Heaps and A Lost GoPro

[burley]

Last weekend was the first trip through Heaps for everyone in our group of five. More on that below, but first: If anyone happens upon a GoPro I have a friend who would love it back! A screw came loose and he thinks he lost it in of the the potholes above the Iron Room, though we didn't see it fall so we're not quite sure where. Maybe if levels go down it'll show up somewhere?

So, as I said, it was our first time through. We had a good group and some good recent experience (Squeeze, Imlay, Quandary, Woody, Kolob, Das Boot, Englestead, and a few dozen others) but we still made it out to be some big monster that would swallow us up whole; so we planned things out in absolute detail over the course of months and prepared ourselves for the monster. Turns out it treated us much nicer than we expected, both in terms of difficulty and in terms of beauty.

We started out Friday afternoon from the West Rim Trailhead, three of us who would descend Heaps and three others who would pack out our sleeping bags for us the next day (thanks again!). When we arrived at campsite 4 (about 4 hrs from the Trailhead) it was a bit before dark so we decided to scout out the approach and try to locate the first couple rappels. The view of Phantom Valley suprised us. I can easily see why one might hike all that way and absentmindedly leave behind some new BD Trekking Poles: the view is amazing! After picking up said poles and finding the first two drops, we headed back for some shuteye.

Two others couldn't get off work until that evening and would plan to hike in to meet us in time to make an early departure. We awoke at 3 ready to go, however the other two didn't roll in until 4 or so. So about 445 we were off. At the first drop one in our group realized his harness was back at the campsite so he had the pleasure up hiking back up while we all crossed the "fin of death" in the dark. He caught back up and we were all suited up at the entrance by about 7am. Suited up in this case meant most of us had 4/3 full suits and one brave soul had a 3/2 Farmer John. But it was in the 90s (higher?) and we had heard water levels were pretty low.

We hit one difficult keeper in the first narrows which required a pack toss but the rest we partnered out of. First narrows went very quickly and for a while we doubted we had actually made it through the whole section. Somewhere in the second narrows we found a little slithering friend in a pothole which we chose to stem over. Then we could go no further, for in front of us was a 50' wall. After hours of looking for a way around we were finally able to locate the secret button which opened up the toilet bowl and sucked us through. Relieved, we continued through the third narrows, in awe of the beauty around us. There are some really cool sections in that last narrows! I think we pulled out the etriers once to help some of the 'heavier' ones of the group, but we were able to partner assist the second and third narrows completely. This leads me to believe that water levels must have been up quite a bit from reports two weeks earlier and that we hit Heaps in a fairly easy mode. I estimate we had no more than 15 potholes which required assists. Some lips were 4-5 ft off the water, others we could beach out, with quite a few in-between.

We hit the last rappel sequence just before noon. Good time, bad timing. See, the family of one in our group was in the area that weekend and had come to Zion to see us rappel down to Emerald Pools. Only we hadn't expected to be so quick and they weren't schedule to show up until around 4. Hmmm. Lucky for us you CAN get cell reception at the TOP of the last sequence, so text messages were exchanged and we were able to delay long enough for them to catch us coming down. Needless to say, we had a large group ready to offer applause upon touchdown. They even applauded the guy who was lowered (first one down, we felt better about offering our own firemans)! It was a pretty cool surprise for Zach, as he had no idea his family was there...he even asked who that girl was taking all kinds of pictures of us...turns out he didn't recognize his wife from 450 ft up.

Heaps was a great canyon, and a good lesson to us: if you go well prepared (and it's rained recently) things can be much easier than planned. A much funner lesson to learn than the opposite.

A few things worth mentioning:

• We took the following ropes: 300ft, 200ft, 100ft, 60ft, 60ft and bagged the two long ones after the entrance raps
• Having three short ropes was GREAT.
• A group of five required much more planning (and rope) for the last sequence. I wouldn't hesitate to take 5-6 again, however it does complicate things a bit. The bird perch really isn't made for more than 2 people, and the landing at the tree above wouldn't be good for more than 3-4. Of course, anyone can hang off the side of a cliff...I just wouldn't recommend it.
• Friction=heat. Every person in our group suffered at least a minor burn from their rap devices during the last sequence.
• The guy in the farmer john got chilled a few times, but was able to manage well. Another in our group got chilled in his full 3/2, but only when we stopped to eat.
• Always, always, put a floatie on your GoPro.
• Times: 4 hrs from West Rim TH to Campsite #4, ~2 hrs to get to Heaps proper, 5 hrs in canyon, 2 hrs for the last sequence. 13 hrs + some time waiting for family to show up.

We didn't take any photos in the canyon as we expected to use the GoPro images/video, but here a few shots of Phantom Valley and the hike in. I'll see if I can't get some from wife taking all the photos at the bottom and add them later.

View from the West Rim Trail just after climbing out of Potato Hollow


The wife, happy to be looking DOWN at the Right Fork (of North Creek) rather than being in it.


Phantom Valley


Phantom Valley


As the canyon starts to narrow up Raul says "this is the biggest Pothole I've seen in my life". Just wait about a half hour...

[Iceaxe]

Nice! Good preparation goes a long way in making a trip flow smoothly.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[COgirl]

Sounds like you guys had a great day! Thanks again and again for helping us out with the retrieval