Water levels in Zion

[uintafly]

Does anyone know if last weekends storm hit Zion at all? I have a permit for Imlay this weekend and am trying to decide on which wetsuit to use. In the past I have always played it safe with a 5mm, but I know levels have been pretty low lately and I kind of want to get away with a 3mm. I typically run pretty hot and will probably be fine with 3, but if it recently filled up with fresh cold water I would play it safe.

[Scott P]

Imlay can be colder with lower water since you will be in it longer when escaping potholes.

[Iceaxe]

FWIW: As a general rule recently filled potholes are warmer then long standing potholes. During the summer any water entering the potholes is warmer then water the has chilled through evaporation and sitting in the shade, I call this the refrigerator effect. If you do a Zion slot in summer the day after it flashed you will discover the water is bathtub warm from flowing over the sun heated exposed slickrock.

[ratagonia]

A few Thunderstorms, but not all that many. Imlay in particular requires a direct hit. And the canyon has a lot of water holding capacity, so even if it did, probably not enough water to fill everything to the end.

Short version: good luck. Bring the full tool set. Should be fun/challenging.

Tom

[Hasian]

We descended the Full Imlay yesterday and came into only 3 mandatory overhead swimmers for very short distances. Log soup was thigh deep and the keepers were in keeper mode with either very little water or bone dry. I wished I had my 2/3 or a shorty instead of the 5 mil wetsuit I wore.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[Phavant]

I thought for sure the recent storms would have filled things up. How high was the lip on Big Bertha?

[Hasian]

It was maybe 12 above the canyon floor.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[Utah Canyoneer]

We did full imlay yesterday. Surprised we didn't see your footprints @Hasian . Today, however, it dumped rain hard for about 20/30 minutes. Enough that waterfalls we're forming on the cliffs, so I would not be surprised if things have changed! Did you already go @uintafly ?

[Hasian]

@Utah Canyoneer: was there evidence that It flowed in the lower canyon? It dumped on us while we were at the crossroads for 30 minutes. The sand absorbed all of it.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[Utah Canyoneer]

We got a little rain for about 30 minutes yesterday too. Thunder loud enough to scare the pants off ya. I just saw the falls from Springdale today, I wasn't up the narrows to see if any was coming out of the canyon today. Just thought it was possible things had changed

[Scott Card]

[uintafly]

We did full imlay yesterday. Surprised we didn't see your footprints @Hasian . Today, however, it dumped rain hard for about 20/30 minutes. Enough that waterfalls we're forming on the cliffs, so I would not be surprised if things have changed! Did you already go @uintafly ?

Sadly no. The forecast called for 20% chance of afternoon thunderstorms so we opted for a quicker route. We have a permit for the 16th though so hopefully the weather holds.

[rockgremlin]

Looking to do either Kolob, Imlay lite, Orderville, or Das Boot this weekend. Sounds like water levels gonna be at ~50%, huh?


Anyone been down Das Boot recently?

[rockgremlin]

Did Fat Man's yesterday. It was tippy-top full of water...like a great big sandstone water park.

And Parunuweap was running high and looked more like Muddy Creek than the usual clear water creek it usually is.

[twotimer]

I was there on July 25th when it rained for 18 hours straight. Everything went from near empty to filled up. I watched waterfalls all day. It was awesome.