Grotto canyon by accident

[Court]

Deleted


(a note from Sombeech, this post has been added again later in this thread. Thanks for posting again, @Court )

[Scott P]

As I got closer I could see that it was close but not close enough. It was a solid 12-16 feet short. I had to pull up the log tied to the end and untie it. I took a few deep breaths and jumped off the end of the rope and miraculously landed very well and didn't get hurt at all!

[2065toyota]

I think I would have passed a knot and rapped down the remaining on the 6mm cord before I jumped. This is coming from the person sitting on the couch with a broken leg

[dakotabelliston]

Glad you are okay !!! Luckily you were not injured, that is a fairly large drop. If I remember correctly that is how the guy died on "Not Imlay" last year. He dropped off the end of the rope & ended up rolling off the next ledge. Be safe !!!

[harness man]

Dear Court
Solo canyoneering: bad idea
Rappelling on 6mm: REALLY TERRIBLE idea (8mm is accepted minimum diameter canyoneering rope)
Jumping off end of rope: worst idea of all.
Leaving junk in canyon for others to clean up: not good form.
Dropping into unknown canyon without being certain of location: c'mon man, all this together will get you dead.
Please get with some experienced canyoneers and learn to do it right!

[ratagonia]

Dear Court
Solo canyoneering: bad idea
Rappelling on 6mm: REALLY TERRIBLE idea (8mm is accepted minimum diameter canyoneering rope)
Jumping off end of rope: worst idea of all.
Leaving junk in canyon for others to clean up: not good form.
Dropping into unknown canyon without being certain of location: c'mon man, all this together will get you dead.
Please get with some experienced canyoneers and learn to do it right!

What he said.

Although... I am not so much against soloing, as I am against publishing anything to do with this. Why publish this - just so everyone knows what a dumbass you are?

[Rob L]

It's his first post, Tom, please give some leeway.

I'm all for open discussion / confession / fair and constructive criticism, but calling someone a "dumbass" after their first post is unfair and not worthy of a man of your experience, and is unlikely to bring the person back to our shores.

Rob

[kiwi_outdoors]

Tom - his post is in fact valuable to the canyoneering community. I'll let you figure out how.

[Sombeech]

Wow, that could have gone bad more than once. Glad you're alright, and while hindsight is 20/20 and you can see every mistake you made, it took balls to post your story here with the certainty of criticism. For that, we thank you for posting.

Did you happen to take any pictures? That, may be less forgivable than the navigational mistakes you made.

[Taylor]

Sorry Rob but I agree with Tom. To the original poster: very cool hiking route and one I would like to try but where was your map/compass/gps? Even a smart phone with one of a dozen different mapping apps would have pinpointed your location. I don't understand how anyone ever gets lost. Glad you made it home safely.

[ratagonia]

It's his first post, Tom, please give some leeway.

I'm all for open discussion / confession / fair and constructive criticism, but calling someone a "dumbass" after their first post is unfair and not worthy of a man of your experience, and is unlikely to bring the person back to our shores.

Rob

It's not his first post. It is his first post on Bogley, and he is otherwise a public figure.

Tom

[ratagonia]

Tom - his post is in fact valuable to the canyoneering community. I'll let you figure out how.

And terrible in so many ways... I'll let YOU figure out how.

Tom

[harness man]

To Court and Fellow Canyoneers
All personalities aside-
How best to comment on said adventure that (from a canyoneer's perspective) amounts to a suicide mission?
I originally thought the post was a joke, and then became concerned that it was real....
I hope that Court's posting /confessional means that he will be seeking proper instruction for the next canyon
or moving onto other exciting sports that will not ultimately involve SAR.
EVERYONE here CARES Court (but we have different ways of expressing it! ).

[ratagonia]

Tom - his post is in fact valuable to the canyoneering community. I'll let you figure out how.

That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. - Hitchen's Razor.

If you would like to make the CASE for the value of this post, please do.

Tom

[harness man]

To put this in perspective...
Eons ago winter ice climbing in the Rockies my cocky / noobish / younger self decided (after half a dozen frozen waterfalls)
that it was time to "take the gloves off" and free solo one of these babies.
I picked a likely looking 500 foot grade five-ish flow with a walk off at the top and started up.
About three quarters of the way up, on the vertical cruxy section, the tube pick on one of my Lowe Hummingbird axes began
to come loose...
I had no wrench to tighten it, so would just freak out and pray every time I had to pull on it while placing the other tool.
After another 30 feet, I blasted a rock with the OTHER tube pick, and now bent and deformed, it was not sticking very securely in the ice, either.
By a miracle, and with pants full of piss I, eventually made it up, off, and down.
That evening by the stove, I reported my epic adventure to my fellow climbers.
They said,
"You stupidmoronidiotboneheadcrazyfbombdipshootdinglebe rrybozosheepforbrainsfool."(I think "dumb ass" may have been in there too.)
"you never, ever, ever, EVER go SOLOING ICE without a SPARE TOOL.
and maybe an emergency screw or two.

[twotimer]

Court...ignore anyone that busts your chops for going solo. I've been doing solo epics for 28 years, so does Mike Kelsey and the King of solo adventuring...Harvey Butchart. Self righteousness...yeah, says you.

With that said, I have to wonder what kind of reaction your were expecting with your post. Have you been around this forum very much? I hate to say it, but it kinda feels like a trolling thread. Not that I doubt that it happened.

You sort of blew it with this one. Just tellin' ya straight up. However, I'd hike with you anytime because I like that you've got guts...pretty ballsy peeling off a 12 footer. I paint houses for a living and it's functional with a good landing zone. Something I certainly wouldn't recommend to the clumsy folks with little body zen.

Glad you didn't jack yourself up...I've had a couple close calls myself. Now go back and clean up your mess...maybe take someone with ya, huh?

[Glenn]

I'm glad a certain someone gave me a head's up about the post so I could read it before it was deleted. What a trip; glad you came out of it okay. And count me in as someone who also enjoys traveling solo.

And for all the finger-wagging, I'm sure everyone here has been in a pinch or two and managed to luckily get out. Hopefully, lessons learned for everyone.

[jman]

I'm glad a certain someone gave me a head's up about the post so I could read it before it was deleted. What a trip; glad you came out of it okay. And count me in as someone who also enjoys traveling solo.

And for all the finger-wagging, I'm sure everyone here has been in a pinch or two and managed to luckily get out. Hopefully, lessons learned for everyone.

Dang, you are right.

I was going to map out in Google Earth and check out his path...

[TommyBoy]

And for all the finger-wagging, I'm sure everyone here has been in a pinch or two and managed to luckily get out. Hopefully, lessons learned for everyone.

Its not that he got in trouble, its that he made a series of rather stupid mistakes that miraculously didn't result in getting hurt. While you could argue that the tone should have been a little nicer I think he deserves the finger wagging for his post.

1. He did a canyon solo, while its not the dumbest thing in the world to do, you need to be very careful and plan/prep very thoroughly if you do this. He went light on gear and didn't seem to be prepped very well according to the story.

2. He admitted he really had no idea where he was when trying to drop into Hidden, at this point he should have followed the trail and just hiked back down the mountain. Instead he made one of his stupidest mistakes of the day he said F-it I'm just gonna drop into this canyon here and hope its the right one.

3. When he got to the end and realized he might not have enough rope he should have stayed put and waited for rescue, if he had told someone his plans (Hidden) they would have found him since after looking in Hidden I'm sure they would have checked Grotto, IF not then that would be another mistake and a very big one to make if planning to do solo canyoneering. Instead he went for it with no idea how short the rope might be since he couldn't see the bottom.

[harness man]

Tommy Boy X2!
To be clear:
I also enjoy soloing stuff, from time to time.
Post should have read:
"solo canyoneering: bad idea for the inexperienced/ unprepared."
Gotta thank Court for his post though, keeps things interestin'