Zion trip 2010, photos (long)

[sarahlizzy]

A couple of people have asked for these, so here goes. First up, Mystery:



Here's the "before" photo. Left to right we have me, Zoe, Joyce, Sara, Andrea and Sylvia (looking distressed at being on the East Mesa at 7am)




Nice day for a hike!




In Death Gully - lots of loose rocks and fresh downed vegetation - there were still some patches of snow too.




Spotting a downclimb...




A brand new CanyonFire gets initiated!




And we will not be rapping off that!




Me on rap with the other new CanyonFire we bought. Don't they look shiny when new?




OK, now which way?




Zoe playing with her Pirana




Getting slotty and sculpted...




Still playing with that Pirana...




Joyce smiles for the camera!




Acrophobia time!




Going down...




Sylvia gives her opinion on the water temperature!




Come on down! The water's lovely!




Just to prove we can get out of Mystery while it's still daylight.




Survivors' photo!

Heading to bed now - will post pics from the other three canyons we did (Keyhole, Behunin and Birch) tomorrow...

[Don]

Nice! Glad you had a good trip!

[Deathcricket]

Cool Pics! Girls in canyons rock. looks like ya had a fun time.

What was you favorite canyon so far?

[Felicia]

Excellent!!!!!

[ststephen]

Nice TR and pics! Thanks for sharing!

[tanya]

Nice plug for Tom's Book in there. lol

Fun photos!

[blueeyes]

You inspire me!

[sarahlizzy]

Cool Pics! Girls in canyons rock. looks like ya had a fun time.

What was you favorite canyon so far?

Of the ones we did this year, it's between Behunin and Birch as to which I enjoyed more, I think.

Nice plug for Tom's Book in there. lol

Fun photos!

Heh, well, it is a good book and he was kind enough to join us for Behunin, which ended up being fun and very educational!

You inspire me!

Thank you

[sarahlizzy]

OK, so we made it back to the visitor centre before it closed and standing there covered in Mystery and equipment seemed to manage to avoid some of the usual "twenty questions" when getting a Keyhole permit. We bummed around the hotel for the morning and then made our way up to Keyhole:



Customary "before" pic. It's too hot! (38 celsius). Take the photo quickly!




Smile! Don't fall on Zoe!




Water was shallower, but also colder than last time we did Keyhole.




Splash!




Instead of a DSLR, we used a little waterproof Pentax point and shoot for Keyhole, but it really struggled with the light levels.




This, er, smells, er, nice?




"After". Now to change out of the wetsuits...




Into something more temperature-appropriate.




And then we walked through the tunnel, shouting "echo?", because we are all twelve!

[sarahlizzy]

After a couple of days rest, four of us (Me, Zoe, Sylvia and Andrea - the other two sat this out) met Tom for Behunin. We were going to do Englestead, but heard there was thirty feet of snow in it. After a hike up from the Grotto, with Tom giving us lots of interesting info about local wildlife, we made it to the canyon:



It does a nice line in "grand vistas", doesn't it?




Looking down. Starting to get scared.




The raps felt a bit more serious than the ones in Mystery, and with the overhanging sections I found myself erring on the side of too much friction, rather than too little. High friction on my ATC with a leg loop biner wasn't quite enough - I found my hand getting hot. A Z-rig helped calm my nerves, but did mean I had to feed the rope through, which was quite a lot of effort (on our final canyon I ended up settling for two 'biners on the ATC and one on the leg and that was about perfect, but I didn't have the guts to try that in Behunin). Here's Zoe on rap.




And here she is near the bottom.




The usefulness of a) stone knots and b) not weighing much! Wouldn't do this if the rock was loose.




Tom showing how it's done.




I like this shot.




"Doing the Devil's work" - one of the anchors was a bit sketchy and Tom wanted to add a new bolt.




I had the privilege of slinging the new anchor.




And therefore got to be the first person to test it. No pressure...




Hike hike hike...




...splash splash splash



Zoe tests the logs out.




I show off a bit.




OK, starting to get quite nervous now.




Directly above the final rap. You could not pay me to get any closer to the edge.




Here's Sylvia on the last rap, shortly before her hair got caught in her belay device (oops!). She tried to prusik up to take the weight off but it didn't release. In the end I sent up a pair of (rounded) scissors from my first aid kit on the pull cord and she had to cut off about 2 years' worth of hair growth. Ouch!

Anyway, I got a lot out of doing Behunin with Tom, and we picked up some fantastic tips. Thank you so much (dinner at the Bit and Spur was also fun!) We ended up getting through Birch, our final canyon, much more quickly than we otherwise would have done as a result, and I think we came out much better canyoneers than we went in.

I found the canyon rather more intimidating than anything I'd yet done and I do have a habit of rigging absurd amounts of friction when I get scared by the raps, which helps psychologically but can make them hard work! This is perhaps something that will get better with practice (and again, I felt much better on rap in Birch).

Anyway, stunning canyon. Will definitely do again.

[sarahlizzy]

After a few days to rest our muscles, during which poor Joyce got a cold and she and Andrea departed back to California, we found ourselves debating whether to do Birch or Spry. In the end Birch won out - I was pleased about this because I wanted something fairly straightforward to consolidate some of the stuff we'd been doing in Behunin.

Zoe, Sylvia and I made our way up there moderately early. The plan was that we'd park at the end of the 2WD track into Orderville, walk to the head of Birch along the north fork road and minimise the exit hike. Once we parked though we bumped into another group - two guys and a teenage girl (I think one of them was her father) who had a similar idea, only they were leaving a mountain bike at the Orderville parking lot and driving to the head of Birch. There wasn't much room in their car but they offered us a lift.

Just as we were sorting that out, someone from Zion Ponderosa drove up the 4WD track in a Unimog, after dropping off some Orderville hikers, and we were able to hitch a ride with him, all six of us:



...which was very cool, and saved us much hiking! Once dropped off, the other group quickly moved aheadof us - they were very experienced canyoneers who'd been doing it a long time and made swift progress over the ground. It wasn't long before we came to the first optional rap. We had two ropes each of 200 feet, but the other guys had a single 100 foot rope, which isn't long enough, so they went off to find the trail round. We rapped instead:



Nasty loose rap - reminds me of our local chalk quarry!




The terrain quickly became more familiar though. As we were descending another group briefly caught up from behind (popular canyon, this!) and shouted down to ask "if one of us was sarahlizzy from Bogley?" Fame at last!

Not sure what happened to those guys (hi there!) - we didn't see them again en-route.




Although nobody told us how dirty it was! The ropes got filthy and I ended up with a hole in my right little finger from grit on the rope when rappelling.




At the final sequence of raps we again caught up with the other group - the last of them is just preparing to descend here. We decided to stop for lunch.




Army girl Zoe is a culinary goddess in the wilderness - over a leisurely lunch we had Denver omelette and chicken curry!




One of the webbing anchors we found was in a seriously bad way. We decided to replace it and take away the old one, the remains of which are pictured here.




After a nice long lunch (we could afford the time - we had an early start and were much faster than we had been previously - thanks Tom!) we started down the final sequence of raps into Orderville/




This canyon is a photographer's dream!




Zoe's patent stunt raps - tie off and start playing with the DSLR! Sylvia provides a fireman's belay, I'm rigging the next rap.




And down she comes...




Here we are at the last rap, having caught up again with the other group who had stopped there for their lunch. It seemed we were quite a bit faster than them over the final sequence, which was incredibly pleasing - our technique has really improved this trip.




ROPE!




And who do we see on the hike out but our old friend with the Unimog!

Anyway, that's all for this year, but we will be back, oh yes!

[Pubalz]

Cool Unimog i'd love to have one

[Cirrus2000]

I have to save that photo of Tom with drill in hand, to drag out every time there is a bolt debate. (I know, the right tool in the right place, and all, but still it's fun to have!)

Great photos! Glad to see you all had a good time!

Denver omelette and chicken curry - not bad for in-canyon dining. Well done, Zoe!

After a few days to rest our muscles

So what all did you get up to during those few days? Some hikes? Work as migrant farm labour? Binge drinking? Just curious...

[sarahlizzy]

I have to save that photo of Tom with drill in hand, to drag out every time there is a bolt debate. (I know, the right tool in the right place, and all, but still it's fun to have!)

Yeah, I hope he didn't mind me posting that one

So what all did you get up to during those few days? Some hikes? Work as migrant farm labour? Binge drinking? Just curious...

Hiked up Angels' Landing, visited St George, Sylvia and Zoe went to the Kolob, drove up to Lava Point, you know, touristy stuff.

[Jaxx]

Sweet pix thanks for posting! I need to start taking my stove in canyons. My lunches are pretty plain.

[Brian in SLC]

I have to save that photo of Tom with drill in hand, to drag out every time there is a bolt debate. (I know, the right tool in the right place, and all, but still it's fun to have!)

Yeah, if I ever get a slide scanner, I'll have a ton of those...ha ha.

Am curious about that anchor, though. Looks like a chain anchor below. Was that left in place? What was the issue with that anchor? Loose?

I do like the horizontal configuration, though. Webbing? Not so much. Painted stainless chain is nice, but, spendy.

Yeah, great pictures, and, looks like a great trip.

Thanks!

-Brian in SLC

[sarahlizzy]

If I recall correctly, one of the bolts on the chain anchor was dubious - that's the one you can see it hanging from. We were able to release the rapide holding it to the other existing bolt, which was bomber, but the rapide at the other end was seized solid, despite our best attempts at releasing it, so we had to leave the chain in place.

If someone happens by with bolt cutters, I'm sure it would make a lovely souvenir

[ratagonia]

Yeah, if I ever get a slide scanner, I'll have a ton of those...ha ha.

Am curious about that anchor, though. Looks like a chain anchor below. Was that left in place? What was the issue with that anchor? Loose?

I do like the horizontal configuration, though. Webbing? Not so much. Painted stainless chain is nice, but, spendy.

Yeah, great pictures, and, looks like a great trip.

Thanks!

-Brian in SLC

Soon to be revealed with the pictures, but...

I did Behunin June 15th. At that rap (the 5th), one of the bolts was pulled out, the other was an old long-stud; plus a long piece of webbing up to a small tree. With a chain that I put in place what, 10 years ago? The chains were galvanized steel, which I took the galvanized off with vinegar so they would rust a little bit and be less industrial, or perhaps, less "new industrial" and more "old industrial".

On June 15th I put in a 1/2" x 3-3/4" Rawl Powerbolt (galv steel) for that rappel, 18" uphill from the old bolt. Best rock in the area. Really, really soft, but a good cleaning job so it spun up well.

With the English Gals, on June 22nd, I added another of the same, vertically about 16" uphill from the other new bolt. With a big screwdriver and a larger adjustable wrench, we were unable to spin the gate on the rapid link that joined the chain to the hanger of the bolt that was still intact. So we left the chain. The two new bolts are rigged with 1" tubular.

Elsewhere, I think the chain is an experiment that failed, in Zion. In the watercourse (like for rap #4) the chain rattles in the flow and chews up the rock. Plus, the rapid links tend to rust solid and thus they cannot be changed out except with a hacksaw. Next Behunin trip, I'll bring a hacksaw and remove most of the chain still there. For Rap#4 it seems to work reasonably well, but there is a used-up Rapid Link in there that needs to be taken out with a hacksaw.

Horizontal? Really? I thought you were a Vertical type guy?

Tom

[Wasatch]

Looks like you had a great time.

[Brian in SLC]

I did Behunin June 15th. At that rap (the 5th), one of the bolts was pulled out, the other was an old long-stud; plus a long piece of webbing up to a small tree. With a chain that I put in place what, 10 years ago? The chains were galvanized steel, which I took the galvanized off with vinegar so they would rust a little bit and be less industrial, or perhaps, less "new industrial" and more "old industrial".

Elsewhere, I think the chain is an experiment that failed, in Zion. In the watercourse (like for rap #4) the chain rattles in the flow and chews up the rock. Plus, the rapid links tend to rust solid and thus they cannot be changed out except with a hacksaw. Next Behunin trip, I'll bring a hacksaw and remove most of the chain still there. For Rap#4 it seems to work reasonably well, but there is a used-up Rapid Link in there that needs to be taken out with a hacksaw.

Horizontal? Really? I thought you were a Vertical type guy?

Duh, yeah, meant vertical...

Chain: I picked up some stainless 5/16", which is pretty affordable. Takes paint really well.

This type of anchor may not rattle as much:



I dislike (greatly) the stripping of the zinc/galvanized plating off chain/rapides with vinegar. Around here, the chains folks did that too have left really ugly long rust streaks down the rock. Best to pony up and use stainless, or, get them properly painted (not easy, but, there are zinc rich primers and paint that do kind of work). Powder coating is super good (ala Fixe painted plated hangers).

Its tough anchoring in a popular place like Zion. At least the webbing is replaceable. Ahem, sandstone color is a bit less visually obstrusive...

Glue in bolts, with stainless rapides and Fixe stainless rings would be perfect, I'm thinking, all powder coated or painted to match the rock.

Here's how to match the rock:



Just south of you in Mesquite.

Thanks for the anchor work! Beat rapping off a bag of dirt...ha ha.

Cheers,

-Brian in SLC