Elephant Butte/Rock of Ages

[moab mark]

Did Elephant Butte over the weekend and the rope grooves on the first rappel are getting ugly. When pulling your rope here if you will walk up canyon just a bit you can keep your rope from riding down in the grooves. A new anchor up on the wall may not be a bad idea? This route is getting a lot of use. The social trails have grown quite a bit. As a group we need to stay off the crypto and try to follow existing trails.

I would like to get some opinions on the last rappel in ROA. Since the pitons were pulled out I thought that most people were going off the two old bolts down on the face of the wall. I had been slinging a log and dropping the webbing down thru a crack, this created a nice anchor. Each time I come back my webbing is gone, and this time the log was gone?
A ton of rope grooves have appeared on the single bolt that is there to help you down onto the shelf to get to the lower bolts. So it looks like most people are going off the single bolt. If you have not rappeled there before you have no clue those bolts are down on the face of the wall until you rappel past them. Which I think is what is leading to people rappeling off the single bolt. The group that was ahead of us had set up to use that single bolt. When they got down they could not pull their rope. The bolt has a single hanger and due to the angle they were screwed. I added about 6 inches of webbing to the single bolt and a ring and we went off it, with meat back up for all but me. It makes for a nice easy rappel and with the webbing the pull was simple. If this is where most people are rappeling from I think we need to add another bolt for safety? I have run into the local guides on the last rappel several times and they are placing cams in the cracks of the rock above your head. THey are then removing the Cams and rigging the rope off of the bolts on the wall for the last guy. Their clients struggle due to having to go off on their knees like you use to when the pitons were there. The strange thing is when talking to one of the Guides one time at the middle rappel, they said one of the other Company's had put those two new bolts in there? I Scouted around at the last rappel to see if maybe they had bolts some where else they were using, I couldn't find any. It doesn't make sense to add two at the middle rappel and leave the last rappel without a reasonable anchor?

On a positve, since Shane and I went thru ROA the first time and then he placed it on his site the route does not seem to be getting beat up. People are staying on the trails. Good Job.

For the Helmet Police. On the last ROA rappel, due to muddy feet I slipped and smacked my head hard against the wall. I hit on my helmet but the force was hard enough to smash my very EXPENSIVE prescription sunglasses. I would of had a serious ouch on my forehead if not for my helmet. Still need new glasses though.

[Mountaineer]

If this is where most people are rappeling from I think we need to add another bolt for safety?

Seems reasonable.

Ouch on the slip! Not sure if also using some knees/kneepads would have helped with all that mud?

[Iceaxe]

ROA: Those bolts on the face of the rock wall suck. If this rappel is going to be bolted I would at least like to see it bolted correctly.

Elephant Butte: Again, if this rappel is to be bolted I'd at least like to see it done correctly. So yeah, the bolts at the first rappel should be moved to the face of the cliff to create a better anchor. Also, the old bolts should be pulled.

But since I own ZERO bolting gear I can't correctly bolt either.

[PG Rob]

I have always used the 2 lower bolts on the wall. That is the best anchor location (other than many are sketched out getting to it). I use the single higher bolt to set up a line to the anchor for others to clip in to, which alleviates most of the fear in getting to the anchor. I am not certain how to let people know that the bolts are on the lower ledge. I would almost rather remove the higher bolt than place another there and have it be the default anchor.

[Iceaxe]

Elephant Butte bolts should be placed here to avoid rope grooves and improve rope pull and getting onto rappel.

[Iceaxe]

For Rock of Ages move the bolts here and you can see them from above, have basicaly the same easy rope pull as the current bolts, and not scare the shit of most people as they do not have to lean over the abyass to hook-up.



I don't have any drillin' tools. But I have some awesome yankin' tools.... maybe I'll just pull the bolts and see what shakes out for the future.

[canyondevil]

What is the NPS stance on placing new bolts, in this case to avoid grooves?

[Iceaxe]

I believe it is "no new anchors", but anchor maintenance is acceptable.

If someone really wants to do it I'd be happy to ask the park, I have good connections with the Arches rangers and found them to be very reasonable and accommodating, particularly when it comes to improving what is a problem (the rope grooves).

FWIW: I think Arches and Capitol Reef have the best rangers I have dealt with in the NPS.

[yetigonecrazy]

FWIW: I think Arches and Capitol Reef have the best rangers I have dealt with in the NPS.

x2

[PG Rob]

What is the NPS stance on placing new bolts, in this case to avoid grooves?

I believe it is "no new anchors", but anchor maintenance is acceptable.

If someone really wants to do it I'd be happy to ask the park, I have good connections with the Arches rangers and found them to be very reasonable and accommodating, particularly when it comes to improving what is a problem (the rope grooves).

FWIW: I think Arches and Capitol Reef have the best rangers I have dealt with in the NPS.

Rock Of Ages is east of where Kings Bottom is marked on the map. As far as I can tell, it is not on NPS land. I don't see what they would have to do with it.

[canyondevil]

Rock Of Ages is east of where Kings Bottom is marked on the map. As far as I can tell, it is not on NPS land. I don't see what they would have to do with it.

ROA is not in the park, but Elephant Butte is.

[Iceaxe]

Rock Of Ages is east of where Kings Bottom is marked on the map. As far as I can tell, it is not on NPS land. I don't see what they would have to do with it.

Rock of Ages is BLM land and you can do whatever you please so far as bolts are concerned.

Elephant Butte is inside Arches NP and bolting is a big issue with actual rules and regulations to follow.

[ratagonia]

Rock of Ages is BLM land and you can do whatever you please so far as bolts are concerned.

Elephant Butte is inside Arches NP and bolting is a big issue with actual rules and regulations to follow.

I'd be a little careful with that.

I know the Orange Cliffs BLM area is managed by Canyonland NP, but that is a long way from where we are talking about. I don't know what the rules in the BLM areas around Moab are... do you?

Tom