Merry Piglet

[WorkBad]

On 28 March 2013, wife and I slipped through Merry Piglet. We completed this canyon with a 165ft rope and 100ft of webbing. Last Candition (www.Candition.com) said to expect dry conditions except the middle pothole which was thigh deep. We were pretty excited because we enjoyed the other mini slots in the N. Wash area. Having done Morocco, Hogwarts and Merry Piglet I can say that this slot was the most challenging of the three, Hogwarts being our favorite.

Before doing this canyon I read every piece of beta I could find but I was still a little unsure of the approach. The approach turned out to be simple but I will still attempt to clearly explain it for others who want to visit this canyon.
Here is a general outline of how the approach works.


From the parking area we headed up the canyon.


We stayed on the left (West) side through the boulder field because the middle looked unstable and more complicated. When we couldn't go any further up we worked our way Right (East) to an area that could be climbed over. The first picture is of the short climbable wall (from a distance) and the second photo is of me (up close) on the wall completing it. I hip belayed wife to the top and then headed straight to the ravine going up the sandstone.



Here is another photo to help with perspective, taken from the ravine looking back at the up climb.


We hiked carefully up the sandstone gaining elevation to the white layer. We then traversed our way (North) to the start of the canyon. This is a pic from the canyon head looking down.


Shortly after heading down we encountered the first rap which is from a tree. This rap can be accessed by a short 10ft down climb Left Down Canyon (LDC). It looks like the bottom of the first rap could hold a fair amount of water if there has been recent rains. We then down climbed to a wider area that looked like it too could hold a lot of water. Exiting this section we found a down climb that ended in a 2' deep pool but could be bypassed on the left or right. After this we hit a section that held a lot of larger plants and trees in a sandy bottom.

The next drop is a rappel off a rock cairn anchor. I rebuilt this because the webbing looked old and wasn't properly lengthened anyway. Here is a pic of the rap from the bottom looking up. Notice the lack of water here.


Just after rap two is the rap that is known to hold water at the bottom.


We used two different methods to complete this obstacle. First the wife's method.

We weren't sure exactly how deep this pool was going to be so she left her pack to keep it dry. When she got out we zip lined both our packs across.

Here's what worked for me.


I found this move challenging, the hand holds were very small, I'm not sure I could repeat this 100% of the time. I've seen others jump it from the ledge I was standing on but with my wide hips I'm certain my jump would've been thrown off by the wall and landed me straight into the drink.

We then encountered a series of three raps, all from choke stone anchors. Here is a pic of one of the raps.


The anchors only allow one person at a time because the walls are so tight. While inspecting one of the choke stone anchors I discovered that someone had secured their main anchor webbing using a simple overhand knot, not a water knot, AN OVERHAND! I couldn't believe it so I took a pic before fixing it back to non kill mode.


One more final rap off a choke stone.


Then back to the final 10ft drop that was originally up climbed, we decided to rap down it.


We reversed the approach down the boulder field and walked back to the very patiently waiting truck.

[Slot Machine]

Great report! I like your detailed directions around the annoying approach obstacles. We will probably use that beta in the future.

Also, nice moves around the pothole!

Bob

[WorkBad]

Thanks Bob! I think that is the nicest compliment anyone can give saying they will use your TR for beta. Seriously... Lord knows how many times I've used yours.

That pothole move had 50/50 chance of ending in disaster (wet me) lol, I'm out of shape.

These Spring trips to the desert after sitting around all winter leave me sore. I have today off and so far all I've done is sit at this computer and drink coffee.

[Jaxx]

Great report! I don't think that is just an overhand though. I can't find it in my Ashley book of knots but I'm sure someone here knows the name of it. Looks like it wraps around once and then through the hole made. Who knows if it is actually safe.

Looks inventive though.

[WorkBad]

Great report! I don't think that is just an overhand though. I can't find it in my Ashley book of knots but I'm sure someone here knows the name of it. Looks like it wraps around once and then through the hole made. Who knows if it is actually safe.

Looks inventive though.

Thanks for the compliment Jaxx... Yea, good eye. It does seem to go around one more time making it not an overhand, if this is so I stand corrected. If this is a ligitimate knot for anchors then it is one that I'm obviously not familiar with. I would like to hear what others think about it too. Also, it felt good retying it into a water knot that others can identify and visually inspect.

[moab mark]

If not wanting to get wet, you can slip down the right of the pothole and then just jump back into the canyon. pretty easy. Looks like you had a good time. I agree hog warts is the best of the three.

[jman]

Good TR Workbad! And thanks for the candition update too.

[hank moon]

It does seem to go around one more time making it not an overhand, if this is so I stand corrected.

It looks like a figure 8, but not the "legitimate anchor" type :)

[Scott P]

Nice TR!

We did the canyon a couple months ago and noticed that some anchors were in poor condition (I had put a note in candition about this). One of the chockstone anchors actually yanked out with a strong tug.

We only replaced some of the ones that we rapped off instead of downclimbed.

We bypassed R1 (didn't even look at the anchor since we didn't use it) by climbing a tree down canyon because we didn't want to get wet. R2 was downclimbed after meat anchoring the kids down. We didn't bother using a rope on the drop into the pool other than to zip line the packs.

The deadman on R4 (the one after the pool) was in poor condition, so we reinforced it with by rearranging and adding to the rocks. We also replaced some of the webbing (black) on one of the last two rappels.

It was a nice canyon, but the water was cold! Matt tried to stay dry and could almost do so, but I carried the kids across the pool.

[ilipichicuma]

Great report! My friends and I did this canyon in January. I went through the pothole and it had about 3/4 of an inch of ice on it. Awesome! The rest of the group made the move around the left (LDC) side.