low spur canyon 9-13

[dandyj]

Earlier this year we hit up hi-spur canyon and absolutely loved it. I had been hitting numerous canyons in the Roost area this year and have enjoyed all of them. I read about low spur in Kelseys new book and maid a plan to hit water and low spur over the weekend. Due to unfortunate circumstances (for me) we had to bail later that night after the canyon and head to the emergency room

Low Spur was a great little down and back canyon. An easy canyon to help take beginners on with a few downclimbs that give them the oppurtunity to learn and create some confidence.

The canyon starts in your typical wash and shortly comes to a first downclimb of only a couple of feet. After that the canyon slots up and narrows like most of the canyons in the roost. Eventually you have a down climb of about fifteen easy feet and then you seem to be stuck in narrows. The are very narrow in sections so that fat people like myself will lose a couple pounds of skin on the walls.

Eventually you will come to a steep downclimb which you can't see the bottom because of elephant ears that wave in and out. It was easier for us to tie a handline around one of the numerous chockstones for safety purposes than it was to downclimb into who knows what, it would also be easier for the few newbs who were with us to get back up.

Shortly after the handline there was a pinching down climb, that you could puff out your stomach and hang, into "The cave" this was a great spot to sit, eat and pose for a couple atlas shrugged pictures. Knowing we were only going down and back we left are packs in the cave and continued to where the final rappel would be. The next section reminded me a little of the slot in little wild horse with a few places with ankle high water and a couple chockstones to crawl under.

We came to another downclimb into a pothole that was about chest deep. Even in high water situations, unless the bottom was gorged out this would never be a swimmer. Shortly after there was a very narrow slot that anyone more than 10 or 12 inches thick would want to go above. There was a rockfall above the slot so it would be safer to go over. I would not advise sending people under and over at the same time.

There was a boulder blocking the way that allowed for an easy downclimb on the left as well as an easy up climb on the same side. The right side looked a little more challenging and would probably be difficult trying to come up on that side. It was only fifty feet past this that the big drop into horseshoe canyon appeared. We were prepared to turn back here so we did. It would make a long day to continue down horseshoe back to the vehicle.

On the way back to the car I rolled my ankle and had to hobble out. I spent the night in the Price emergency room.

I am not super experienced but it did appear you could anchor off the boulder, if you had A LOT of webbing or maybe one of the chockstones in the descending slot before the drop. Without seeing the bottom this might make a rope pull almost impossible. If any of the super advanced people want to give it a try I would be interested in hearing what you would do for an anchor.