Zion: DED, GPS Waylaid Points, Bolts removed

[ratagonia]

“It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong”… Yvon Chouinard


There’s been a lot of chat, of late, about people dropping into the WRONG canyon. This is a story about starting UP the wrong canyon – perhaps a more-forgiving error to make.


Went off to do Dead Eye Dick with Amanda from Zion Adventures on Thursday. Since I had not done the one-car approach, and needed to for the website, WE (as in I) decided to do it that way, by starting down The Narrows, then climbing up a side-canyon to get to the top of the canyon. No problem. Chickens surrounded us where we left Amanda’s car, at the North Fork turn. On the drive in, I handed the map with several waypoints marked to Amanda, and walked her through typing in one of the waypoints into the Etrex… only, the point she entered was not the point I intended… (see where this is going?).


Our start was not early, but not too late. After a grey cold day on Wednesday, Thursday was bluebird beautiful and actually kinda hot. Especially for April. We kept a good pace going down the Narrows, pulling out the GPS every now and then to check progress. Hmmm, a little further than I thought… Eventually we got to the waypoint, and a canyon on the left that was narrow and tall. I had not checked the notes from Kip, but this one looked unlikely as a way up, but we scouted up it a ways and… I helped Amanda up a short drop and she scouted ahead – “ends in a rappel” she said.


The Rest of the Story at Latest Rave

[2065toyota]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rick t]

Its zion for crying out loud, not north wash, give your piety a break, you just assume authority statewide to take out any bolts you see, anywhere?? growing old, but still not growing up.

[Taylor]

Did you read the full story? Looked like those drops had good natural anchors available, therefore no need to bolt. Besides, unless you're talking about a canyon on private property, one's right to bolt is equal to one's right to unbolt. What's the difference?

[TommyBoy]

Did you read the full story? Looked like those drops had good natural anchors available, therefore no need to bolt. Besides, unless you're talking about a canyon on private property, one's right to bolt is equal to one's right to unbolt. What's the difference?

That and its not like this is a trade route that tons of beginners are going on either. There is plenty of stuff in the main parts of Zion that are bolted, do those first, get some experience, and by then you should have the experience to not need the bolts anyways.

[Slot Machine]

Its zion for crying out loud, not north wash, give your piety a break, you just assume authority statewide to take out any bolts you see, anywhere?? growing old, but still not growing up.

Whoops! Clicked 'like' on the post above by @rick t. Thought it said 'dislike'.

I also assume statewide authority to remove bolts. Not every Zion canyon was born to be bolted.


AND nice reoprt Tom!

[Brian in SLC]

I clicked "like" too...'cause...I "liked" Rick's post. Ha ha.

Heavy sigh. Got kinda mixed feelings on this one. I certainly respect Kip's descent and given the material available, not bolting sure looks viable.

Had the bolts been better camo'd, not the shiny zinc plated hangers...well, they look to me WAY lower impact to the canyon than a stack of rocks with a sling sticking out. And, way safer too. Coulda been a lower impact bolted anchor, and, if so, then woulda been a bit more shame to remove them.

Ugh...I just hate those low rock stack starts...but, not enough to bolt them.

What kind of bolts were those, Tom? Kinda look like all thread non-Power/Rawl bolts? Maybe Ramset/Redhead or some such? I'm not a fan of using high visibility hardware. Doesn't cost much to buy the pre-powder coated versions of those hangers. And, an upgrade to stainless is nice.

They do look like they were well placed...

Part of me muses, since Tom hangs out with the cool ZAC guide kids, how that crew would feel if the bolts they use to guide clients were all chopped? I wouldn't do that, but, if the person who just had their bolts removed got a bee in their bonnet, who could blame them for taking it out on the local guide service folks? I mean, guide with bolts, remove recreational bolts in the non-guided canyons? Seems a bit shitty to me. I don't think I'd care to interject myself in that situation. Except to comment on it. Ha ha!

Ahhh...bolt wars.

I much prefer a nicely bolted anchor to all this heavy handed construction that tries to pass for "better" ethics in canyons. And now, adding this newly unbolted canyon to a guidebook...hmmm...so...more traffic, higher popularity, no say in the saavy level of folks doing the canyon....all to what, make a buck? Pay to play only by someone's rules? Crazy stuff. Hopefully we won't be looking forward to rope grooves, more rock stacks, slings sticking out of rock stacks and an uptick in rescues...all worth yanking those bolts to someone, I'm sure. Sometimes it just seems like tossing the baby out with the bath water...

Nice looking canyon...