Heaps 06-19-12 *Added Video*

[PG Rob]

A group of 6 of us did Heaps on June 19^th. It felt like 6 people were 2 too many. The canyon would be much faster with only 4. None of us had ever done it before. A couple in our group were new to canyoneering. Water was very cold and water levels appeared to be down significantly from the trip reports in mid May. No beached whales… Lots of pack tosses and partner assists… No hooking.

We started out the evening before about 8 PM, and hiked in the approx 9 miles to Campsite 4, and arrived there about 11:30 PM. We blew up our air mattresses, put on our wetsuits and beanies for warmth and went to bed. It was cold that night, about 45-50 F.

The view into Phantom Valley was beautiful. There were many interesting things to see on the trek down to the head of the canyon, including: interesting rock formations, some type of cat tracks, a tree that appears to grow out of a rock, and an optical illusion. We could not figure out if it was a murky pool of water or a cliff band for the longest time. Has anyone noticed this before?






The canyon was amazing. We really enjoyed the constant barrage of problems to solve.

Midway through the 3^rd narrows, Shaylin said he was hypothermic. He had decided on a drysuit rather than the 7mm wetsuits the rest of us were wearing. His drysuit was compromised and he was taking on water. We luckily got him to a spot where there was a ray of sunshine beaming down. We stripped him down, and his drysuit was full of water. Upon opening his pack to look for something dry, we found his drybag also full of water. By this time, his decision making was very compromised, he was crying, and his muscles would cramp upon sitting. We decided to send 2 of us forward to get an idea of how much further until the end of the 3^rd section. Upon reaching the logjam prior to the iron room, we turned around suspecting we still had a ways to go. While we were gone, the others, got him some dry clothes, got him in the sunlight and tried to keep him moving and talking. After reaching him again, they had also discovered that the suit had no holes or rips, he had just not cinched down the neck of it. We distributed his equipment amongst the rest of us, suited him up and headed off again. We had lost a lot of time and were concerned about making the final rappel sequence before dark. We worked our way through the rest of the canyon and reached the final rappel sequence much later than anticipated.















From there we quickly descended the first rappel and prepared mentally for the final 2 rappels. We planned on sequencing everyone down rappel 2 and rappel 3, back to back, leaving the bird perch for me and 1 other at any given time. After I reached the bird perch, I rigged a rappel and lower to send Weston down to the Upper Emerald Pool. Once on the ground he set out to grab the 300 ft rope we had stashed. We must have stashed it very well, because he kept calling up over the radio that he could not find it. It took nearly 30 minutes to find it, and when he did, we were all relieved that I would not have to lower every person and then pass the knot mid rappel. From there we sequenced through everyone with Shaylin, our hypothermic friend going 4^th. His hands were cramped, so I had to control his descent to the perch, and Weston had to control it to the ground in the dark. It took most of Weston’s weight to ensure a slow descent, even though Shaylin was set up on a z-rig. Scott, who was managing the situation above came down to the perch in the dark, where we pulled ropes and reset the final rappel with pull. Scott and then I descended in pitch darkness. We pulled ropes and hiked out to the grotto.




Shaylin has fully recovered, and it was a trip to remember.

Have fun and be safe.


Rob

[oldno7]

Nice report, Rob

[ratagonia]

Good job managing a difficult situation. Did you perhaps consider Heaps is not the best canyon for noobs? Not everyone is as resilient as Bo, aka Mr. Heaps.

T

[Sandstone Addiction]

Glad everyone made it out safe. Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Deathcricket]

Wooo! Really nice TR dude! Our group has had it's eye on this but I don't think we are ready yet. Looks still a bit over our heads. Next year for sure though. I'm really glad your buddy is ok and kudos to the team for helping him out when he needed it. Also, what a great story, well told on your part. I actually browsed the pictures before I read it and thought those footprints were a bears. Maybe a mountain lion then? Crazy stuff....

Hey I had a question then, so I see you used the fiddlesticks anchor system and I have been following the fiddlesticks thread and all that. But my understanding is that it was better used to just ghost a canyon and loses some effectiveness on developed trade runs like this. Can you comment on how it worked for you and what your opinion is of it? Why not just use a figure 8 knot with a biner or a stone knot and have the last guy rap double stranded after cleaning it up? I guess I should just try it out a couple times so i can see the benefit. I understand having two people rapping at the same time speeds things up, but this is the first TR I've seen where people have used this system under a time constraint, so I could benefit from your knowledge.

[PG Rob]

Hey I had a question then, so I see you used the fiddlesticks anchor system and I have been following the fiddlesticks thread and all that. But my understanding is that it was better used to just ghost a canyon and loses some effectiveness on developed trade runs like this. Can you comment on how it worked for you and what your opinion is of it? Why not just use a figure 8 knot with a biner or a stone knot and have the last guy rap double stranded after cleaning it up? I guess I should just try it out a couple times so i can see the benefit. I understand having two people rapping at the same time speeds things up, but this is the first TR I've seen where people have used this system under a time constraint, so I could benefit from your knowledge.

The purpose of it, for me, is speed and an easier pull. In non trade route canyons you would typically use it around some natural feature, but it's usefullness is not limited to those routes. When using the fiddlestick, you do not have to pull a rope up and through anything. When the stick is pulled out, everything all but drops without pulling. You can only rappel single strand and only 1 rope is operational. The other is strictly a pull rope. I do not deploy the fiddlestick until the 2nd to last person, who rappels with the pull rope and the fiddlestick is backed up. Prior to that, all others go on a stone knot securely locked with a biner. The speed of the system comes from: the ease of deploying, not pulling ropes, and bagging 1/2 the rope while bagging both at the same time.

It is a useful tool, but has margin of error, so be safe.

Rob

[Deathcricket]

Yeah I didnt word that correctly, I meant having 2 people rap simultaneously with the "other" systems vs everyone having to rap singles under time constraints with fiddlesticks. But yeah I definitely agree you just wrap the big loop around a tree or something and ghost a canyon, that would be pretty awesome. And not having a rope pull get stuck, etc, etc. Anyways, first TR I have seen people use these, very neat, thanks.

[dustinsc]

Great TR! Looks like you had a lot of fun. Also like the use of the fiddlestick.

[spinesnaper]

Awesome trip. Love the character pictures with the fog of canyoneering.

Ken

[Slot Machine]

AWESOME!! Way to go Rob!

[PG Rob]

I added a video to the primary post

[heliski2]

The pics are great, but the edited video really makes for an awesome report! You handled a difficult situation well, but I wonder, were you prepared if you had to spend another night before exiting the canyon?

[Slpcpa]

The pics are great, but the edited video really makes for an awesome report! You handled a difficult situation well, but I wonder, were you prepared if you had to spend another night before exiting the canyon?

We would have been fine to spend another night. By the end of the night no one was in imminent danger and we had enough supplies to bivouac for another. Since Rob got heat exhaustion and was throwing up for the next couple of days, and I was recovering from the hypothermia it would not have been fun but doable. Rob could have started another fire, even though the fire ban was on, we had food and a water filter and changes of clothing (that needed dried).

The problems of the canyon did not stem from bringing new people along in fact the inexperienced did great in the canyon. The major problem was I did not realize my drysuit was leaking through the top and I did not notice I was getting hypothermia until it had progressed further than I had thought. Luckily even though I was badly cramping and crying (for who knows what reason) I still had enough sense about me to know what I was capable of and what I was not. The team did a great job in getting us all safely out of the canyon.

Experiencing hypothermia first-hand was better than all the lectures I have heard and read about all my life. It was definitely one of those learning experiences that should make it much easier to detect in myself and others on future adventures.

Shaylin

[PG Rob]

Good job managing a difficult situation. Did you perhaps consider Heaps is not the best canyon for noobs? Not everyone is as resilient as Bo, aka Mr. Heaps.

T

Most of the time, that is what I have available to me. My hypothermic friend was not a noob, and having a drysuit compromised could happen to anyone. I agree that Heaps is not the best place for noobs, and there are several other ways for a noob to get themselves in trouble. I believe they can be managed in small quantities by competent leadership. In doing so, it is important to consider their fitness, mental strength, desire to follow direction, and ability to suffer.

You handled a difficult situation well, but I wonder, were you prepared if you had to spend another night before exiting the canyon?

I would like to think we were. We had serious discussions about having to spend the night. In evaluating our resources we had: several emergency blankets, a few plastic ponchos, ability to make fire, access to dry wood, air mattresses, some dry clothes, food, a few liters of water, a filter for additional water, headlamps. It would likely have been unpleasant, but I feel like we were prepared.


Rob

[ratagonia]

Most of the time, that is what I have available to me. My hypothermic friend was not a noob, and having a drysuit compromised could happen to anyone. I agree that Heaps is not the best place for noobs, and there are several other ways for a noob to get themselves in trouble. I believe they can be managed in small quantities by competent leadership. In doing so, it is important to consider their fitness, mental strength, desire to follow direction, and ability to suffer.

Rob

Good judgment is developed by experience. Experience is developed, of course, by bad judgment.

It did not sound like the drysuit was 'compromised' as much as it was mis-used.

One of the skills useful in Heaps is "taking care of oneself (and the rest of the group) in a continuously cold and wet environment". This is a hard skill to develop as not many canyons offer the scale of coldness that Heaps does. It sounds like Shaylin was not strong on this issue. Very glad everything turned out just fine.

Tom

[Slpcpa]

Good judgment is developed by experience. Experience is developed, of course, by bad judgment.

It did not sound like the drysuit was 'compromised' as much as it was mis-used.

One of the skills useful in Heaps is "taking care of oneself (and the rest of the group) in a continuously cold and wet environment". This is a hard skill to develop as not many canyons offer the scale of coldness that Heaps does. It sounds like Shaylin was not strong on this issue. Very glad everything turned out just fine.

Tom

Yes you are correct. I wanted to try out the drysuit but it may not have been the place to give its maiden voyage with none others in the group ever having worn one. Not the first EPIC adventure in my life nor probably the last, but high on the learning scale none-the-less.

Shaylin

[ratagonia]

Yes you are correct. I wanted to try out the drysuit but it may not have been the place to give its maiden voyage with none others in the group ever having worn one. Not the first EPIC adventure in my life nor probably the last, but high on the learning scale none-the-less.

Shaylin

Thank you Shaylin, and welcome to Bogley.

Tom

[canyonguru]

Not to be negative nancy but. Just with my limited experience, Typically when i take people out to do canyons we avoid horse play, jumps, and other accident prone activities in canyons as remote as heaps, or for that matter any canyon. Something as minor as a sprained ankle can mean major problems. It looks like you guys had a great time and had a lot of fun but i tend to be more on the side of caution when it comes to being so remote. Good trip report, the video really helps bring the canyon alive.