New stuff on the Latest Rave

[ratagonia]

New trip report on Quandary Direct and The Squeeze, in the Swell.

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/rave/

Enjoy.

Tom

[rockgremlin]

Good stuff Tom. My 1st descent through The Squeeze was around 2000 A.D. as well, and back then there were bolts only at the big drops. It's a pity what has happened since then. Good job on the clean-up. Tough job, but someone had to do it.


Hey I was perusing your CUSA store, looking for helmets in black. All I could find were pastel and white colors. Any black ones lurking in the back room? Thankya!

[ratagonia]

Good stuff Tom. My 1st descent through The Squeeze was around 2000 A.D. as well, and back then there were bolts only at the big drops. It's a pity what has happened since then. Good job on the clean-up. Tough job, but someone had to do it.


Hey I was perusing your CUSA store, looking for helmets in black. All I could find were pastel and white colors. Any black ones lurking in the back room? Thankya!

Nope.

I think Grivel makes black helmets, but I am not a Grivel dealer.

Tom

[ratagonia]

Good stuff Tom. My 1st descent through The Squeeze was around 2000 A.D. as well, and back then there were bolts only at the big drops. It's a pity what has happened since then.

Hmmmm. My first descent was either 1999 for 2000. I remember about the same number of bolts as are in there now, ie, "lots". And lots of different generations of bolts.

Maybe it is just a difference of remembrance. Do you remember one bolt before and after on the two keeper potholes...? I remember discussion of how important it was to keep the maintenance of the fixed line across the second keeper up to date.

Tom

[rockgremlin]

Hmmmm. My first descent was either 1999 for 2000. I remember about the same number of bolts as are in there now, ie, "lots". And lots of different generations of bolts.

Maybe it is just a difference of remembrance. Do you remember one bolt before and after on the two keeper potholes...? I remember discussion of how important it was to keep the maintenance of the fixed line across the second keeper up to date.

Tom

I think it probably is a difference in remembrance. My last descent was about 3 years ago, and the number of bolts between 2000 and 2009 has probably doubled, maybe tripled. I couldn't believe the nonsense that had sprung up since my 1st visit. I remember the bolts before and after the keepers being there on both occasions. And I agree - maintenance on those is important - without them a less competent group may find themselves stuck at the 2nd keeper as it appears quite deep.

[Mountaineer]

Hmmmm. My first descent was either 1999 for 2000. I remember about the same number of bolts as are in there now, ie, "lots". And lots of different generations of bolts.

Maybe it is just a difference of remembrance. Do you remember one bolt before and after on the two keeper potholes...? I remember discussion of how important it was to keep the maintenance of the fixed line across the second keeper up to date.

Tom

There wasn't a fixed line end of June when we were there. It started raining at the second keeper, so we stopped "messing around" at that point and got immediately out. It was one of the tougher potholes we've experienced. There were bolts on both sides, and wish I would have cut some rope and put in a fixed line while there...First bolt attached.

[ratagonia]

There wasn't a fixed line end of June when we were there. It started raining at the second keeper, so we stopped "messing around" at that point and got immediately out. It was one of the tougher potholes we've experienced. There were bolts on both sides, and wish I would have cut some rope and put in a fixed line while there...First bolt attached.

Why?

Did you also have a desire to fix ropes at each rappel, you know, in case people came into the canyon without ropes?

Or perhaps there should be scaffolding/steel walkway around each keeper pothole. and each small rappel. Maybe spiral staircases at the long rappels...

I jest, of course.

I was happy to see no fixed ropes this time around. Removed a couple fixed handlines. Plan on removing several bolts next time. Yes, some of the drops would be hard to anchor, thus I plan on only removing bolts that are rather superfluous.

Tom

[Mountaineer]

Why?

Tom

Good point. It was fun to escape without having a "yellow brick road" there...

[rockgremlin]

Difficulty of The Squeeze before Tom's descent: 3BIII

Difficulty of The Squeeze after Tom's descent: 4BIIIR

[ratagonia]

Put up a new Rave about Imlay Sept 2-3 (2012), and working on the anchors in there.

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/rave/...ded-sept-2012/

Enjoy...

Tom

[Brian in SLC]

Stevee B! And he wasn't even naked!

Thanks for the upkeep in there.

[Slot Machine]

Thanks for the upkeep in there.

X2

Hope we get to use those new bolts next summer.

[xxnitsuaxx]

I'm gonna come out and say it - I'd be ok with bolt removal in The Squeeze. I'm no elitist, not by a long shot...but I still like the idea of keeping a couple of canyons as relative testpieces. I don't have the know-how to pull the bolts and I wouldn't do it without a consensus anyway; but...if it happens to get done, I won't shed any tears over it.

[Shooter McCanyon]

Awesome!