Zion - Pine creek

[nkanarik]

Still canyoneering in Zion - Did Pine creek today (~95F) and wet suits are not a must if you have tolerance to cold water.
Heading to the next canyon :)

[dougr]

Good to hear, thx for posting. Am doing it next tuesday and it won't be quite as warm out.

[Jdt92065]

How was the water through there I will be there in 2 weeks

[dougr]

Did Pine on Sunday the 1st. Def no wetsuit needed, save for the most delicate of cold sensitive people. 5' long neck deep section getting out of the cathedral and maybe 1 or 2 waist deep short wades. Sun just outside the cathedral and elsewhere makes warming up easy if you are through there from noon till 3 or whatever.

[Michael_WB]

Wandered through PC this afternoon, drop in 4.30pm, exited 6.15pm at switchback. A larger party let us play through at the 1st rappel, no wetsuits required, took small pack, 1 litre of water and an 80ft + 120ft ropes.

Saw a rather dozy Mexican Spotted Owl perched at head height on a log not far after the Cathedral pool. A 4ft coachwhip slithered across our path on the hike out. Didn't kill it.

[dougr]

How on earth did you do Pine in 1hr 45mins? You'd have to blitz through!

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[ratagonia]

How on earth did you do Pine in 1hr 45mins? You'd have to blitz through!

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Some people gots it, some people don't.

T

[ststephen]

Saw a rather dozy Mexican Spotted Owl perched at head height on a log not far after the Cathedral pool. A 4ft coachwhip slithered across our path on the hike out. Didn't kill it.

Spotted Owl! Nice. Inspired me to look at some web info on Spotted Owls. Found this that I never knew:

"An individual Spotted Owl may not breed every year. Some do not breed for periods of five to six years. Although survival of juvenile owls is low, adult survival is high, and a Spotted Owl may live to be 17 years old"

[Michael_WB]

How on earth did you do Pine in 1hr 45mins? You'd have to blitz through!

Not really. It is difficult to make the technical section last more than 45 minutes with two people/two ropes, especially when as dry as it is now. Also we've been through it so many times, we can pull just enough rope out of the bag at each rappel pretty much eyes shut.

Similarly the hike out is about an hour if you can read boulders/trails and down-climb reasonably fluently. Though not marathon runners, both of us do a fair amount of sport, are in reasonable shape and do like to keep moving things along. And as Tom says...

Pine Creek does seem like a short walk with a rope, compared to the long days we spent in the Right Fork, Imlay, Fat Man's Misery, Icebox, Neon and Telephone during this last visit. But that's not to say it's dull or not worthy of care and attention: PC is still a beautiful slot canyon with some fun rappels/down-climbs which demand respect.

I particularly like the hike in :)

[JTMiller]

I took my two daughters and one son-in-law through PIne Creek last Thursday June 5th. It's the only time I've been through Pine Creek and not seen another group. We had it all to ourselves so we took our time and enjoyed the canyon. While we were in the slot section after the Cathedral rappel, I told them about seeing a spotted owl in the canyon two or three years previously. My younger daughter said "like that one?" We looked up to see a sleepy owl perched on top of a log.



We then looked around a little more and saw these guys staring down at us from a log jammed high between the canyon walls. I guess mom needed a break from the youngsters so she went to a different perch.



We moved away a bit farther so we wouldn't disturb them as much, and watched for a few minutes. They quickly went back to sleep and we moved on down the canyon. Seeing the owls and taking my daughters through Pine Creek for their first time made it my best trip through PIne Creek.

[jman]

How on earth did you do Pine in 1hr 45mins? You'd have to blitz through!

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That reminds me...when I was getting our permit for Imlay last weekend, one of the backcountry rangers said that the fastest time through keyhole is "7minutes" and pine creek, "car to car, was done in 27minutes".

I asked who, and he said the French's from Bogley (he pronounced it bawgley). So that's who the mysterious record-setters were!

He said it was a guy and a young girl who "didn't run". Yeah...right...(wink wink)...

[2065toyota]

I also remember hearing about people doing pine creek without using any ropes. downclimbing/sliding/jumping everything.


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[Iceaxe]

I also remember hearing about people doing pine creek without using any ropes. downclimbing/sliding/jumping everything.

I've actually seen it done by two guys that worked at the Zion Ponderosa in the mid 1990's the cathedral rappel was a deep pool, maybe 15' deep and you could run down the chute on the right and jump into the pool. At the final rappel you would walk out the ridge a little further and there was a big board someone angled down a low spot in the cliff you could walk down. Everything else you would just down climb. By the late 90's the pool had filled in and about 2002 the board was too rotten to use and had fallen down.

I never considered it a true aid less descent because of the use of the board which was left over from either construction or maintenance of the tunnel.


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