Behunin March 2016 - Stuck Rope

[djbliss]

First time doing Behunin with a group of 4 on the 11^th of March. Got a late start and ended up finishing the last rappel in the dark. Took us 10 hours starting from the Zion Lodge (Shuttle starts the 12^th and there was no room to park at The Grotto).

Temperatures were perfect – low 60’s throughout the approach and even in the canyon. There was still a significant amount of snow where the West Rim Trail turns west and heads up to Behunin Pass – seemed to be melting fast though. No snow in the canyon.

The drainage that precedes the first rappel into Behunin must have recently flashed and there are a couple very large tree falls that were challenging to climb over.
The canyon is full of clean, beautiful water. From the first rappel, water was gently trickling through the canyon. Despite being full of water, we were able to keep everything but our feet dry with the exception of R7, where some of us slipped into the lower pool which is chest deep. We took wetsuits, and those that fell in were glad we had them on.

Anchors with black webbing were all in great shape. I tried using an SBG throughout and had enormous difficulty at first with too much friction on our wet and heavy ropes.
Finding R9 in low light was difficult. We rapped off the chains under the chock stone, and didn’t notice the other anchor – with green webbing – further out on the face. We had no trouble with rope-pulls on any of the previous rappels, but ropes were stuck tight on R9 after our last person double-stranded. We tried everything we could in the dark, including pulling from the beach and from the large boulder. After almost an hour we threw in the towel.

If anyone happens to descend Behunin and retrieve our ropes we would love to get them back. One of us lives in Saint George and could arrange something. (email is djbliss20000 at yahoo)

Canyon is currently in great condition - I can't imagine doing it in the heat of the summer. Maybe if we had started an hour earlier and hadn’t lost our ropes I would have had a better experience. But I have to agree with Shane on Behunin; at least I can say I’ve done it..

[ratagonia]

First time doing Behunin with a group of 4 on the 11^th of March. Got a late start and ended up finishing the last rappel in the dark. Took us 10 hours starting from the Zion Lodge (Shuttle starts the 12^th and there was no room to park at The Grotto).

Temperatures were perfect – low 60’s throughout the approach and even in the canyon. There was still a significant amount of snow where the West Rim Trail turns west and heads up to Behunin Pass – seemed to be melting fast though. No snow in the canyon.

The drainage that precedes the first rappel into Behunin must have recently flashed and there are a couple very large tree falls that were challenging to climb over.
The canyon is full of clean, beautiful water. From the first rappel, water was gently trickling through the canyon. Despite being full of water, we were able to keep everything but our feet dry with the exception of R7, where some of us slipped into the lower pool which is chest deep. We took wetsuits, and those that fell in were glad we had them on.

Anchors with black webbing were all in great shape. I tried using an SBG throughout and had enormous difficulty at first with too much friction on our wet and heavy ropes.
Finding R9 in low light was difficult. We rapped off the chains under the chock stone, and didn’t notice the other anchor – with green webbing – further out on the face. We had no trouble with rope-pulls on any of the previous rappels, but ropes were stuck tight on R9 after our last person double-stranded. We tried everything we could in the dark, including pulling from the beach and from the large boulder. After almost an hour we threw in the towel.

If anyone happens to descend Behunin and retrieve our ropes we would love to get them back. One of us lives in Saint George and could arrange something. (email is djbliss20000 at yahoo)

Canyon is currently in great condition - I can't imagine doing it in the heat of the summer. Maybe if we had started an hour earlier and hadn’t lost our ropes I would have had a better experience. But I have to agree with Shane on Behunin; at least I can say I’ve done it..

Now you know why Hank and I put a new anchor out on the face!

You might call the backcountry desk and leave your contact info, in case someone retrieves your ropes.

Tom

[djbliss]

Thanks Tom - I'll do that. That alternate placement would have made a huge difference!

[dakotabelliston]

That last pull has always been a beast. Awesome canyon !!! I'd love to get out and do this canyon again but with so many on my bucket list I need to start getting them crossed off. Thanks for the report.