8/31/14 - Escalante - Choprock Canyon

[jman]

My buddy Jeff (blue helmet, holding the camera, and editor of this vid), posted this over on CC, so I'm copying and pasting what he did - but with the added bonus of adding some pictures.
(Dave is the other one wearing the blue helmet, and I'm wearing the white helmet)

Enjoy!

From Jeff:

[QUOTE]
Be sure to watch in 1080p!


Warning, Choprock is an R rated canyon and people have died in the canyon due to not being prepared with the right equipment. A good full wetsuit is a must in this canyon even though the water was surprisingly warmer that I thought it would be. You will be in the the water or many hours and will have to deal with multiple log jams and very tight spaces. You will need a good water filter since you will need to filter water in the canyon. Bring enough energy food to keep you going for 16+ hours, and I suggest a group size of between 2-4 people who are all experienced and competent canyoneers. The "Freak Out" potential can be high and is not recommended for the claustrophobic. The log jams in this video my be different depending on the time of year and the flash floods and the continuous erosion of the canyon.


We headed down to Escalante to do Neon and Choprock canyons. The hike down to the mouth of Neon was was around 3.5 miles and took about 2 hours in the 85F heat. We set up camp and headed up canyon to do Neon. Most of the group headed back out to the truck the next morning while 3 of us stayed and did Choprock Canyon and then hiked out the next day. We camped at the mouth of Neon and started hiking at 8:40am (we should have started much earlier and moved camp to Fence Canyon or possibly closer to the mouth of Choprock). We missed the weakness in the wall to head up to the top of the canyon, so we went up the mouth of Choprock which added more time and mileage. The approach took us 6 hours of hiking in the 90

[mcweyen]

Fantastic video and trip report! That's one of my favorite canyons and will need to be done again. In the dark looks like a pretty wild time.

[Michael_WB]

I have been down Neon twice, but never had good enough recent conditions info to be happy descending Choprock as a party of two, (though we went down Imlay as just a pair this last trip in June.)

Along with Heaps, Choprock is on the top of my list the next time I get back to Utah. Thanks for posting the report, vid and pics!

[jman]

Thanks guys.

It was a great trip! Neon was great too, especially with the recent rains at that time.

Keep in mind, none of us in group have done Choprock prior to this event. But it was Wet N Wild in there! So if you go in there, where it hasn't rained for awhile, expect different conditions (logically speaking). Especially at the log-soup sections.

Doing it in the dark enhanced the mystique of the canyon!

Our headlamps are waterproof (except for Jeffs at the time), and as a reminder to ALL - you should invest in one, if don't have one already! (Especially if you are in a hurry (which you shouldn't be) and forget to bring a drybag for it).

After 2 or 3 hours in the nighttime of the grim, we were wondering when it was going to end. It was a long day already, plus we had an additional 3 mile walk back to camp after the last rap... But just then, we heard the croaking of frogs!

And you know what that means...the end. Or at least a big swamp. And sure enough it was both. :)

[kaniukr]

Ditto, thanks for taking the great video. Pictures often look great, but videos really give a sense of what it's like