Heaps 6/7/15

[2065toyota]

A couple of weeks ago Rick text me wanting to put a Heaps trip together. I let him get the permit this since the rain gods know when I pull a Heaps permit. We were rained out the last 5 in a row in my name. Just as we thought, it rained Friday & Saturday, then the rain gods realized I didn't have a permit so it cleared out for a nice sunny day.

We got a decent start, I think around 430 we headed out on the West Rim for the hike in. We arrived at the first rap around 730 and hung out there for an hour so eating a little food and enjoying the nice morning we had.

Down the first rap we went, forgetting that my 60' rope only had a 50' pull cord on it from a bad spot that I had cut off and never replaced, Eric had a little fun getting the rope down. The 200' rope thrown down the second rap, with the remaining slope just downclimbed. We leisurely made our way across the slickrock to the head of the narrows for wetsuit time. Another hour or so was spent eating 2nd breakfast, hydrating up, dry bagging gear and wetsuiting up.

In case you can't tell, we aren't trying to break any speed records, but just enjoying the day and companionship of friends.

We had an array of suits. Kyler and I wore 4/3's with vests, Rick a 4/3 stacked with a shorty, Devin a 3/2 stacked with a shorty, Eric & Lorey 7's. I never got cold and I don't recall anyone else saying anything about being cold either.

The canyon was completely full of water. There was a slight flow and every pothole and downclimb sent water over the lip. There are a few sections that used to be swimmers that are completely full of sand. It is probably in the easiest conditions it could be in right now. The first and second set of narrows are passed fairly quickly. I can't remember the exact time, but we stopped for lunch again at the crossroads for half hour of so.

At that time we estimated hitting the last rap around 4pm and knew we had plenty of time to keep enjoying the day. All in all it was pretty uneventful as we worked our way through. It's always hard to get in pictures of how green and colorful this canyon really is. The theme of today was pretty much swimming as everything was so full. Some raps the first person was sent down as a test, then the rest jumping into the pools when available.

The last rap was reached just after 4 as expected. As in the past, we took an hour or so de-suiting for some dry clothes, eating some food and reconfirming our rap sequence. We had plenty of rope. Kyler had carried the 300' all day packed away in a drybag and the seam duct taped to keep it dry, so he was especially glad to be to the end. We also had a 200', 120', 70' w/cord, 60' w/cord. The sequence was a 70' w/cord on the first, 200' on the second, 300' on the third and using the ropes as pull cords successively as they came down. One person staying at each station to pass people through quickly.

The plan is pretty flawless, except for the fact that as Rick went first off the tree, there was already another group there. Not quite sure how long they had been there, at least an hour and half or so. We had radios with us so we switched to their channel to keep communication alive. Another hour passes and they have 2 people on ground finally but still havn't even pulled the 200' rap yet. Another 30 minutes and they stick the 200' pulling it so we go down and fix it for them. Another 30 minutes pass and their last person if finally on the ground so we down to the bird perch. Another 30 minutes pass and their 300' rope is finally out of our way and we can head off. We pass our group down flawlessly and methodically through the stations and gather all our ropes up.

Not a huge deal, but it's now 8pm on our descent from Emerald Pools. It's hard to say if our leisurely day helped or hurt us. If we had went faster would we have passed them in the canyon and got the final raps first, or would we have gotten there and had to wait who knows for how much longer? Not a big deal though. I just laid down up in the crack above the first rap and went took a nap for a bit.

Awesome day with my son and some good friends.

[Taylor]

Awesome!

[taatmk]

Great report! I see that the Sqwurel descender was used. How did it respond?

[2065toyota]

I still use a Critr, my son an ATS, the other 4 had sqwurel's on their maiden voyage. They all liked them, but said there is still a learning curve to be gained on the initial setup up. The Critr works so well for me that I'm not in a huge hurry to go buy one.

When Eric came down the last 300' rap, because the Sqwurel has so many 'legs' that hang down low, as he weighted the last rap and headed off, one of the 'legs' grabbed his tether. He was already and committed so he kept going down. It didn't cause him any real issues other than it made one of the horns unusable.

[jman]

Great pics Toyota! I'm glad you were able to get a Heals trip in. 5times in a row just sucks. Thankfully Heaps isn't too difficult to obtain permits.....yet....


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[Slot Machine]

Nice report!

[2065toyota]

So Devin's long lost memory card just surfaced in some canyoneering gear this weekend on our Escalante trip. It's an old thread, but it's getting to be that time of year again. He had a ton of pics on there so it's nice to have it found. Hopefully everyone has another successful canyoneering season this year.

We also found out why the new device is called the Sqwurel