Wet and muddy... No kidding!

[pikan]

A few months ago, Blake arranged to meet up with Penny and Mark on a trip with the objective to learn how to use his brand new sand-trap properly. I wasn't involved in the initial planning of the trip, however, when Blake offered to take me on this trip, I JUMPED at the opportunity! All my canyoneering experiences to this point had been almost solely with Blake and the rest of our friends, so having the opportunity to learn from some more experienced canyoneers was a real treat! Don't get me wrong, Blake has been a GREAT mentor and teacher, but he will be the first to admit that he has much to learn from others. I was not at all disappointed by this adventure. I was able to glean truck loads of information from this experience and here is why:
Blake and I left Spanish fork just after 5:00 am and were able to meet up with Mark, Tyler, and Penny just before 8:30. We coordinated the gear we had (including a bolt kit in case of emergency) and were quickly on our way to the trail head. There was a couple camped at the TH parking lot that told us that the storm that went through earlier in the week seemed to miss the area for the most part...this was good news, but we were not relying on that information too heavily for this canyon.
The Upper part of No Kidding is a short but definitely sweet section of picturesque narrows with some light stemming and down-climbing. We were off to a wonderful start, I remember thinking, "today is going to be a good day!"





We went into the rest of the canyon cautiously. We knew that the only anchoring options in all but one rappel would depend on the presence of dry or damp sand in key locations, so we did as much probing of these conditions as possible before making a final commitment in. We were able to drop our gear at the first rappel and down-climb around the first two rappels and check the sand situation further down I say "we" in a very liberal definition in this case because it was mostly Penny. Watching her observe and ponder over conditions was very interesting. She understood the risks and was very cautious about descending this canyon. This was one of the more prominent lessons learned: do your homework, even if you have done a canyon before, know how things could change and try to understand current conditions as much as possible. What we leaned from our probing was that there would be some mud in the canyon, bet were confident that there would be enough dry stuff to make it through, even if we need to bring sand with us as we went down the canyon. :)







The first rappel was where the first sand-trap lesson started, and at first I was a bit skeptical about it's ability to hold me. The reason I'm so skeptical is because I have gathered from my reading of forums and experience with other canyoneers that the average weight for the typical canyoneer is around 180 lbs... I exceed that by about 50 lbs...so I have to go into each trip with the thought that just because everyone else was able to rappel from this, doesn't mean it will hold for ME! (if you think about it, this isn't a bad general rule for ALL canyoneers anyway..but I digress) I felt confident with my meat backup though, so down I went. It turned out that my skepticism was for naught though, the sand-trap held, even for me. This is where I learned another great lesson...Penny called it "hip rappelling". It was different for me to not just sit back into my harness and just hang off the anchor. To preserve the integrity of the anchor, each of us increased our friction going down by laying out across the cliff face as we went descended each rap. Very cool concept, and it worked! The pull worked out great, too!

http://youtu.be/q76n2zJgI7I

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The next rap was a rock horn anchor, so no problems there. This is where we left Mark's 200ft rope to be picked up on our way out.



The order of the next few obstacles is kind of mixed up in my head, so others in the group may need to correct me.
The next rappel was similar to the first, using the sandtrap. everything was hunky dory.



The next sequence was some down-climbing that led to a slide into a.... dun, dun, dun..... KEEPER POT-HOLE!!!! And it was full of...dun, dun, dun...MUDDY WATER!!!! *insert distant scream here* This may sound strange...but this was exciting news for me and Blake (at least the pot-hole escape part, not so much about the water). Neither of us had been challenged with a real pot-hole escape before, so we were grateful for the chance to earn our stripes. The others were kind enough to allow us to fumble through it so that we could build our egos a bit. I served as a step ladder for Blake and Mark... Mark was able to get through without even getting in the water.

http://youtu.be/dMS_v50ZOJg

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Once out of the hole, Blake and Mark found that we were faced with another challenge, the semi keeper pot-hole that led into the next rappel was ALSO with mud and water! Fortunately we had thought to keep other members of our team back up at the top of the last drop where we still had sand! But how to get it there.....hmmmm.....and how to use it once we get it there........hmmmm.......I know! How about using these 6 pot-shots we decided to bring just in case! So we set up a little zip line, I was still in the pot hole BTW, and we were able to get the pot-shots filled with sand over to the next rappel. Once our precious sand was secured, we got everyone past the pothole using two line hauls and partner assistance. At the next rappel I was among the first to go down with a meat anchor, (I was beginning to see a pattern here :) ) followed closely by Blake who is also larger than the average canyoneer, although not as big as me. Blake and I found that sand was pretty scarce at the bottom, so we needed to retain the sand when we pulled the pot, shots. The rest decided to stack the pot shots at the lip of the rappel and it would be tested from the bottom. Tyler came down...things shifted, so Penny and Mark did a little readjustment before sending Mark. The anchor held, so Penny came down next.
The next pot-shot anchor wasn't as successful. I went first, of course, (this is canyoneers way of saying that you should lose some weight I think) and the anchor failed, so the meat backup took the weight. After some readjustment, Mark came down next...same story. same with Penny. This is a two-stage rappel that Mark and I did in one rap, Penny made the decision to re-anchor at the platform on that rappel. Blake cam e down and he had pot shots come down on him as he rapped. meat backup caught him and he made it down fine. Tyler decided to place the anchor further back (over more of a lip) and he made it down okay. Mark and I noticed that we had plenty of sand there, so we all concurred that the sand-trap should be used to get Blake, Penny, and Tyler down the rest of the way. Sand-trap worked perfectly and we refilled out potshots for the next rap. The Geometry for this one allowed for a bomber pot-shot anchor and this one, we were able to pull the pot shots in a way that we could dump the sand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJBIi...ature=youtu.be



The last rappel was good for the sand-trap so we ferried the sand down the short down-climb to it, and THIS is where I put my foot DOWN!!!! I'm going LAST this time! J/K I just politely asked to go last, and they let me, although I was regretting it slightly when I backed Blake's rappel because I was so surprised at how much the trap shifted as it took his weight, but it stayed true and I didn't hesitate to take the plunge! WE MADE IT!!!

The Kelsey exit wasn't too bad, though I did find a couple ralston-esk rocks on the way up, so watch your footing!

This canyon was truly a treat. It challenged our skills, forced us to think and find new and innovative ways of doing things, and it was also very beautiful! I had the opportunity to learn and try some new techniques with some great new people, who BTW, were AWESOME to work with! I should mention that I was very impressed with Tyler and the dynamic team that he and Mark are, definitely something to work toward with my kids. Penny was a wealth of knowledge and experience and she was very kind to guide us on this learning adventure.
Thanks to all!

[Slot Machine]

Luke! Awesome writeup man!! *distant scream* had me laughing.

Your photos aren't showing up. Please fix. I can't stand the anticipation any longer.

Good video too. Not as muddy as I thought it would be (in that section).

[peakbaggers]

Excellent trip report and videos to match!

[pikan]

Luke! Awesome writeup man!! *distant scream* had me laughing.

Your photos aren't showing up. Please fix. I can't stand the anticipation any longer.

Good video too. Not as muddy as I thought it would be (in that section).

Fixed the pictures, sorry for the delay. For some reason Bogley wasn't cooperating, maybe because it was my first time attaching photos????

The mud wasn't everywhere, just mostly in the bottom of the rappels and down-climbs... just made things inconvenient, especially when Blake stood on my shoulders! You should have seen my clothes and gear at the end! Some of it will be forever "No Kidding" Red!

[Kuya]

So.... you go into a canyon that is suppose to be done with potshots and sandtraps, but when you get into the middle of the canyon you find potholes filled with water that render your sandtraps useless. What do you do?

[pikan]

So.... you go into a canyon that is suppose to be done with potshots and sandtraps, but when you get into the middle of the canyon you find potholes filled with water that render your sandtraps useless. What do you do?

Use the acqua anchor that you have designed and built before hand and have cleverly packed away...just in case!

[Kuya]

Use the acqua anchor that you have designed and built before hand and have cleverly packed away...just in case!

Fair enough, you get to carry this predesigned Aquanchor on every trip from now on ;)

[pikan]

Fair enough, you get to carry this predesigned Aquanchor on every trip from now on ;)

GREAT! you get to carry the bolt kit and hammer!

[Kuya]

GREAT! you get to carry the bolt kit and hammer!

only problem with that is that I don't own one

[hesse15]

[ilipichicuma]

Sounds awesome! Great work in there!

[Slot Machine]

The first decensionist of No Kidding, Jason Pease, had no bolt kit or aqua anchor. I believe he had no potshots or Sandtrap either.

He descended the canyon solo that day in full (or nearly full) conditions. There is an especially tricky drop that one encounters in those conditions, towards the end of the canyon. At that drop he was forced to hack a hole in one of the walls, then rappel from a hook to safety.

The remnants of the hacked hole are still there, but barely noticable, nearly erased by water and time.

[Kuya]

The first decensionist of No Kidding, Jason Pease, had no bolt kit or aqua anchor. I believe he had no potshots or Sandtrap either.

He descended the canyon solo that day in full (or nearly full) conditions. There is an especially tricky drop that one encounters in those conditions, towards the end of the canyon. At that drop he was forced to hack a hole in one of the walls, then rappel from a hook to safety.

The remnants of the hacked hole are still there, but barely noticable, nearly erased by water and time.

I think i need to reread his account. descending that canyon with out anchor tools seems nearly impossible.

**EDIT**

Ok, now that I have re read his TR, it makes more sense now, though one would have to be an amazing climber to do all he did. I remember seeing some of the anchor opportunities that he used. talk about SKETCHY!! We used a hook for one down climb, and it blew out on us! Jason is a lucky guy to have made is safely down that canyon solo.

[Slot Machine]

I think i need to reread his account. descending that canyon with out anchor tools seems nearly impossible.

There is a written account? I hope the story told to me resembles this written account.

[Iceaxe]

Jason's story is on Bogley somewhere.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[Absolute Gravity]

http://www.math.utah.edu/~sfolias/ca...e/?i=nokidding

[Sandstone Addiction]

Wow! Great TR pikan--loved it!