A crack in the Capitol

[french_de]

A crack in the Capitol Reef - Sunday, June 10, 2012

There’s a long, deep, wonderful crack in the Navajo Sandstone monocline in Capitol Reef National Park called Strike 2 that makes for a great 3/4 day canyoneering adventure. This one was plenty fun. Thanks to Luke of BluuGnome.com for sharing this route and beta. This is some crack! There are a couple of great-view, pre-crack rappels to get psyched up with and one post-crack rappel to get toggled down with. A 340 foot rope which we pulled from the top after the adventure and during shuttle pickup was the perfect length for the entrance rappel. A warning on that first rappel: big loose rocks at the top! - Some of which are no longer at the top. Once in the crack - that drops maybe 500 feet in elevation and stays crackish all the way – it takes a constant set of elevatoring (I think that’s a canyoneering term?), shimmying, squeezing, sliding and foot jamming to get thru and it gets kind of dark and tight in places. The dark section has a perennial pool which we were all able to stem over except for one pack. Moderate shredding of clothes and protective gear occurred in the crack . For this time of June the biting cedar gnats had left the stage for the larger black biting flies, the kind that likes to fly up your nose. Breezy weather kept them mostly down wind. We were a tad disappointed that we missed the Desert Harvestman spider fest that takes place on the crack walls... Temps in the 70’s made for a great day

Thanks to Dave Huth, Lorin French and Paul French for Pictures
More of Paul French’s pictures and video can be view at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1161408...Strike2Canyon#
Kudos to Ervin Ogden, Baker Ogden, Leslie Helquist and the Man with the Pipe who could have been the first descenders way back in 1947. They left their mark!

[oldno7]

Always enjoy your trip reports--Thanks

[Slot Machine]

Nice!! The 2nd to the last photo is great!!

Sometimes it is tough to put the size of a canyon into perspective... when the people look like ants it is easy.

[ghawk]

Awesome!

[davehuth]

On "Kudos to Ervin Ogden, Baker Ogden, Leslie Helquist and the Man with the Pipe"...

Leslie Helquist was 16 back in 1947, working as a ranch hand at the Sandy Ranch along the Burr Trail. Leslie passed away last year, may he rest in peace. I talked with his daughter about the inscription, she said that her father was a tough cowboy, good with ropes, and it would be in character to adventure down the canyon, he lived his life that way; she didn't recall any stories about it. The inscriptions are between the crack and the last rap, did they find their way up to that point or come down?

[accadacca]

Always enjoy your trip reports--Thanks

Ditto! Awesomeness report!