Mystery Canyon... or How A Tourist Almost Killed Me

[deathtointernet]

So I have mixed feelings about this particular trip down the canyon. I mean, everything went well until I was almost killed by a stupid little mistake and an even stupider tourist. But let's start at the beginning... I had been down Mystery earlier this year with Bo Beck and it was something I felt confident I could lead a group through. It had just dumped rain over the weekend, killing plans for Birch Hollow/Orderville, but things were drying out. We hiked in from the East Mesa Trailhead. Death Gully was still a bit damp... not enough to make it slippery, but enough to hold the soil together and actually provide great traction. Definitely easier than last time.



We took our time making our way down the canyon. Eventually we hit the slot canyon portion and rappelled down, which was a great relief because the sun was starting to get quite hot. A tiny trickle of water was on the rock at the first rappel, but otherwise it was totally dry until the bottom of the drop at the turn in the canyon, which looked very muddy but proved to have only a thin layer.











After the narrows the canyon got very hot, especially sitting at the end of the traverse setting up the big rappel with the sun angling right down the canyon. It was great to drop into Mystery Springs. The water was refreshing and clear. Not quite a swim for me, but then I'm kinda tall.





The rest of the canyon was great, with nice clear running water, shallow pools, and fun little downclimbs.



The last rappel into the Narrows is where everything went wrong. I rigged the rope to the anchor and lowered it down to the river, and then noticed a knot in the rope a few feet from the top. Not sure quite how it got there... coiling the rope isn't a strong suite of mine, I guess. Well I wouldn't be able to rappel past it, or retrieve the rope. So I had to untie it, and to do that I had to take the rope off the anchor. Not wanting to chance dropping it, I casually clipped it into a free carabiner on my harness, and quickly undid the knot. Suddenly I was pulled hard towards the edge... thankfully I was standing far back away from it while working, and could brace myself against the rock, but still it was a definite moment of panic, and the rope was still being yanked downward. Looking over the edge revealed the problem... some kid had been hiking the Narrows, seen the rope dangling above the river, and incredibly, decided to try and CLIMB it. Some delightfully colorful commentary from my group got him off my rope, and we rappelled down without incident (the kid disappeared before the first of us hit the ground... otherwise I'd probably be typing this from a prison cell).



The water in the Virgin sure was murky from the flooding over the weekend. Anyway, I love the canyon, I really do, but I definitely learned some valuable lessons. First off, what was I doing clipping the rope to me like that? It was so little extra work to unclip the carabiner and put it on the anchor instead. Second, the things that people will do are completely unpredictable and bear little resemblance to sanity. And third, it isn't really that complicated to deploy the rope from a bag during a rappel, and this would be a much better method for rappelling Mystery Falls.

So, that's my story for Mystery Canyon.

[blueeyes]

Some peoples children are such a pain in the arse! You just can't stand to be around them.

Seriously glad he didn't cause more problems. Nice report and the pictures are beautiful.

[Ryebrye]

I don't know... Sounds like it was a team thing. The tourist was definitely in on it, but so was the guy who tied the knot in your rope!

Also, clipping something into the anchors before doing ropework that has even a 2% chance of pulling you over is always worth the 15 seconds it takes to clip and screw a locking biner in, imho... but I'm guessing you learned that lesson already. Now... if you had your serrated buddy knife handy and had enough extra rope on hand, you could wait until that little kid was about 20 feet up and then teach him a lesson about why you should never climb on a rope that is dangling from a cliff in the narrows... ;) Then you could rig your rappel with the remaining rope and be fine.

But... other than that - cool pictures. I forgot Mystery even had much of a narrow section - my only memories of the canyon are two or three of the rappels, one of them into an amazingly deep pool (which last I heard was still filled with sand) and a lot of underwhelming wide open canyon. I guess it does have a lot of good parts that my memory had blotted out.

[Don]

Man, I didn't really need to read the report; I pretty much guessed what happened from the thread title; 'Tourist sees rope dangling and pulls.' Pretty dumb from your perspective but some kid on vacation probably has no history with rope other than maybe a rope swing so this probably seemed like a perfectly rational thing to do. I'm glad it turned out the way it did hopefully you've both learned a lesson.

[Pelon1]

Good TR, can't trust the stick people. Glad it turned out OK.

[Brian in SLC]

I clip the rope to my harness all the time...(one of the reasons I went with a Metolius safetech harness...full strength gear loops!).

Totally see how this could happen. Wow. Kinda funny, kinda holy crap.

I'm guess you were clipped into the anchor? If not...yikes!

[Cirrus2000]

I'm guessing not - yikes indeed! A scary story, and a good lesson. Great photos, too.

Thanks for another great report, and keep it up!

[hank moon]

some kid on vacation probably has no history with rope other than maybe a rope swing so this probably seemed like a perfectly rational thing to do.

Even if the kid had not pulled on the rope, the situation could have arisen completely by accident.

Questions

- if a rope is tossed into a tourist-filled river, might it receive a tug?
- should one be clipped in near edges?
- is it advantageous to attach the rope to you vs. to the anchor?
- aren't kids the best teachers?
- isn't it great to be alive?

[deathtointernet]

Oh yeah, I definitely take the blame for not taking the slight extra effort to take a carabiner off my harness and attack the rope to the anchor. I guess it never even occurred to me, really, what could happen. It was just supposed to take fifteen seconds or so. Just a perfect confluence of events but that is the sort of thing that can happen. Next time it would be better to be safe than sorry. I still want to know what he thought he was going to do... climb hand-over-hand up a hundred feet of wet rope and then climb back down? The pools are still filled in Mystery... the Mystery Springs one is deep, deep enough that it might be a swim for shorter people (I'm 6'3''). The other one that I've been told was a good pool, at the eleventh rap/downclimb is still very shallow, like knee deep. Still a nice canyon.

[oldno7]

What was your plan if he had broken your gear loop and your rope went into the river?

[Ryebrye]

Oh yeah, I definitely take the blame for not taking the slight extra effort to take a carabiner off my harness and attack the rope to the anchor.

Well, yeah, clipping the rope in could potentially save time because the consequences of dropping a rope would likely result in a major hassle... but clipping YOURSELF in could potentially save your life because the consequences of your going over the edge

You have something like a canyon quickdraw right? ( http://www.canyonwiki.com/wiki/index...nyon_Quickdraw ) Or a daisy chain + locking 'biner, or a Personal Anchor System... or some way to clip into the anchors quickly so you can focus on doing rope work on the edge without facing a catastrophic fall if you slip?

[hank moon]

Well, yeah, clipping the rope in could potentially save time because the consequences of dropping a rope would likely result in a major hassle... but clipping YOURSELF in could potentially save your life because the consequences of your going over the edge

X2

[Bo_Beck]

What was your plan if he had broken your gear loop and your rope went into the river?

I was itchin' for a hike through Mystery; or better yet...I love shootin' our 308 cal. line gun!

[hank moon]

The other one that I've been told was a good pool, at the eleventh rap/downclimb is still very shallow, like knee deep.

Yah, used to be a nice jump, that one...

[Iceaxe]

Yah, used to be a nice jump, that one...

I miss that pool, it was one of the highlights of the canyon.... everyone had to get wet there....

[derekholmes]

WOW, get a picture of the kid? Maybe one of us could teach him a lesson. ha ha

[Bubbles]

You didn't come out of Mystery on Sunday, did you? I happened to be passing the base of the last rap as a group was setting their ropes, some kid was standing right in the fall line as they were trying to toss. I left before whomever was leading came down so I didn't see any shenanigans.

[DSTRBD]

I also hiked by on Sunday (around 5 ish) there was a group just pulling their moderately stuck biner block down, they had 3 people pulling on it to get it loose. I have always wondered about people being jackass's by pulling on the rope hanging there...I have considered making up a velcro warning for the end of my rope just for mystery.

[hank moon]

WOW, get a picture of the kid? Maybe one of us could teach him a lesson. ha ha

har har...

[trackrunner]

^^^