U Turn Elephant Butte

[moab mark]

Did both today U Turn is getting the shiz kicked out if it. After the first small rappel, people are wrapping their rope around a large boulder and creating huge rope grooves. After the first rappel there is a bolt anchor on the left side of the draw under that huge rock.


This is where the anchor is.

The anchor is behind that rock.
OK next on the last rappel extend your pull strand and back away from the wall. It is getting huge grooves.
The sand is back at Elephant Butte, amazing.

[Rob L]

The "common" or "tourist" canyoneering routes in Arches are being populated by the great unwashed, furnished by the availability of info on the web. I'm glad that Arches have imposed some rules, but I personally think those rules are too lax. I've attended the FF briefing; I've seen the enthusiasm of the Arches NP Staff. I fear a major accident on these common routes in Arches will change things for the worse for everyone.

Moab Mark and others were instrumental in introducing me to canyoneering ethics (in Arches and the local area, as it happens). Looking after the rock, the people, the history, the aura, the everything........

...seems to be lost on some.

Rob

(Arches visitor since 1986, canyoneer since 2009)

[moab mark]

This is where the anchor is that needs to be used.

[moab mark]

The Park Service has put in little markers on the trail to U turn and for the hike out. Nothing at Elephant Butte.

[jman]

The Park Service has put in little markers on the trail to U turn and for the hike out. Nothing at Elephant Butte.

Little markers? Like arrows or something??

[WorkBad]

Thanks for the TR Mark.
Wow, I can't believe how messed up that boulder's become. Here is the same stone at the beginning of 2013, I thought it looked bad then.. How wrong I was.


And! The rap is bolted too.

[jman]

If that rap is bolted, then why use the rock anchor?

Are the bolts hidden (if I recall when I last did U-Turn the first rappel bolts were covered by a rock) but we were able to easily downclimb it instead)?

Do the bolts get chopped often so they use the rock anchor instead?

[moab mark]

No the anchor is around to the left of that great big freaking rock in the middle.
I posted this over on Canyon Collective but I thought I would copy it over here. Some of this has been discussed on here lately but we've got to get proactive.
The next disaster is going to be the tree that is now suppose to be used in place of Abbey Arch on Lomatium. The way that pulls it's going to go south quick. The first rappel on Elephant sure could use a new location. A possibility could be to place two bolts on the wall in the crack you climb down before you walk out onto that shelf. Then rappel straight off south from the crack. It would be a longer rappel and you would miss that short down climb but I think it would pull clean. I have never placed a bolt and probably experimenting in Arches would not be a good idea.:) Maybe the ACA could make contact with the Park Service and start a dialogue for resolving these problems. If we do not get proactive the party is going to be over. I would gladly meet up and help any way possible.

[moab mark]

Little markers? Like arrows or something??

No I can't think of what they call those brown signs/placards the blm puts all over. It's those.

[Iceaxe]

No I can't think of what they call those brown signs/placards the blm puts all over. It's those.

I call them trash... LOL...

[Rob L]

Little posts with expensive non-eco plastic arrows attached. I saw them last November, and I wondered who they were intended for (it's not as if the wandering public would come across them).

[Iceaxe]

I've been thinking about the dumbass U-Turn arrows and have decide the rope scared rock is what you get/deserve for placing them.

Without the arrows Joe Sixpack is forced to read a good route description to decipher the actual route. All good route descriptions also describe the location and type of anchors at each drop.

This rope scaring never occurred before the arrows were placed. It has been 7 years since I first blessed the canyoneering community with U-Turn and this type of crap was never a problem in the past. This is what you get/deserve for dumbing the route down below a certain skill/I.Q. level.

[CanyonFreak]

We did that second drop as a partner assist but never saw that bolt after looking around. Someone had slung an arch canyon right that required a spicy traverse but just left that guy alone. I can see where the old bolts were chopped but never refilled or repaired? Was this the park or someone else who incompletely removed the bolts. I get removing them but why not do it right? Most people I ran into in moab "canyoneering" were climbers on their off day.