Choprock Canyon May 7, 2011

[lofty]

What a beautiful canyon !!! The water level was perfect, we had a warm day and long daylight... perfect conditions for a 13 hr day.

Three of us Chris, Scott and Myself packed every stitch of neoprene we had as we anticipated many long cold swims....we were not disappointed. Unfortunatel Ron felt a bit cold the day before in Neon and decided to forego Choprock this time. Being a good sport though he got up early with us, helped us carry the ropes on the four hour approach, hiked back along the choprock benches and even snapped a picture of us inside the canyon. We actually approached via the standard overland hike but I arranged the pictures to show Ron's route along the Canyon as it offered views down.

According to the beta we had, the Riparian section should take 1 to 2 hrs. We figured that timing started at the first drop in as it was the initial drops that gobbled up time. The treed lush area was quickly hiked through...sometimes in the creek, sometimes along its edge. You know you are the first ones down in a while when you get greeted with multitudes of occupied spiderwebs spanning across the creek.....

Lunch was had at the start of the Happy Section.... 2 hrs from the start. Indeed the flowing water through sunfilled corridors and pristine pools did sound happy and we spend less than an hour before reaching the rap into the Grim section.

Our timing was perfect... we reached the golden wall at the start of the grim section at the right time... it GLOWED !!!!!

Not far down from there came the first obstacle..a section of logjams and thankfully dry potholes...no pictures there as we were occupied finding the most efficient way through....probably spend 45 minutes in that spot. It is a damp muddy and definately grim sort of spot. In the end... climb down into narrow pothole # 1, crawl through a narrow passage between two logs at floorlevel to the next pothole.... shuffle packs through it. Pothole # 2 also had a small opening at floor level but none of us fit through so up and over the 5 m high logjam we had to go. We leaned an arm sized branch against a log sticking out at head level. Scott then using a combo of smearing on the branch and stemming on the pothole walls reached the middle log and then could grovel up to the top log through all the debri . A final tight squeeze between top log and canyonwall popped him out at the top of the jam where we found rap slings. Try as I may I could not maintain purchase on the branch so Chris lent me his hands and shoulders to reach the middle log. Chris subsequently cleared out a passage between the top and middle log that does reach into the next passage. Of note... we also found a bolt that would allow a rap into the second pothole should the first one be full of water .

Once past this logjam the passages were narrow , twisting and dark...one 5 m section pitch dark with a few swims before finally reaching a dry area bathed in sunshine !

That section did feel Grim and I was wondering if we would have to pass many more such obstacles....delaying our return. It was not to be.


There was one more spot of " climbing"....but this time we only had to get out of the water into a stemming position to bypass some floatsam stuck in the narrow waterfilled passage . Again two slippery logs and a boost from my buddies helped, and up and over we were. The rest of the canyon was fun and beautiful. Many long Swims through amazingly lit curved passages, interrupted by dry spots bathed in sunshine where we could warm ourselves a bit. The wind too was warm that day.

7 hrs after dropping in we reached the exit rap

Now Scott had taken a lifejacket along for extra warmth...well... that lifejacket is now stuck on some high log right in the first log jam section... we tried to fish it down but had nothing long enough to reach

Thank you again Chris and Scott for this amazing canyon !!!

[ibenick]

Awesome! Love the golden wall. What a beautiful canyon!

[CarpeyBiggs]

awesome. btw, the life jacket was rescued.

[spinesnaper]

Great stuff. I did Neon and bailed on Ringtail last fall. We packed up our camp at 5PM and literally double timed it back up that hill to the Car. It is awful far with all that gear. Carrying camping gear and caynoneering gear so reminds me of everything I loved about Alpine rockclimbing.

Very nice trip report.

Ken

[lofty]

scott will be very happy his brand spanking new lifejacket has a new home ! He wore it in Neon...that's it :) And I'm glad it's out of the Canyon.

[mcweyen]

Lofty, I met your group down at Fence Canyon after you'd finished Choprock that day. I talked with Scott for a little while that night and the next morning. What amazing weather we got huh?! Your shots are fantastic!