Big Spring East/West Loop, Robbers Roost

[WorkBad]

28 March 2014, four of us jumped into the Big Spring East West Loop in the High Spur area of Robbers Roost. Equipment we brought with us consisted of a GPS, 105ft rope, 110ft pull cord, plenty of webbing and hardware. Combining these two canyons took us 5 hours. Time includes farming rocks and building a deadman anchor from scratch. The East Loop has a few interesting down climbs but no rappels. The West Loop has several small rappels, a few of which we rigged with our new Fiddle Stick (FS) device. We decided on using the FS on raps where the anchor location was far back from the actual drop thus eliminating any chance of adding additional rope grooves. I really enjoyed the simplicity and quickness of the FS, another great tool to have in the bag.
Both of these canyons pack a lot of interesting features and shouldn’t be missed if visiting the area. A great option that we did was combine these two canyons with their big brother to the north, Big Spring NW Fork. This combo made the day feel more complete and only took an additional 2 hours car to car.

Canyon beta was obtained through http://www.climb-utah.com. We found the information to be very accurate and useful.

Area Overview




Trail Overview




Looking North towards the two canyons


Dropping into the West Loop












Fiddle Stick in action












Dropping into the East Loop




















Back to the waiting vehicles

[Sandstone Addiction]

Fantastic TR--as usual.

Just curious, did it look like it had been a while since anyone had been down these?

I really need to check these out...

[WorkBad]

Thanks Dave. I really couldn't tell if people had been in there recently to be honest. Some of the webbing did look old and one drop had no anchor, someone ghosted it? And yes, check them out for sure, you won't be disappointed.

[davehuth]

Nice TR. In your opinion can a person easily pull a small utility trailer on the road from the ranger station past the Glen Canyon Recreation area boundary?

[jman]

Nice pics and tr, like usual!

[CuppaJoe]

Wow, great TR, Andrew. Reading through this made me feel a bit sad--we were in the Roost a few weeks ago and did Big Spring NW
Fork, among others. It was a blast! East fork was on the list as a 'tweener canyon to fit in after something else, but it just didn't happen. Now I see what we missed!
Sounds like anchor material (rocks) may be hard to come by in West Fork if deadman rebuilding is necessary? Most of the drops look relatively short from your pics?

[WorkBad]

Thanks Joe, I'll do a write up for Big Spring NW Fork, Water, and Red Spur, High Spur when I find the time. Don't feel sad my friend, there's always another trip right!? Anchor material shouldn't be a problem in West Fork, in fact the drop that we farmed rocks for could have been bypassed but we didn't want to miss anything in such a fantastic canyon.

If/when I go back to the area I'd put NW Fork and Water Canyon low(ish) on the priority list. Don't get me wrong, they are great but I'd rather duplicate other proximal canyons of the High Spur. In fact of the canyons I've done in the area, I'd prioritize the canyons like this, Red Spur, High Spur, Big Spring East West Loop, Water, and BS NW Fork.

These two canyons pack soo much in such a short distance but yet can still be managed by the average skilled canyoneer. Red Spur is another story, things get a bit more "real" in that canyon due to the hook, length, and remoteness.