Checkerboard Canyon April 2015

[bhalvers2002]

http://youtu.be/rmJv4tCUtJM

The weather report at 5:30 am called for snow and a high of 41F. This was not what I had in mind when I flew in from Kansas City Wednesday night. Not sure how accurate the report was, since other areas of Zion Canyon didn't have the same daunting conditions, we forged ahead and met up with Gordon at 6:00 am in St. George. We dropped a car at the Temple of Sinawa (I know....special privilege... and it made a huge difference). We had a friend in a pickup truck take us to the top. No sign of clouds - though off to the north many miles could see a dusting of snow. We ventured a couple miles down the dry, but rough road to near the Esplin Gulch area. Started hiking around 8 am. Weather was in the 30s, but sunny and windy (10-15 mph+) which kept things chilly on the walk in.

We used the bluegnome gps data points, topo map and general landmarks to make our way over the next 3 hours to the drop in spot. The entrance and exit to this canyon are both quite impressive - both 200 ft. raps. Vegetation was light on the route. Did see one thing that surprised me - a bulldozer had done some clearing near the park border - almost could not see how it got into the clearing - but there it was. Not sure if someone is improving the road in or ranchers doing something else.

We didn't see a soul the entire day. None of us had done this canyon. We carried 4/5 wetsuits, 2 200 ft ropes, 60 ft rope and a lot of webbing and anchor building material. Turned out to be about right. We didn't need the wetsuits until the 2nd half of the canyon, but it was fine wearing them since day was on cooler side - probably getting into high 50s. We started the technical section about 11:45 am.

I was impressed with the length of the technical section - I think approaching 2 miles. Many sections of Das Boot like narrows, winding, narrow, obstacles. I believe about 12 raps were advertised, but I think we did at least 15. Further, the number of downclimbing spots seemed to approach or exceed the number of raps - many beyond 10 feet. We replaced 2 anchors and built 1 new one. Hard to tell how long it has been since someone has been through here, but did not look recent.

Only 1 swimmer, but several sections of waist+ water and wetsuits were imperative at this time of year. I could only imagine how the canyon could get amped up if it had a lot of water, though not sure it really fills up all that often. Could envision very long sections of swimmers/wading under the right conditions that would've added length to an already long day.

Final couple rappels are beautiful. Never seen quite a chute like this one at the end. Anchors in good shape and I was impressed how whoever placed them got up high on the wall to do so. We pulled our rope about 5:45 and spent the next 3.5 hours hiking the narrows, including about 1 hour in the dark - which was a cool experience for me. Got back to the car about 9:30 pm and barely made it to Oscar's. Had we not had the car there, we would have been hoofing it a lot longer because shuttle was long gone by then. We were beat, but satisfied.

Had elements of das boot, mystery, boundary, but the level of downclimbing took up the intensity a bit. This is an out of the way canyon, but well worth the effort - beauty, solitude and decent amount of problem solving combined with 12+ miles of foot travel make for a long, memorable day.




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[Bo_Beck]

Nice video! Hey I recognize that guy! Gordon L.! 2nd attempt is a charm! Bushwacking from Dakota was way limited compared to our pass-thru years ago, before the fire! Nice TR!

[jman]

Great video and report!

I'm hoping I can do this canyon this year.

I like the idea with the car at the end. :twothumbs:

Anything you would do differently?

[bhalvers2002]

Go on a warmer morning.....


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[ucla56]

Go on a warmer morning.....


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How were the anchors? Is the 6th rappel still a problematic deadman as described by bluugnome?