Sandthrax submission

[price1869]

Had some friends get in over their heads in Sandthrax Sunday. I don't have the whole story, but I know they spent the night. Sleeping in a may-west slot can not be fun.

I'll post more when I get more info.

[Don]

Looking forward to hearing more.

[Iceaxe]

Had some friends get in over their heads in Sandthrax Sunday. I don't have the whole story, but I know they spent the night. Sleeping in a may-west slot can not be fun.

I'll post more when I get more info.

And for the record.... I predict they will not be the last to get in over there heads in that slot.....

[Sombeech]

[price1869]

So the story goes that they went in arrogant - no ropes, no cams, very little water. My friend (who is an excellent climber, albeit foolish at times) Ended up free soloing nearly all the climbing and hairy moves. They started out with 60' of webbing which through snags and anchoring ended up being less than 15' by the end. Apparently a lot of it was left behind in the crux (cleanup for another trip).

It was dark by the time they reached the last silo. They were dehydrated and delirious, unable to make the unprotected moves, so they wedged themselves in and waited for light. My friend made the moves in the morning, went to the car and retrieved the gear he needed to get the other guy out.

I'm going to encourage him to write up a TR, and if he does, I'll post it. I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details.

Sounded scary.

[Scott Card]

Yikes....

[Cirrus2000]

x2 Looking to hear more about this!

[CarpeyBiggs]

Got a comment on a youtube video from these guys yesterday, apparently they didn't think it was funny that I made a sattire about losing $3500 worth of camera gear in there...

They wrote

yeah thats not even funny, me and my buddy got stuck in this canyon yesterday and had to spend the night in there with just tshirts and shorts, we were completely out of food and water and had no real chance of getting out. in the morning my buddy was able to climb out send down a rope for me but if he hadn't we'd probably still be there now. Sandthrax is no joke

[Scott Card]

Got a comment on a youtube video from these guys yesterday, apparently they didn't think it was funny that I made a sattire about losing $3500 worth of camera gear in there...

They wrote

I quite enjoyed that video of yours. Maybe when they are rehydrated and have eaten a bit they will see the humor.

[forum8fox]

Hmmm...
Who knows how active these people will be in discussing the event, at any rate I feel obligated to say a few things.
I really hope these individuals accept responsibility for their actions, however I can tell by dan's post, that they are feeling sour after a night in the belly of the beast.

Obviously it could be easy to try to point the finger and say well hey, you went through with no rope or cams... Yes, however this was my 3rd time in the canyon. Not to mention I was going a different direction thus in essence avoiding the tough OW crux.

Also you might say well hey, spidey soloed it in 45 minutes (I'm making an assumption in saying he probly didn't have rope or cams). Well, I can be fairly certain that spidey had atleast been through it once and had a good idea what he was in for.

Some things I'm curious about...

They lucked out with the days being long, how late did they start to end up at the crux around twilight?
Why did they feel they didn't need gear to deal with the crux which is well rumored as being hard by good climbers of numerous varietys(not to mention exhausting different methouds of dealing)??? Were they planning to go over the silo as very few (maybe 1 or 2 to my knowledge) have done?

If so (or either way for that matter) how could they be so confident having never seen it, 40 feet of rope, a #5, and a #6 is a light back up plan. Especially when other experienced canyoneers with a strong climber have spent the night there before?

I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just making observations and trying to help them shed some light on why things went wrong so they learn from it. Not to mention I don't want to catch heat, saying I mis-lead someone with my writing (and being a bad influence with my calculated show boating antics). Something may be easy to me, doesn't mean it's easy for you. You have to take into account some important factors for your own sake, because once you go into that beast your pretty much on your own with out a rim team (which I still don't think is necessary if your sure you can make it through).

I wish them luck on the second descent/clean up trip, and look forward to hearing more.

[Don]

Hmmm...
Who knows how active these people will be in discussing the event, at any rate I feel obligated to say a few things.
I really hope these individuals accept responsibility for their actions, however I can tell by dan's post, that they are feeling sour after a night in the belly of the beast.

Obviously it could be easy to try to point the finger and say well hey, you went through with no rope or cams... Yes, however this was my 3rd time in the canyon. Not to mention I was going a different direction thus in essence avoiding the tough OW crux.

Also you might say well hey, spidey soloed it in 45 minutes (I'm making an assumption in saying he probly didn't have rope or cams). Well, I can be fairly certain that spidey had atleast been through it once and had a good idea what he was in for.

Some things I'm curious about...

They lucked out with the days being long, how late did they start to end up at the crux around twilight?
Why did they feel they didn't need gear to deal with the crux which is well rumored as being hard by good climbers of numerous varietys(not to mention exhausting different methouds of dealing)??? Were they planning to go over the silo as very few (maybe 1 or 2 to my knowledge) have done?

If so (or either way for that matter) how could they be so confident having never seen it, 40 feet of rope, a #5, and a #6 is a light back up plan. Especially when other experienced canyoneers with a strong climber have spent the night there before?

I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just making observations and trying to help them shed some light on why things went wrong so they learn from it. Not to mention I don't want to catch heat, saying I mis-lead someone with my writing (and being a bad influence with my calculated show boating antics). Something may be easy to me, doesn't mean it's easy for you. You have to take into account some important factors for your own sake, because once you go into that beast your pretty much on your own with out a rim team (which I still don't think is necessary if your sure you can make it through).

I wish them luck on the second descent/clean up trip, and look forward to hearing more.

Makes sense to me. Appreciate your insight and hope to hear more from these guys.

[moab mark]

I was camping at Sandthrax Sunday night and we saw a car up at the end of the sand road with no one around and wondered what was going on? Sounds like now we know.

Mark

[Scott Card]

A couple of corrections about Spidey if I remember my facts correctly. I reported his crazy solo on the interwebs after it happened. Spidey had a rim crew. He had a rope and a back pack with him but no other gear. I think his time was one hour fifteen minutes. Spidey had not been in Sandthrax before but he knew the beta as it had haunted him that he hadn't done it and he wanted to. Spidey is a wonderfully talented climber. He makes canyons easy for me. Spidey is good, very good. He is keenly aware of his abilities but more importantly his limits. Spidey is no dummy either. He knew the risks and for that reason he had a rim crew just in case.

[trackrunner]

I think his time was one hour fifteen minutes

His legendness must be getting soft. I heard, in canyon folklore, 45 minutes while the sun was setting.

[Jaun_Jablome]

His legendness must be getting soft. I heard, in canyon folklore, 45 minutes while the sun was setting.

With 30 pounds of sand in his pack.

[Scott Card]

His legendness must be getting soft. I heard, in canyon folklore, 45 minutes while the sun was setting.

The sun was setting. Hence the time.....

[trackrunner]

With 30 pounds of sand in his pack.

what I wrote is exactly how I heard it, 45 minutes while the sun was setting.

Was it canyon folklore taking off minutes to make it that more impressive, which is impressive already, or that is how it exactly happened . . . doesn't matter. The man has earned his nickname.

[Sombeech]

Surely the criticism will ensue from the entire canyoneering community once/if they post. I don't blame them for not posting their story.

[moab mark]

I cannot figure out how to add a youtube video so here's the link to Dans video.



Does anyone know what pack that is that Dave is wearing? Around 2:24 in the video. I'm interested in how he is snugly hooking Tom's silo on the bottom. I would like a pack that the silos would clip on and off of easily. Tom?

[Iceaxe]

I cannot figure out how to add a youtube video so here's the link to Dans video.

Mark, I embedded the video for you.... its easy... just click the button that looks like a section of film (to the right of the picture icon). A box will pop up and you just paste the youtube link in the box.. click "OK" and you are done. I think the problem might have been you were not using a true Youtube link, but a link to Dan's "Channel" (whatever that is), which links to the true youtube link.