Heaps Canyon: August 8-9 2015

[Matthew_R]

My friend is getting married this week, but before doing so, he wanted to go on a canyoneering trip with the guys. We decided on doing Heaps as an overnight trip so we could take time and enjoy the canyon at a leisurely pace. We arrived at the Lava Point campgrounds Friday night where it rained all night, not letting up until 4 or 5 in the morning. This had us slightly concerned, but we had been watching the weather almost hourly the whole week previous so we knew it was going to clear up. In the morning we packed up camp and drove down to the west rim trail head and got ready to head out. We met a group of three that were heading down boundary canyon and we wished them a fun and safe passage.

The canyon was completely full everywhere, and I noticed that, compared to June 2014, there was significantly more sand in the 2nd and third narrows. For reference, last year at one pothole, The water was about 2 feet below the lip and I couldn't touch the bottom. My friend dove down to the bottom and boosted me up to the lip. This year, there was so much sand that I could stand next to the lip and it came up to my chest. It was great to see the canyon in a different condition, and realize how drastically things can change. The last sequence took about 2 hours to complete with 4 people. (Not great, but an improvement from last year at least) This was our second time through Heaps, both times as overnighters, and we can't wait to go back!

A short video from the trip.


Setting off on Saturday morning. By the time we got to the canyon, the skies were clear


The Subway off in the distance


Making our way across the knife edge


Making our way down the slope


Hauling our packs out of a pothole


Mike on rappel just after the crossroads. (Sunday morning)


Narrows after the Crossroads


Scale figure


In the hallway


Cool colors


Making our way up and over an obstacle


Rob on rappel just before the Iron room


Looking back up the rappel


Iron Room


Spencer emptying the water out of his pack


Spencer admiring the beautiful scenery


My favorite part of Heaps. Love the colors


Mike climbing over a log.


Mossy boulder


Spencer admiring the scenery....again


Corridor before the final up climb


Tourists


Mike on the final rappel: part 1


Mike on the final rappel: part 2


The crew. Happy to be done, wanting to go back


Thanks for reading
-Matt

[Iceaxe]

Nice pictures!

[dougr]

Beyond nice photos. Great color saturation, well framed, caught the canyon feel well.

[Matthew_R]

Nice pictures!

Beyond nice photos. Great color saturation, well framed, caught the canyon feel well.

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback.

-Matt

[accadacca]

Killer pixs man!

[levity]

what more can I say - STUNNING PHOTOGRAPHS !!!

if you've got a pulse this should make you get off the couch

[nkanarik]

Cool Video!!!

I haven't done Heaps yet, and was wondering if all those jumps are the traditional way of doing Heaps

[Matthew_R]

Cool Video!!!

I haven't done Heaps yet, and was wondering if all those jumps are the traditional way of doing Heaps

Not sure what the traditional way of doing things are, but jumping is certainly not required when doing Heaps. Our group was comfortable with doing so, but we always made sure it was safe enough jump if anything looked questionable. Some of the jumps were rappels, and others we could have just lowered ourselves into the water. The Slow-motion jump is the only spot where this doesn't apply. This spot can be done as a slide, or a meat anchor rappel if anyone in the group is not comfortable with a slide. Another spot to be mindful of in the canyon is the part in the video where we are jumping/hopping from a ledge.(1:47) There are different ways of dealing with this for every group. For us, I was comfortable enough to just hop across unprotected, (30 foot fall if I slip or miss) and the rest of the group had a safety line connected to their harness in case of a slip.There is a thread discussing this specific area of the canyon over on Canyon Collective right now that might be helpful to read as well. When in doubt, play it safe. Heaps is definitely one of my favorite canyons! Best of luck on crossing it off your list.

-Matt

[ratagonia]

Not sure what the traditional way of doing things are, but jumping is certainly not required when doing Heaps. Our group was comfortable with doing so, but we always made sure it was safe enough jump if anything looked questionable. Some of the jumps were rappels, and others we could have just lowered ourselves into the water. The Slow-motion jump is the only spot where this doesn't apply. This spot can be done as a slide, or a meat anchor rappel if anyone in the group is not comfortable with a slide. Another spot to be mindful of in the canyon is the part in the video where we are jumping/hopping from a ledge.(1:47) There are different ways of dealing with this for every group. For us, I was comfortable enough to just hop across unprotected, (30 foot fall if I slip or miss) and the rest of the group had a safety line connected to their harness in case of a slip.There is a thread discussing this specific area of the canyon over on Canyon Collective right now that might be helpful to read as well. When in doubt, play it safe. Heaps is definitely one of my favorite canyons! Best of luck on crossing it off your list.

-Matt

The traditional way of doing things is to have zero jumps. (That step across - hard to call that a jump. Intimidating, but not hard).

The one eight-foot drop with no anchor is usually done by handlining off your pack floating in the pool behind; pulling the pack down from across the pool with a quick tug. My percentage of doing this perfectly is 25%. My percentage of getting bopped on the head by my pack is also 25%.

Did Heaps yesterday with two guides from France. Much jumping occurred. For me, having a warmer wetsuit, having a croakie that holds my glasses well, having the canyon to be very full, lots of jumping on a Mexico trip and being inspired by my companions led to jumping in many places where we previously downclimbed and rappelled. It helps to know the canyon well, and know in advance which pools are swimmers. The jumps are primarily very short so water deeper than 5 or 6 feet is not really required.

However, potential jumpers should be aware that even experts jumping in well-established jumping canyons get hurt fairly regularly. The middle of Heaps would be a bad place to break your ankle.

Tom

[Sombeech]

Fun video!