after the cool little tunnel/chamber.

The rest of the canyon was fairly dry. There were a few pools, but most you could avoid if you wanted to. There was some great scenery though, some fun downclimbs, and a few rappels. It was definitely a worthwhile canyon. I especially liked the bigger rappel into a deep slot. Very beautiful. We got there around noon.

After that, there were a few more downclimbs and rappels. One rappel we set up a guided rappel for training and the fun of it. Shortly afterwards, you come to the final canyon rappel; we hit it at 1:45pm. The deadman looked fine to me, but Bruce heard there was a better anchor up to the left. There was a small tree to anchor to up on a small shelf. Worked, but the deadman rap path looked to be more fun. From there, you climb down a boulder filled gully down to a tree. Found a sling and biner on the way down. Rigged to the tree for the final 85 foot overhanging rappel. Nice drop. We finished around 2:45pm.
It was still very hot out; so instead of hiking all the way out, we decided to go to a swimming hole that we knew.
Hiked over and spent some time jumping, diving and swimming in the refreshing pool. We then thanked Bruce and Nancy for the fun canyon day including picking up the permit for us, and then headed back to the campsite. We unpacked and then picked up the permit for Imlay, packed for Imlay, and visited with Tom and the others for a few. Tom's group was having a potluck, and there was some great food. We brought food, and more importantly, Colorado beer for them. (The funny part was that none of my team, including me, drank beer.) Around 6, we drove over towards Lava point. We stopped and checked the flow for Kolob and it was low; around 2 cfs (cubic feet per second.) We then continued to Lava Point, and camped out there so we would be closer to the West Rim Trailhead. The night was nice and cool up there too. We just bivvied in our sleeping bags, and tried to get some sleep.


Sunday 6/17:

Full Imlay. http://www.climb-utah.com/Zion/imlay1.htm http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/imlayheaps.htm
http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/imlay.htm

Many groups do the canyon in multiple days. We were still going to try to do it in one, so we woke up around 2am, quickly packed up our bivvy gear, and headed to the West Rim Trailhead. There were four of us in my team; Jonas, Stuart, Marty and I. We hiked the West Rim trail at a moderate pace over to Potato Hollow. We timed it almost perfectly, arriving near the drop in just as some light was beginning to break. We had to scout around a little to find the correct drop in point, and started the first rappel around 6am. It was still pretty chilly out, probably in the 50's; which was nice. A definite change from the intense heat from yesterday. It was nice camping up high where it was cooler at night.

The drops into Imlay were pretty straightforward. There was some bushwhacking near the beginning, and then a cool surprise. Imlay had some flowstone; wich is usually found in caves. Very cool. We completed the entry rappels, then downclimbed and hiked downcanyon a little until we came to the big dropoff. We climbed up to a rappel anchor off a tree. It was pretty loose here, with lots of vegetation too. I didn't want the pull to be too difficult, so we dropped down until we hit another rap anchor off another tree. It was a short rap. We got everyone down to the tree, and then rapped again. To our surprise, the ledge rappel was only another forty feet down; another short rappel. Bummer. We could have done the first rap all the way down to the ledge. Oh well, we know for next time. From the ledge, it was a big drop of around 170 feet. Awesome rappel. We finished the rap around 8am. It was starting to get warm. We stopped, dropped a few layers, and got a quick bite to eat.

We then scouted, and found the downclimb back to the canyon bottom by going right LDC. There were a few more fun downclimbs, and another surprise. Red and Yellow Columbine flowers! (Columbines are Colorado's State flower. Hadn't seen yellow and red ones before though.) This section was really lush with vegetation. Sometimes requiring bushwhacking. Hit a few more downclimbs into pools; some up to waist deep. We came to a spot where it looked like people climbed up to the right. The canyon in front of us didn't look too bad, but we went up and to the right anyway and did the bypass rappel. Upon scouting at the bottom, the canyon was totally fine. We likely could have even downclimbed it. Again, next time...

Continuing down Imlay was a blast. There was some dark sections, lots of water, some beautifully sculpted sections, some great downclimbs, a few partner assists, and a few short rappels. We got to my favorite spot in Imlay around 3:30pm. It was an awesome dark and sculpted chamber with a window on the left and a drop on the right. We set up a simul-rappel there and dropped into the water. The rest of the canyon was great too, with more of the stuff mentioned above. We set up a guided rappel, and had to hook out of two potholes; challenging and fun! Unfortunately, some water had gotten into my drysuit; bummer. Made it pretty cold, as I only had on a thin insulating layer below the drysuit.

We got to the last rap just as it was getting dark, and were all down in the narrows when it was dark. We walked through the Narrows by headlamp, and got back to our cars around midnight. A long but very fun day! We didn't feel like making the drive around to pick up our car at the West Rim trailhead, so we went back to Tom's campsite and slept without any camp gear. Didn't sleep too well.


Monday 6/18:

Turns out that we probably should have gone around and gotten the car and our camp gear (mostly sleeping pads) as none of us slept very well. We set our gear out to dry, and two watched the gear to make sure it wouldn't blow away and two went to get the car at West Rim. Talked to the remaining canyoneers from the Tom's Fest, and helped them pack up their stuff. When the cars got back, we packed up our stuff as well; as we needed to move camp today. We then drove to Mosquito Cove and set up camp there. Jonas and I headed back to Zion, picked up the permit for Heaps (we had pre-reserved most of our permits for the week) and then hiked up to Emerald Pools to stash a 300 foot 9mm rope that Tom had loaned us (Thanks Tom!) We had an 8mm line, but definitely wasn't going to turn down an option to use a 9mm line instead for the long final rap... We took a quick detour to get drenched by a waterfall, and went back to camp. Lounged around a little, and then drove around to Lava Point again to camp; where it would be cooler, and so we would be closer to our starting hike tomorrow.


Tuesday 6/19:

Heaps. http://www.climb-utah.com/Zion/heaps1.htm http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/heaps.htm

This was again a canyon that many people do in multiple days, so we got an early start again. A 2am wakeup, with a quick breakfast, pack job and drove to the West Rim trailhead. We started down the trail around 2:45am. It's a long hike, so we were hiking pretty quickly today. We got to the trail breakoff around 5:45am. We ended up following a few social trails, and the line on Shane's map, and it didn't bring us to the right place (based on the GPS coordinates.) I still wanted to drop here, but others didn't like that idea. There was even a discarded rope below that we could clean.

Jonas was obstinate about not going that way, only following the true route description we had, so we climbed back up and around, and had a discussion. There seemed to be some dissention among the ranks. We immediately cleared that up. I didn't want to drop in for the biggest canyon unless we were all game and working together. Which brought us to a second issue. Jonas had been the slowest among us today; which is definitely not like him. It was the slowest and least coordinated I had ever seen him; so I posed the hard question to him, was he up for this? Any or all of us still had the chance to bail, and attempt it another time when we had more sleep and conditions were better (there was low water in Imlay and Heaps making it more difficult conditions right now.) It turns out, he was really tired and not feeling up to it. The rest of the group wanted to go on. He was okay with that, said he could make the hike back to the West Rim fine, and would meet us at the bottom. Good for him to realize when it was appropriate for him to skip a day.

We took Jonas' group gear, and continued down the canyon. Did the first big drop into the drainage, and headed towards the canyon head. Came across some really cool rocks on pedestals around 8:30am. It was starting to get warm already. We got to the start of the slot section, suited up and dropped in. The first obstacle in Shane's description says that the first pothole looks really nasty, but you can go around a corner and to the right there is a window to climb through. We got to the first pothole, and sure enough, it looked really nasty. Unfortunately, we could see the entire pothole, and there was no window to climb through. We dropped in it, and used a pack toss to get out. Upon reaching the lip of that pothole, I saw a second one, which had the window. Wow. The low water conditions created a new pothole problem. That told me the rest of the canyon would likely be challenging as well.

That certainly was the case. The first section of narrows was a blast. There were lots of downclimbs, lots of water, some high stems, and some rappels. I unfortunately found that water was leaking into my drysuit again. Bummer. Looked around, but didn't see an obvious leak. We made it out of the first narrows around 11am, and got a great picture of Marty jumping.

We continued down Heaps. What an awesome canyon. Some of the canyon was formed when water followed a fault fracture; it's a straight canyon rather than windy and twisted as most sections are. There were many intersecting fault based canyons too. It was absolutely beautiful in many places; there is a section that is all mossy, and another place where iron is leaking with water down the walls into a pool. This is nicknamed the iron room, and we got there around 2:30pm. The canyon has some awesome problem solving, certainly the most challenging canyon that I had done; especially because we didn't bypass the last set of narrows that many people climb around. There weren't any anchors there; so we improvised with interesting partner assists and handline rappels off our packs for anchors. Great stuff!

We made it to the end of the canyon around 5pm; plenty of time to finish the last rappel. (We previously decided that if we didn't get to the end rap by 6:30pm, we would camp out in Heaps so we could complete the final rappel during daylight. Many groups take 3 hours to do the final two or three rappel sequence.) We made radio contact with Jonas, and took a break to get something to eat and drink.

We climbed up the sandy chimney to the top, and saw the drop that many people rappel to get to a large tree. We all felt fine with downclimbing to the tree. Got to the large tree around 6:30pm. From here, we tied all our ropes together, and hauled up the 300 foot rope. That way, we could rig all of the drops from the top, and not have to be crowded on the bird perch at all. We set the 200 foot line and pullcord to get us to the bird perch, and I rapped down there. I would man the bird perch. We had three radios between us, one at the top, one at the perch and one below. Unfortunately, Jonas had stumbled below and dropped his radio in the water; so that one wasn't working right.

There were tourists down below, so we had to call out for them to move away (several times), just in case any rocks got knocked loose and came whizzing at them from over 400 feet up. Stuart then rapped down to the perch; which was bigger than I was anticipating it to be. He then continued down to the ground. I tested the pull on the top ropes, and then Marty came down to the perch. We then pulled the top ropes down. Marty then headed down the final big overhanging rappel. We tested the pull since we could now coordinate with the radio Marty had. It was working fine, so I made the rappel down. Got down to the ground right as it was getting dark around 9:30pm. We pulled the big rap ropes down, repacked all of the ropes, rinsed off at the pool, hiked back down and drove back to camp.


Wednesday 6/20:

We went down and waited in the permit line, and after waiting a while, we couldn't get any of the canyons we were looking for as they were all full. There were a few open, but we had already done those. We just picked up our permit that we had reserved for the following day, and then went back to camp. We dried out our gear, and I did a duck tape patch job on the drysuit after finding a small hole where the water was coming from. It was blazingly hot out again; around 100, so we went off to my favorite water hole for a swim. We ran into Nancy again, who was there with her son and his friend. Got to chat a little with her. Found out her and Bruce were going to do Keyhole on Friday night. Told her we would join up if they wanted company. We had more people arriving tonight and tomorrow as well. The Zion plan was, four of us (Jonas, Marty, Stuart and I) would come early and do many of the bigger days; and then my girlfriend, her son, and a few of our friends would meet us on Thursday and we would do canyons together for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had another big day the next day, so we headed back to camp, packed up, and again drove around to camp at Lava Point.

On the way up, we checked out Kolob creek again, hoping that it would be low so we could do full Kolob on Saturday. Several other people had also checked earlier in the week and said it was only flowing around 3 cfs; even though the water district had just started giving an ambiguous "up to 15cfs or more" which essentially knocked out any chance of legally doing the canyon since the park won't give permits at 15cfs or more. (Another issue in itself.) If the water was low, we would check again before dropping in on Sat, but might consider going. However, when we checked, the river was definitely up. I'd guess between 15 and 20cfs, so Kolob was not in the cards for this trip. Bummer. It's a great canyon.

There were more people at Lava Point tonight, and it was pretty loud late into the night so I didn't get very much sleep.


Thursday 6/21:

Another 2am wakeup in prep for another long day with the four of us. We would do a route that I had previously done with the Ram clan last year. We would again hike the West Rim trail, and drop into Hammerhead, a right-fork drainage. We would descend Hammerhead, crest over and traverse across Wildcat canyon, drop into Upper Upper Left Fork of Great West canyon, continue down Upper Left Fork, continue down Das Boot, and finally descend through Subway and hike out. We had a little more time to pack up, as I wanted to hit the first drop during first light again. Thus, we had a warm breakfast today, and started hiking around 3:30am.

Hiked the West Rim trail, and again planned it right by getting to the first rap into Hammerhead around daybreak around 5:45am. We dropped into Hammerhead, measuring the drops at 150, 80, 40, 45, 20 and 45 feet. (Later, I found out Hammerhead was in Tom's book.) Hammerhead is a cool canyon. Not very sculpted, but some great big walls. Definitely a fun entrance, which we completed around 7am.

We then did the crest and traverse of Wildcat, and got to the entrance to the Upper section of Left Fork around 8am. Here we took a break, and suited up. Because I had been cold in Imlay and Heaps (mostly due to the hole in my suit), I packed heavier thermals for under the drysuit today. There had been lots of water last year, so I planned on being nice and cozy.
We started the Upper section around 9am. Unfortunately, the water was extremely low here too. We probably didn't need a wetsuit at all, or maybe just a 2/3 full or shorty. For a while, I kept on thinking, there will likely be water just around the next corner; as last year, it was very full of water, even with some water flowing. Didn't hit much water for a while, so I was baking in my drysuit with heavy thermals. Sat down to cool off in a couple of pools. We hit the arch in the Upper Left Fork around 9:30am. Making good time, and we weren't really even pushing it.

Both upper sections of the Left Fork are great. Some awesome downclimbs and beautiful sculpting. Albeit, a lot less water this year. We did have one stuck rope, where Stuart or Marty thought the line would clear itself, and ended up tying itself into a knot. Good learning experience for them. Luckily, it happened in a spot that wasn't extremely difficult to upclimb. I still used a prussik as a backup on the stuck line, and then upclimbed to untie the knot and free the line.

We continued down the canyon, past a wild logjam which looked like a cross, and got to the start of Das Boot around 10:30am. The moving was much quicker and easier when there was less water. We continued down through the beautiful Das Boot and got to the final jump or rappel at 11:30am. I had jumped it last year, but this year, the water was much lower than last year.
I had touched the ground on the 30-ish foot jump last year, so I decided to downclimb it this year. We setup a line that I could use as a handline if necessary, and I downclimbed where the waterfall is normally at. The others came down, some choosing to rappel. There was still a swim at the bottom.

From here, we started the more touristy Subway section. It's very popular because it's very beautiful and not very technical. Marty and Stuart hadn't been through before, so it was definitely a treat for them. Marty swam through the underwater arch around noon. There was some flow in the Subway, so the wetsuits and drysuits finally felt good. Although, we later got some strange looks from the tourists who were climbing up from the bottom in their tennis shoes and normal clothes. We continued down in the clean water and sculpted canyon; enjoying the beautiful scenery. We made the final downclimb near the waterfall around 12:30pm, and then hung out by the beautiful pools for a few and took photos.

We then went down to where there was a flatter dry spot, and changed out of our wetsuits and drysuits. We rinsed off our gear, and laid it out to dry; enjoying the hot sun with the wonderful pools to cool us off. Went down to where I knew there was a spring, and refilled our water bottles for the long hot hike out.

We hiked down a ways, and then Jonas and I decided we would hike out faster. Stuart and Marty could take their time enjoying the sights. Jonas and I made it out at 4:30pm, drove back up to the West Rim and picked up the car. Worked out great as Stuart and Marty got to the lot about five minutes before we were back with both vehicles. We then drove back down, tried unsuccessfully to reach the others that were going to meet us, made some food and headed over to the Summer Solstice party at the Ranger's quarters.

We were invited by Cheryl, a Zion ranger, and sister in law of a good friend. It was a great time. It was a potluck, and while we brought beer, food and a watermelon; our stuff was more like camping type food. This potluck was incredible, the food selection was the best I had ever seen at a potluck with lots of exotic foods, and the company was great. Got to meet lots of friendly rangers, and chat with head ranger Ray O'Neil, a really nice guy.

Headed back to camp, and met up with the other four people of my group that came in from Colorado. My girlfriend Jen and her son Mike, as well as two friends Scott and Karla.


Friday 6/22:

Woke up way too early to get into the permit line so we would be there when it opened; hoping to avoid the situation we had on Wednesday where all the permits for the canyons we wanted were gone. We got there a half hour before it opened, and were still a long ways off as about 20 groups was already in line before us. I was trying to get our entire group into Pine today, or maybe most of us into Mystery, or all of us into Subway or Orderville. Unfortunately, ALL of them were booked by the time we got to the window. What a crock. We could have gotten into Keyhole, but we were going to do that later that night anyway. We picked up a permit for Orderville for the next day. I was debating on just taking the group into Pine anyway, but didn't want to circumvent the permit system; regardless of it's annoying flaws. Since many folks hadn't been to Zion before, we instead decided we would do the hike up to Angel's Landing. Would much rather have preferred to be in a canyon though, as the hike up - while quite spectacular - was quite hot in the 100 degree temperatures; especially because we didn't even start the hike until around 11am because of all the time wasted waiting in line for the permits. To cool down, we headed over to my favorite swim hole yet again and hung out in the refreshing water for the afternoon.

As it was starting to get dark out, we met up with Bruce and Nancy to do a night descent of Keyhole. Only Jonas had been down Keyhole before from our group; maybe Bruce and Nancy had done it. This was going to be Mike's first canyon; and the first time through for many of us. We started around 9:30pm, when it got dark out. It was a fun little canyon that most of the drops could be downclimbed. On one point, I downclimbed a spot to belay from the bottom and a miscommunication had Jonas downclimb too. That left Bruce to double check some less experienced folks up above; and he correctly called me out on it. Whoops. Made sure that didn't happen again.

Overall though, Keyhole was a great little canyon. It only took our whole group around two hours to get through, and was a good taste of canyoneering. Surprisingly, there was some pretty deep and cold water in the canyon, much moreso than I was expecting based on the low water we had seen in many of the other canyons. There was a required swim just before the second rappel. The talented climbers could stem over all of the other water though. Thanks again to Bruce and Nancy for lining up some great canyons for us!

We then drove back to camp at Mosquito Cove and discussed Orderville. I wanted to get another really early start, so we would be well into Orderville when the hotter temperatures hit (Orderville has quite a long approach.) A few of my group didn't want to get that early of a start, so it was only going to be Marty, Stuart, Mike and I. Jen and Jonas would meet us in the Narrows, and Scott and Karla would do some climbing and meet us either in the Narrows or back at camp.


Saturday 6/23:

Orderville - http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/orderv.htm

Woke up around 3:30am, had breakfast, and got an early start on the drive around. Jen was great and drove us around to the start. We hiked in and she drove back around to camp to try to get more sleep. Mike, Marty, Stuart and I headed down Orderville; starting around 6:30am.

The approach hike wasn't too bad, and we got to the first drop around 7:15am. It looked like it would be fun to go down the watercourse, but we would likely need a longer rope. Maybe next time. We skirted the drop per the beta, and continued downcanyon.

Orderville is a great little romp. Some very beautiful canyon sections, with big walls, and not too technical. Unfortunately, some idiot had scratched 50 foot long arrows and dumb messages on the canyon walls. How disappointing. What are these people thinking? It really detracted from the experience.

All the drops in Orderville can be downclimbed by those with experience, and about halfway through the canyon; just prior to the second drop (around 10:30am), is when we ran into water from springs. From there, the canyon had moving water; slowly building as more springs contributed to the flow. Finished the second downclimb/rap around 11am. Continuing down brought us to more beautiful canyon scenery. Again, not too technical, but some fun downclimbs. Came across some large patches of pink, yellow and red columbine flowers. Cool.

We started to run into a few people prior to the sign. After the sign, there was more and more folks. When we hit the narrows, there were a LOT of people. Probably a group every 50 or so feet. Wow. A LOT more crowded than the last time I went through. We didn't see Jen and Jonas, so we hiked upstream. Went to the Big Spring, and then headed back down. Ran into Jen and Jonas. We found a shady spot to relax. Some of us took a short nap, and then we finished the hike out. Getting to the Narrows exit around 5:00pm, and then hiked back to the cars and headed to camp.

We discussed the plans for tomorrow. I wanted to do a canyon, but Jen, Mike, Stuart and Jonas wanted to get an early start on the long drive back (most of our drivers.) So most of us would head back after packing up.


Sunday 6/24:

We woke up, and packed up camp. Scott and Karla went off to do Pine Creek. I tried to convince the others to join, but they needed to get back. So Jen, Mike, Stuart and Marty headed back. Jonas and I first went over to return Tom's rope, and then made the long trip back. Heard back that Scott and Karla had a great time in Pine, and also heard that the rangers had cleaned off the graffiti in Orderville. Awesome!

Thanks to all for such a great trip!

Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.


Note: I'm also including a few pictures from Marty; including a few of the final Heaps rappel from Marty's camera, as those came out way better than mine as I was concentrating more on the ropework for the drop. I'm also including a photo from a friend where his friends wrote "JUMP" in the sand on the beach 450 feet below. Funny.


Movie:

20070622D1-22 Angels Landing 360.MOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLk7V1OmvC4



Pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailsh...61/t_=38054161

[Jaxx]

Wow epic trip. It's like Christmas in September with all these TR's you are doing. Someday I'll do Imlay and Heaps. Das Boot is one of the next Zion Canyons on my list. As always love the TR and pics! Oh and I love your shirt

[AJ]

Wow epic trip. It's like Christmas in September with all these TR's you are doing.

Glad you like them. I'm just trying to play catch up, but take too many trips and can't seem to ever catch up. (Not a bad problem to have.) There are 9 trips to catch up on between Zion and now, and I'm leaving in a couple of hours to do some big rock climbs in Rocky Mtn Natl Park for the weekend...

Someday I'll do Imlay and Heaps. Das Boot is one of the next Zion Canyons on my list. As always love the TR and pics! Oh and I love your shirt

All three of those are awesome canyons; very beautiful. Heaps is my new favorite in North America. Just make sure you are ready for Imlay and Heaps. Would be easy to get yourself into trouble in those.

The shirt just doesn't die. It's probably been through over 100 canyons; it's unreal. The bright colors serve several purposes. Most importantly, it makes photos come out much better, with the side advantage, if something ever did happen, it would be easy for SAR to find me!

A third advantage is identification. Not long ago was a funny situation where Wyoming Dave (canyoneer) found a camera in Right Fork. He looked at some of the photos and recognized my shirt. Sent me some of the photos, and we figured out who the rightful owner of the camera was. Never thought about that use, but it worked. It was awesome of Dave to go to that much effort to get the camera back to the owner. Thanks again Dave!