Photos:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219548007/a=38054161/t_=38054161
This trip was an exploration trip
with Mike Kelsey, the author of the "Technical Slot Canyon Guide to the
Colorado Plateau." Mike is almost done with his research for his
second edition of the book, and this trip was going to be the final
research before cutting it off and working to publish the book.
Jonas, Stuart and I headed out on Thursday, and drove down towards North
Wash. It was late by the time we got down there, so we were going
to pull out on one of the secluded camp areas I knew about. We
were intent on watching for the free range cows (so to not hit one), and
missed our turn. We proceeded down 276, and pulled out on one of
the dirt roads; and found a spur trail up a hill. It was a nice
night out, so we just threw our sleeping pads and bags on the ground and
went to sleep. We were still a little too close to the 276
highway, so I didn't sleep as good as I would have liked to.
Friday 5/9:
We woke up with the first light, around 5:45am; had breakfast and packed
up. We started driving farther south on 276, until the arranged
pullout meeting with Mike. We ran into Mike around 7am, and did
introductions. Mike had never met Stuart, and had only met Jonas
in passing. We then continued down the road towards Sevenmile
canyon. There were a few spots I was glad we took the Jeep (we
debated taking a Subaru.) It's a little rough in spots, requiring
moderately high clearance. We got to the start of what Mike is
calling the Big East Fork of Sevenmile canyon. This would be our
first known descent. Due to it's location, I'm sure other teams
had likely been down it, but we didn't know of anyone, nor did we know
what to expect. Mike had seen it from the bottom, so we knew we
had an exit; and he had scouted it a bit from the rim. We
discussed and divided up the gear, and headed out around 8:30am.
We hit the head of the canyon, dropped in, and were at the first narrows
around 8:50am.
There was a fun downclimb, and then what looked like the first rap.
We set a rap line, and people scouted it out. Some used it as a
handline, and some rapped. When I looked at it, it didn't look
that bad. I kept the rope there, just in case; but was able to
downclimb it. The next slot section was twisted and pretty, and
not very technical. It did have a few fun downclimbs, and then we
came to our second drop and our first real rappel. We set up a
rock anchor, and everyone was on the ground around 10am.
When we reached the next drop, it looked like it could be bypassed on
either side. Jonas, Mike and Stuart went right, so I went to check
out the left. Both sides did go; the left side was class 3 or
maybe a spot of class 4; the right side looked easier. There were
a couple more downclimbs, and then we got to the best of the slot
sections. It was a fun downclimb to get in, and then was a cool
slot with great formations, and some more fun downclimbs. It was a
pretty short section though, and we were at a confluence around 10:45am.
Shortly after this, there was a tricky downclimb which some handlined,
and then I finished the downclimb. We then hit the confluence with
the main Sevenmile Canyon. We scouted a couple of exits, just in
case; but we were going to try to climb up the Main Sevenmile canyon.
We were able to climb high pretty easily over the first obstacle, but
the next one was going to be tough. It was a large rock, which
people usually rappel when they come from the opposite direction.
We looked around, but determined that tossing a hook would be the best
solution. We were able to toss the hook, and gave it a good pull.
Seemed solid; at least, solid enough for what I needed it for. I
only needed it for a little leverage for the starting move. We
were up part of the way already; probably 15 feet off the ground, so a
partner assist wasn't really possible. I climbed up, and Stuart
came in as a possible spot in case the hook gave out. Pretty
quickly, I was able to wedge in between the rock and the wall; and made
the climb up. The hook was fairly stable, but was reversed with
the rope running under it. With the right pull, it could have popped
out. Glad we didn't use the right pull. I set a line up for
the others to come up, and we were all up around noon.
We had a quick snack, and then continued up main Sevenmile. There
was a water section that could be stemmed over, and a few more small
upclimbs. We came to a spot where some people had rappelled down,
but it was a pretty easy upclimb. Some chose to have a handline
there. We then came to a pool of unknown depth. Hmmm.
Did we want to get wet? I didn't care, and would upclimb the drop;
but only if everyone was game and was going to follow. I didn't
want to get wet for nothing. We decided to go for it, and Stuart
wanted to give it a go. The pool was to his upper thigh, and was
muddy at the bottom. He got out of the water, and tried to wash
the mud off his shoes. He got most of it off, and then did the
upclimb. He set a rope, so I went over and climbed up half way.
Jonas then brought over his pack and Mikes, and I shuttled those packs,
plus mine off my back, up to Stuart. I finished the climb, and
then Jonas and Mike followed.
The next obstacle was another spot where we tossed the hook. We
pulled on it pretty good, and it seemed pretty solid. Mike decided
that he would ascend up this one. He got to the lip, and then was
having some trouble. He also saw that the hook was pretty
precariously placed, which added to the excitement. He made it
over, but donated a bit of blood on the rock in the process. He
set the line more securely, and the rest of us followed up.
There was one more good upclimb where people rappelled, but it didn't
look that bad. I upclimbed it, and it wasn't that bad. Still
set up a rope for the others to use as a handline or ascend. We
all got up that, and then worked our way right along the rim of another
canyon that Mike wanted to explore; which he was calling the little East
Fork of Sevenmile Canyon. Stuart, Jonas and Mike started to
traverse forward, but I saw a chute that looked like it went into the
canyon and it looked pretty fun. I told them I'd meet them in the
canyon, and dropped in. It was pretty loose, and a bit
challenging, but it did go. I got into the canyon, and went
upcanyon to meet them. They were setting a handline for a
downclimb near them; it was now around 3pm. We talked, and decided
that I should head downcanyon, and would stop at the next obstacle.
I was able to make it all the way downcanyon to what looked like the
final dryfall just before the intersection with the main Sevenmile
canyon. It looked like it was up and downclimbable, but I set a
pack wedge with a line just in case. Climbed down, and verified it was
definitely the junction with the main Sevenmile canyon. I climbed
back up, and just as I got to the top, Stuart and Mike were there.
Mike wanted to go verify the location in relation to the rappels, so he
and I went back down. He changed the anchor for the rope though,
as he didn't like the pack wedge. We used a chokestone farther up
instead. We climbed down, verified the location and then climbed
back up; it was now around 3:30pm. We then climbed back upcanyon
and met back up with Jonas who waited at the handline. From here,
it was a pretty straightforward climb out, and we were back at the cars
around 4:15pm. We packed up quickly, and drove back out and around
to 276. From here, we headed over to the Canyonlands area, and
drove about 30 miles in on a dirt road and set up camp just before the
park boundary. It had rained a little on the way over, so we were
hoping it would hold off enough to get our camp set up. The rain
did hold off, and we had camp set up around 8pm; although, it was pretty
windy.
We then had some dinner, and discussed the plans for the following day.
At first, we were talking about breaking camp, but I thought it would be
better if we just concentrate on the canyon. We can break camp if
we get out in time. This was Mike's second time through the
canyon, but the first time they went through with big packs in multiple
days. We were going to try to go through fast with light packs, in
one day; and we were going to try to scout out to see if we could make
the canyon using only a 60m rope so people wouldn't have to lug in a
special length long rope. We also divided up the gear and got our
packs all ready as tomorrow was going to be a big day. We went to
bed around 10pm, and it started to rain about 1am. It woke, and
kept me up a little while.
Saturday 5/10:
We woke up at first light around 5:45am, and had a quick breakfast.
We packed up quickly, and were on our way. We dropped Jonas and
Stuart off at the start, and then went and dropped my Jeep off at the
end of the canyon. We then took Mikes Tracker back to the start,
did some last minute prep and were starting the hike into Clearwater
around 7am. We got to the first rappel around 7:45am, set it up,
and took a bit of time getting photos of people going down; since Mike
wanted photos for the book. The first rappel was around 100 feet,
with some of it free hanging. The canyon below was pretty.
It wasn't a tight canyon, but the walls soon towered above us.
Not long after, we were at the second rappel. There were two
options, we could go around, or we could go through the watercourse,
which would involve a swim. The watercourse section looked pretty
cool, so Jonas, Stuart and I were going to go that way. Mike would
make the bypass rappel, and would wait for us. We transferred gear
so we only had one pack, and we stripped down to our skivvies so we
could keep our clothes dry. We lowered two packs down, and then
got pictures of Mike rapping down; around 9:15am.
Jonas, Stuart and I then headed back, and built a rock pile anchor.
They went down, and tested the pull. It got stuck. I
modified it to add a rock to channel the rope; and rapped down.
Unfortunately, when we pulled the rope, it again got stuck.
Bummer. Had to ascend the rope in my underwear. That was a
first. Got the rope unstuck, modified the anchor and re-rapped
down. Pulled the rope fine. Mike started to get impatient,
but we already pulled the rope. We were going through now.
The second drop could be downclimbed, but we set a handline up to be
safe. It was a steep ramp, and then dropped off around four feet
with a small overhang. Could carefully climb to the drop, and then
just jump. The third section was the rap into the swim. We
set an anchor on a chokestone, and then went in one by one. Mike
took photos from below.
Stuart went in first, and then got my fleece to warm up. Jonas was
next, and I was last. Made the pull, and we were all out around
10:45am. We wasted around an hour with the stuck rope, and Mike
was getting anxious, so we quickly rearranged the packs back and headed
downcanyon. We hit the confluence with Waterhole canyon around
11am, and came to the third rappel around 11:15am. I backed up the
anchor and people rapped down. There was flowing water beyond this
point. There was a fourth rappel with an overhang around 11:45am.
There was a couple of downclimbs, but the canyon was mostly open and
quite scenic due to the towering canyon walls. We arrived at the
big drop around 12:15pm. We climbed down to check it out. It
looked like a lot of fun. Mike really wanted to do the rappels
from the traverse on the ledges. The rest of us really wanted to
do the big drop. Since it was really Mike's trip, we did the ledge
traverse. It was a loose traverse, and I ended up getting a ton of
prickly pear needles in my hand when I put my hand down on a ledge to
climb over it. Bummer. Got most of them out with duct tape.
We set up a rap off a rock pedestal, and then enjoyed a little shade and
lunch.
Stuart went first on the first stage of the big rappel bypass.
There was a lot of loose rock, and his rope snagged some and brought it
down. Luckily, the rocks weren't that big, but they did hit his
shins and caused some cuts. He got down, and bandaged his wounds
while Jonas set up on rappel. Mike went off to photo Jonas, and
noticed some other webbing. Another group had been down here since
the exploration with Scott. Interesting. Mike rapped down. I
climbed around and retrieved the webbing from the other rappel.
When we pulled the rope, it got stuck on a ledge. We had to work
on it a little to clear it.
We scouted around a little, and found the rap anchor from the other
group for the second stage. We just set up on that and used it.
We were able to do both stages with less than a 50m rope, but they were
a little more dangerous with regards to rockfall, ledges, and the
possibility of stuck ropes. If I do the canyon again, I'll take
the 300' rope and rap down the watercourse; a much better rap in my
opinion; and way more fun. We then continued downcanyon. It
was again mostly open with some minor obstacles. We reached the
Colorado River around 3:30pm.
Here we scrambled up a loose dirt slope, and traversed the ridges on the
side of the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon. At one point, a
boat passed by and I'm sure they were wondering what we were doing and
how the heck did we get there. There were some fairly loose and
exposed sections; which Jonas didn't like. We got to the
confluence with Easter Pasture around 5pm.
The trip up Easter Pasture wasn't very technical; more of a scramble.
However, there was definitely some route finding involved. You had
to bypass a couple headwall sections; and make sure you were still
heading where you wanted to. There was some springs on the way up;
so I made a quick stop and drank from a little pool. Hope that
doesn't come back to haunt me in a couple of weeks. We continued
upwards, and it got to be a broad valley with lots of cheatgrass and big
sections of pear cactus. The cattle trail from years ago had
disappeared, so we made our way through the field-like wide canyon.
We did end up finding another cattle trail near the end of the canyon,
as it was climbing through the last rock layers; and then hiked the
cattle trails back to the car. We got back to the car just around
8pm.
It had been a very full day; at just under 13 hours. We blew
around an hour messing around with stuck rope in the slot section that
we could have bypassed (but I'm glad we didn't because it's a really
cool section), and likely another hour messing around setting up photos
during the day, but we were moving pretty fast the rest of the day.
It would be a VERY long day for most. Also, due to the large
amount of traversing, many will get hotspots on their feet from the
awkward pressure and angles. While I wouldn't say I was pooped at
the end, I will say that I was glad the day was over. All in all,
it was a pretty canyon; but it was a lot of effort for very little slot
canyon. This is more of an all day, or multi-day canyon stroll to
just see a pretty and open canyon; rather than a tight slot canyon
adventure.
We drove back to pick up Mike's vehicle, and then back to camp. We
decided to just stay the night there, and get an early start the next
day. Definitely glad we didn't pack up camp in the morning.
We would then have been out after dark, and would have had to again set
up camp. We made and shared dinner, and chatted about the day.
We also discussed the following days' plans. We would again wake
up early, and drive out using the Flint trail to go through the Robber's
Roost; and out to the Swell. We would be checking out an alternate
way in to the North Fork of Iron Wash. I prepped my pack for the
next day, and went to sleep around 11pm.
Sunday 5/11:
We woke up with first light again; around 5:45am. Had a quick
breakfast, packed up camp, and were on our way around 6:30am. We
drove up the Flint Trail, which is definitely a four wheel drive road.
Mike said it was much worse than before, but I remembered it being
pretty rough before. I definitely was wishing my Commander had a
low range 4WD, as it struggled in a couple of spots. Made it up
okay, but just as we got to the top, a warning message came on that the
transmission temperature was too hot. We parked for a minute and I
let it cool down as I took some photos; now around 7:30am. We then
continued through the Roost, and into the Swell. Mike checked out
another road on the way through the Roost. We then pulled off to
check an alternate entry to the North Fork of Iron Wash in the Swell.
It too was a 4WD road, so we were definitely glad we had the Jeep.
We parked near the end of the road, and started hiking towards the North
Fork of Iron Wash around 10:45am.
We were really moving, and we hit the head of the canyon around 11:15am.
The North Fork was a fun canyon. It had some fun downclimbs, a few
neat slot sections, a slanted slot section, and some small pothole
obstacles. We hit the real meat a little before 11:45am. A
pretty good sized and deep pothole. It looked like you could full
body span across it a little higher up, and you could definitely climb
up and over to a rappel off a log even higher up (which was the normal
route) but Jonas and I wanted to try to get out of it. We climbed
down into the pothole, and spent a bit of time tossing a potshot and our
two packs over the lip. We couldn't tell how well they were set.
When we pulled on them, they started to move a little. It looked
like I could climb out though, with just a little assist near the
bottom, and possibly the top.
Jonas gave me a boost and got me started, and I was able to climb all
the way up to the lip. At the lip, I was burning strength pretty
quickly as I was leaning back a bit since the lip was overhung; and
there were only a couple fingertip holds. I tried to use the lines
to pull myself over, but they again began to move. I decided to
play it safe and backed down a little to just under the overhang where I
could rest. Mike sent down his hook to Jonas, so I climbed back
up, and set the hook on the edge, and clipped it into the webbing.
I then climbed back down so I could get a breather.
At the bottom, I used my prussiks to ascend the two ropes attached to my
pack and the webbing attached to the hook and then the potshot.
Unfortunately, we weren't planning ahead and the webbing still had the
knots tied into it since it was previously used as a handline. Got
lots of practice passing knots on an ascend as I had to pass three to
get back up to the lip. Burned a lot of time there. When I
was back to the place I had gotten while climbing, I again got back on
the rock and was able to climb my way up and over. When I was up,
I noticed a pretty huge handhold on the left that would have been easy
to make that first climb had I known it was there. Oh well, I know
for next time. The other thing was that the bags would definitely
have held. They were just sliding to the right as there was an
angle in the lip. However, the pothole lip was a good edge; not
sloping as it seemed like it was since the bags were moving. Oh
well, we know more for next time. We were able to make it up
though; and I was pretty happy with the climb. (For future
reference, it would be pretty easy to defeat with a hook on a cheater
stick too.)
Jonas then tried to ascend using my prussiks, but had to adjust a couple
of times as I use my safety line in with my system; which he didn't
have. When he got up over the pothole, I then rapped back down,
and climbed out the upcanyon side so Mike and I could do the ledges as
well. Mike wanted some pictures of the ledges and the tree rappel.
We went up and over, and then rapped back down near Jonas. It was
now around 2pm; and we had burned a lot of time with all the pothole and
photo antics. Didn't regret it at all though, it was a fun escape
and good practice.
We then continued downcanyon, and were looking for possible exits.
We found a gully that looked like it would go, around a second bend;
around 2:45pm. We climbed up the gully and sure enough, it went
fine. We then walked around the rim of the canyon, checking out
one other possible exit that Mike had marked; but it looked pretty
challenging. I liked our exit much better. Mike wanted to
beeline it to the cars; and I liked the idea of still keeping around the
rim and dropping down one of the arms right to the car. My way
would be a little longer, but a lot less elevation gain and loss.
We decided to split up, and Jonas and I did the rim walk. On the
way, we saw an old pump, and took some photos there.
There was a two track that we hiked back. On the way down, Mike
was hiking up the road. We told him about the pump, and he went
and took some photos. We got back to the cars around 3:45pm, and
there were a couple other trucks there with some folks that came to
photograph the old pump. Neat. We changed into more
comfortable clothes for the drive home, gave back the canyon gear to the
respective owners, and then headed back home. Stopped in Glenwood
for some great Mexican food on the way back. All in all, a great
weekend. Very fun to do some explorations, and the company was top
notch.
I'm including a couple of photos from Mike Kelsey at the end as well.
He had a couple of shots I liked...
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
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