Morocco, Hogwarts, Cable, Quandary, Zero Gravity recent conditions

[nkanarik]

We are having a rest day in Escalante, so I had a chance to sneak in a quick conditions update for the canyons we did in the last several days.

- 5/14: We arrived No Kidding camping area late afternoon. It rained HARD during the night for a couple of hours

- 5/15: we scouted No Kidding and decided it's too risky to do it. Instead we did Morocco and Hogwarts. Both canyons had anchors in good shape. In Morocco we used Macrame off of a tree for one rappel (down climb?). Potholes were all full. We had wetsuits but never used them. Hogwarts...same conditions, no wetsuits needed., We then headed back to Cable canyon trailhead. The last section of the 4wd was MUDDY, but we made it.

-5/16: weather was nice, the approach wasn't too bad, and we descended to the canyon from the gully to the right of the finger. We lost a camera there, so if anyone find it, please let me know. The canyon was full of cold water and we wire wetsuits for the entire route. All potholes are full, no keepers. We had to use a hook a couple times, but not a must if you have a climber with you :). There was one scary moment when it started raining hard when we were in the between two huge potholes...luckily it lasted only a couple minutes. Most anchors were in good condition, there were a couple sketchy ones so we backed them / tested them. When done, we headed to Quandary...luckily the 4wd road dried up during the day and we had no issues going up the road.

-5/17: Quandary direct...coldest water so far. Used wet suits. Potholes were FULL and we didn't have to use pack toss or partner assist. Fiddle sticked from a couple places. Anchors in good condition, but one of the guys decided to remove 1-2 un-necessary webbing anchors to make it more interesting for the next group (wasn't my decision :) ).
On the way up, I'm not sure we climbed up the right gully...the "5.6" climb seemed from below more complicated/risky than that. Luckily, we had a couple climbers with us, so they did it. They claimed it was easy, but I could see they were somewhat worried when climbing it as the consequences were serious. The rest of simply ascended the rope.

5/18: drove to Zero Gravity. The canyon was full of water (shocking :) ). That was a fun short canyon with bunch of optional stemming. Bring your pads!!!. Water was cold as Cable, but not as Quandary. We wore wetsuits. No rappels, and a couple of us used a handline. On the last obstacle...one of the guys realized real time why the canyon is called that way :). He got jammed, and we had to use 5:1 from the top and push him from the bottom to get him out. After ~20 mins, we got him out and lowered him via a redirected lowering system in the far side if the chimney. We then headed back to the car and drove to Escalante where it was snowing HARD somewhere on the road.

-5/19: We are heading to Egypt Trailhead and planning on doing Neon, Ringtail? And Headless Hen later.

Cheers