Potholes- Scariest? Deepest? Anecdotes?

[yetigonecrazy]

Here's one for everyone, just hoping to get a good topic going, not trying to push any buttons or have any underlying messages. Just good stories and opinions. This place is a hoot when everyone is talking....

Let's talk about potholes.

What do you think is the scariest? How about one that personally scares you the most?

What is the deepest pothole? (pit of despair @ poe?)

Any good anecdotes about potholes?

I havent had any good stories in potholes yet.....hoping to have some stories of my own soon. Until then.....anybody? Bueller?

[Scott P]

The deepest pothole I've seen is the one in Upper Iron Wash. It's some 40' deep, but it's not too scary since there is a bypass.

[qedcook]

When I did Upper Iron Wash this May, the pothole was only 10 feet deep or so and really easy to escape! Canyons and potholes change like crazy!

[ratagonia]

My contribution to the genre, stories of quandary direct, my second canyon:

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/...tionary-tales/

Tom

[Mountaineer]

Quandary definitely has some great pothole challenges. Go prepared.

Segers had one keeper that was hard for us to get out of. The lower canyon side has a slope, which allows the potshots to slip up and over fairly quick. We tried a lot of various techniques over a ~30 or 40 minute time period. Then, once it started to rain on us we got out in 5 seconds...motivation.

[penmartens]

I believe Dave's first canyon was Quandry. You can read about it here:

http://www.math.utah.edu/~sfolias/ca...=quandarywaldo

We returned as a couple a few years later to give it another try. We were both fairly new and headed in for what we hoped was a great adventure. The canyon didn't have as much water as Dave's first attempt but it was almost tippy top full. With those conditions the canyon turned into a romantic romp for two; lots of water, hot temps, and cheerful sunshine. Then we got to the Technical Pothole Section. It was in the days prior to potshots so the technique was pack-tossing which was always dubious. Much time passed while tossing and cussing, but Dave finally managed to get us a rope across the big pothole and we continued with our wonderful romp.



But that wasn't what you asked. You asked scariest/deepest. When I am standing in a deep well and a system hasn't been set up yet and there are no voices to be heard, I tend to think of them as lonely places.

Penny

[Iceaxe]

No great pothole stories to tell... but I did take this picture of the Quandary Direct pothole section from above and I've always thought it was a cool picture.

[Iceaxe]

Maybe this thread should be openned up to include pictures of some potholes?

Here is the crux of Good Day Jim

[yetigonecrazy]

Of course! I have no restrictions on threads I start. I start it, wherever it goes.........there shall it be

[ilipichicuma]

I wish that my friend wasn't bogarting the pictures he took when we did Paradiso. There was a kickawesome pothole in that one. We were able to set up a guided rappel to get by it, but it had to be at least 15 feet deep and was probably over 20. It was really cool looking and felt like you were rappelling into a deep black pit (I guess we kind of were).

[Kishkumen]

I have done Imlay three times; once with very little water, once full and once half-way full. The last pot on Imlay is a bugger if Imlay is half way full. The conditions that make it tough are: the poor quality of the holes that are drilled, the cold temperature of the water, the height of the exit wall and the fact that you have been constantly in and out of potholes all day.

As it has already been said, the difficulty of potholes depends on the conditions of the canyon.

[Iceaxe]

The first time I did Good Day Jim the pothole was only wasit deep... I wrote up a route description but didn't post it for a year because of some promises I'd made.... anyhoo... I posted the route a year later after my time constraint had expired and almost immedately started getting emails asking why I forgot to mention the monster pothole.... I asked "what monster pothole?"

In the year since I had done the route and posted the route description the pothole had been cleaned out to create the monster in the picture....

Moral of the story...... slot canyons change so go prepared...

[Scott Card]

No shout out for Poe????

[penmartens]

I couldn't find my great pic of the Paradiso Pothole.

"The Wart Pothole" in Smiling Cricket

[Iceaxe]

Paradiso Pothole

[Iceaxe]

"The Wart Pothole" in Smiling Cricket

Just curious.... how do you cross The Wart? do you just bridge it? or?

[ratagonia]

Just curious.... how do you cross The Wart? do you just bridge it? or?

I think the scariest thing about the Wart pothole, besides being steeply overhanging on all sides, is that it goes down and down, into the darkness and... who knows? Wouldn't want to go in there!

Penny's picture is taken from above, near the actual "Wart". The Wart is like a rotten tree stump of rock on a steep slab. A sling can be tossed around it and rappelled off (to where Luke is hangin', and also 20 feet down behind where Luke is). But the Wart is kinda sketchy.

Another way is to go out to the wart, and lower a potshot or two full of sand down to the other side (all the way down, 20 feet past Luke), and then use that to do a tyrollean across the pothole. A Sandtrap or other anchor on the first side is required to set up a real tyrollean, though really, its better to not put that much force on the trailing anchor, so the last person might handline down into the top area of the pothole and get two-man hauled out of the hole.

Clear as dirty pothole water?

Tom

[Scott P]

Anyone know how big that pothole is in Marinus? I forgot about that one. It's pretty big.

[northernoutpost]

The ones in Essendilene (aka Issendilene) in southeastern Algeria are pretty messed up. The one in Paradiso is pretty small-I've seen pretty short people bridge that one.

Surprised also that Lost Eden didn't get a mention.

[outsider]

I've seen a few interesting potholes over the years. I'd have to say the Wart pothole is one of the more intimidating looking, even though it is defeated relatively easily. I can imagine that one or two in Imlay are frightening depending upon water levels. Strangely, one that gave me the shivers was just up on a fin in Arches NP.



It just felt like the terrain wanted to flush you into that thing, and with 15ft sheer walls, you wouldn't be getting out.

-john

Ps. The deeper pothole in Paradiso is just upcanyon from the one in Iceaxe's picture. We played with it one time and found (a) it was about 12-14 ft deep (that day), and (b) a good climber can climb out, at least when water levels were 4ft or less below the rim. Of course, it is entirely avoidable with a stem, or a little reach to your right, depending upon your arm length.