Shenanigans

Shenanigans has the reputation of being a frightening canyon. As a team we did our best to prepare for it and it still scared the hell out of us. Steph, Tyler, Aralynn and I took on the challenge September 15th, 2012.

Most trip reports convey the experience of a canyon better with pictures. I'll attempt to convey the experience better with words. I'm just going to lay it all out, it was an emotional experience. Not sharing our reactions would be disingenuous.

So, we did Middle Leprechaun together. I've done Chambers Canyon. I'm 5'9", 173 lbs. Shenany should be no big deal. Right?

Wrong.

Shenanigans Canyon starts out very tame; it's typical North Wash fare for some distance. It's very pretty. It builds your confidence as you descend. Then you arrive at a slanted hallway. Part of that hallway is pitch black and it is also looks tapered at the bottom. It looks as if the smallest person would certainly become wedged between the walls if they proceeded at ground level.

Steph wanted to lead the hard sections since she doesn't like to be stuck between people in a canyon. Claustrophobia is her canyoneering Achilles' heel. We tentatively entered the slanted hallway. Soon the walls closed in, heightening Stephanie's fears. She is tough, and rarely cries, but the feeling of entrapment was overwhelming and she couldn't continue. She wept and pleaded to go back the way we came. We rested for a bit and tried to calm her nerves. We decided that I should climb over the top of her and lead. In a canyon that narrow, it's easier said than done.

I chimney climbed up to a log jammed above Stephanie's head. I then inspected the remainder of the hallway from my perch with a flashlight to make sure we weren't heading into a trap (yeah, the beta says it isn't a trap, but your eyes will tell you otherwise when you are there). Once we could see the rest of the hallway, Steph decided to continue leading. I descended back to my spot behind Stephanie and we finished that section unscathed.

Steph and I negotiating a tight section before the slanted hallway.

Soon we arrived at the Grim Crawl. It's gorgeous! It is also a formidable obstacle. We found a pretty good deadman anchor laying near the edge. It had been washed up form a recent flash flood. It was a single stone the size of a cantaloupe expertly wrapped in webbing. We cleaned it off, adjusted the webbing and tried to find a good place to bury it. It was difficult because there is a large hump in front of the drop which forces the deadman up and out of the ground when you weight the rope.

Anyway, we dug up as many stones as we could find and placed them on top of the deadman and buried it deep in the sand.

The Grim Crawl

Taking a good look at The Crawl (B&W just for fun)

Our Deadman Anchor

We discussed our options. I laid down on the Grim Crawl. Yeah, no thanks. My anchor building skills are better than my belly-crawling-along-sloped-shelf skills. I pointed to a large chokestone next to the ledge of the Grim Craw and said "I believe that the downclimb from that ledge is pretty easy, once you get across the Grim Crawl." Tyler agreed that the downclimb looked easy from the top. It appeared to be a solid plan B. Rappelling off of the deadman was plan A.

To be clear, I wasn't setting Tyler up for an epic. He can handle himself. Tyler's bag of climbing tricks is pretty deep. He can climb 5.12 and boulder V7 routes. We both agreed that the Grim Crawl and the following chimney downclimb was no big deal –for him.

Well, it came time to get some people down. Steph tested the deadman first (backed up with meat). It moved enough to crack the mountain of sand on top of it, but not enough to worry about.

I then proceeded to rappel off the deadman with Tyler backing it up. I rapped fast and stopped hard to test it. I hit the anchor as hard as I could. It didn't budge. Sweet! For our needs, it was bomber!

Then the unexpected happened. While talking about the "easy downclimb", Aralynn didn't think I meant "chimney downclimb". She envisioned downclimbing boulders when I said "easy downclimb". She also thought I was talking to the group and not specifically to Tyler. In hindsight, this is easy to understand.

So, instead of rappelling, Aralynn headed for the Grim Crawl. She is very small, less than 100 lbs. She thought the Grim Crawl was easy, and sped across it without hesitation. Once on the far shelf, she thought she was home free. Tyler also committed to the Crawl and tossed the rope down to me and Steph. He was a little spooked as he made the moves, but also made it across quickly.

From the bottom, the chimney downclimb looked like about 40 feet. From the top, to someone who has never descended a tall chimney (Aralynn), I'm sure it seemed much higher.

Tyler descended the chimney first. He only went down about 10 feet and coaxed Aralynn off the edge. She made the committing move that pins your body between the walls of the slot. She looked down at Tyler and then all the way to the bottom. Panic set in. That was a bad spot to have uncontrollable, adrenaline-fueled crying, but there is little one can do about that kind of fear. If she fell she probably would have died, and she knew it.

With some great coaching from Tyler, she did arrive safely at the bottom. It took about 45 minutes and many tears were shed. We all learned some important lessons from the Grim Crawl.

We headed down canyon through a fantastic twisty slot and underneath a very small arch. Then we arrived at a very long, well-lit, ultra-tight hallway. I was in the lead. Many parts of this section clamped down on my chest as I headed through. I never got stuck and my confidence continued to build as we flew through 200 feet of nightmarishly narrow slot canyon.

That all came to an end in a big hurry. Suddenly I couldn't get through. I tried again. No way. I extended my arms upward and breathed out hard. No again. I looked up, maybe to chimney up and over... not an option. I looked down... yes, it was perhaps two inches wider. I laid down on my side and started to scoot along using the side of my arm against the floor of the canyon. I couldn't see where I was going because there wasn't enough room for my head to tilt backwards with my helmet on. I used my free hand to remove my helmet and tossed it downcanyon. The bottom of the canyon narrowed slightly as I scooted along. Soon, I became stuck in that position. It was horrifying. I began to panic.

Steph was cheering me on the whole way, confident that I could make it. When I became stuck she stood next to the soles of my feet and let me use her ankle/leg as a springboard to propel myself along the canyon floor (really, really scary). I scooted another 10 feet until I could see the canyon widen above me, maybe an inch. However, I was still stuck laying on my side; there was simply not enough space to bend the arm underneath me to push myself into an upright position. Steph extended her hand down and pulled me to an upright position.

I then stuck my open hand across the width of the canyon. My hand is 9 3/4 inches from thumb to pinky. I've been in several canyons that skinny, but that section of Shenany takes the cake. I curled my pinky finger inward and could still touch both sides of the canyon!! It was almost like touching a hot stove, I pulled my hand back in horror- in pure disbelief. I knew I wouldn't fit. It was that width by my feet as well.

Exhausted, I looked at my options. It would have been be hell to go back. I looked up and noticed that the canyon widened very slightly above me. Going up and over the next 20 feet of canyon was my only option. I chimney climbed up two feet, which was no easy task in a canyon 10 inches wide. I ran out of strength and had to come back to the ground. Panic began to swell in my chest.

Fear of the unknown is bad. Fear of the known is even worse. I knew what kind of obstacle we were dealing with and knew I couldn't get out. I tried again. As I climbed Stephanie had the great idea of pushing on the sole of my upcanyon foot. This technique proved to be very helpful. Without her assistance I wouldn't have made it up and over the 8 inch wide slot.

They all made it through behind me then the canyon opened up and and we rested for a moment. The feeling of relief was overwhelming. A tidal wave of raw unexpected emotion hit me. I began to hyperventilate. I began to sob. Shenanigans had also broken me down emotionally and there was nothing I could do about it... We had a couple of quiet minutes and moved forward.

The exit sequence was great; somewhat poetic after such a harrowing canyon. We all downclimbed the first 50 feet, and rappelled the last 50. We zipped lined our packs across the water then carefully negotiated the ledge of the pool without falling in.

A great view of the final downclimb and rappel. The pool is visible 100 feet below.

Steph staying dry.

The Kelsey Exit wasn't nearly as bad as it looks. We watched the last of the daylight march across Butler Canyon as we climbed it.

Was Shenanigans an awesome canyon? Certainly. Would I do it again? No way.

The Great White Icicle

Steph and I tackled The Great White Icicle on Saturday, August 25 2012.

The Icicle is a pretty straightforward route. Rope management proved to be the biggest challenge. We did it a little differently than described on Climb-Utah.
http://climb-utah.com/WM/icicle.htm

All rappels were down the east side of the falls (RDC):

R1: 50 feet
R2: 140 feet
R3: 200 feet
R4: 200 feet
R5: 100 feet

I think this is the easiest way to do the route. Rappel #3 on the west side of the falls is in an awkward spot and easy to miss. I missed it, but spotted another anchor on the east side of the falls, so it wasn't a big deal.

The Icicle was a great way to spend a hot summer afternoon!

Fat Man's Misery

Calvin, Nick and I ventured down Fat Man’s Misery on Saturday July 14th, 2012. This was their 2nd technical canyon descent. Their first canyoneering experience was in Keyhole Canyon the previous evening.

Check out the video of our adventure HERE

Saturday morning we were greeted with a serious rainstorm. We slept in and casually ate breakfast knowing that our chances of canyoneering were fading with every passing minute.

Optimistically, we headed to Zion in hopes that the weather would clear up. We were intently watching the satellite imagery of the storm on the way. It was looking more promising by the minute as the bulk of the storm headed north.

Just as we reached the trailhead the cloud cover lifted and the sun started shining. We started down the trail at 11:20 AM. The temperature was a refreshing 65 degrees. We were greeted with the chorus of hundreds of happy frogs enjoying the fresh rainwater as we headed quickly toward the canyon.

After a couple of hours of speedy hiking we arrived at the first rappel. The canyon was full of water due to the storm the night before. Not noticing that the first rappel was bolted, I started digging around at the front edge of a pothole looking for a chokestone to rappel from. While doing this I pulled a large stone loose at the front of the pothole creating a bathtub-like drain. Perhaps a couple hundred gallons of water started flowing down the canyon. This created a nice little waterfall for us to rappel down. Sweet!

The rest of the canyon was fantastic! It was full to the brim with fresh-ish water from the night before. There are many, many problems to solve in the technical section. It took much longer than we anticipated. Many of the downclimbs would be simple when dry and require some care to negotiate when wet.

Eventually we arrived at Parunuweap and headed up the exit at 7:30 PM. It was cool and humid while the sun was setting, maybe 75 degrees at the warmest. A heavy cloud cover loomed overhead and only sprinkled on us occasionally.

We arrived at the Checkboard Mesa exit just as it got dark. We busted out some headlamps and kept hiking. We arrived back at the car at 10:40 PM. 11 hours, 20 minutes. Whew.

Just a couple of thoughts about the Fat Man:

We were very lucky that the weather was so cool. That hike would have been horrible; nay miserable, if it were hot. Seriously, if Misery is on your checklist, save it for a cool day.

We were somewhat lucky it didn’t rain while we were in the slot. We did make an informed decision with great satellite images of the passing storm system minutes before we started hiking. It was a calculated risk that I’m glad we took.

If you are heading to Misery for your first time, don’t kid yourself into thinking you can hike it in 8 or 9 hours (like some beta says, no disrespect). Like I said, there are lots of problems in there to solve. We were moving as fast as we could and it took us 11 hours. Now that we know how to conquer all of the obstacles, yes we could complete it in less than 9 hours.

Finally, it seems that people don’t talk much about how great that slot there really is. Everyone seems focused on bitching about the exit hike. So, for the sake of emphasis, the slot in Fat Man’s is amazing!! The grotto at the end of the slot is jaw-dropping and eye-popping.  So, get out and do it if you have 11 hours to spare on a cool day.

 One of many high-fives given during this day.

This is the view from the top of the overhanging rappel. Intimidating? 

For Calvin and Nick, it sure was. It was their first 35 foot rappel.

We lived! Not so scary from the bottom.

With a branch in my right hand I'm sliding wood chips and foam across the surface of a pothole.

An arch in the grotto. Amazing!

The second, larger arch in the grotto.

Boss Hog

On June 26th, 2012 Tony and I descended Boss Hog Canyon.

We headed out early when temperature was around 80 degrees. The canyon was cool and welcoming. The scenery was fantastic, the canyon looked like a giant block of chocolate that had been broken in half. There were some very odd and challenging downclimbs that we thoroughly enjoyed.

We found Boss Hog in very pristine condition; no webbing (except at the last drop), no garbage. We committed to leaving it that way from the start. We ended up ghosting 3 of the drops, yes they can be downclimbed by the very skilled but we don't recommend it. The penalty points are high.

At the mandatory rappel we found a large boulder with a sling around it. We high stemmed over to the boulder and put on our harnesses some 30 feet off the deck. Tony hooked up the rope and I elevatored down below the boulder to make sure we had enough rope. (It looks a LOT higher than it really is.) We both rappelled to the canyon floor and started pulling the rope through a very large existing groove that I had not seen (I actually did not stand on the boulder and have a look). This made for a tough rope pull and is the beginning of an ugly scar on a very clean canyon.

If you are part of a future group please consider extending the anchor down the chute below the boulder. You will need an extra 25-30 feet of webbing to do so. It will make your pull a lot easier and keep the canyon looking nice.

Anyway, we headed through the rest of the canyon and down an amazing 35 foot chimney. Then came the hard part...

It was 2 PM and the sun was blazing. We quickly found the exit and were dismayed by the angle of the sun. It was shining directly into the exit reflecting off both of the canyon walls. We considered finding some shade until the sun moved across the sky a little. But no, impatient, we just went for it. It was horribly hot- I'd guess between 120 and 130 degrees heading up the exit. We had no shade on the entire route. It took about 90 minutes to reach the top of the canyon. We had survived. It was 100 degrees at the top.

Was Boss Hog awesome? Heck yes! Would I do it in June ever again? Heck no!

Our simple retrievable anchor.

West Leprechaun

Tony and I descended West Lep on June 25th, 2012. It is nearly as good as it's neighbors, and enjoyable even in the summer heat. It was 87 degrees when we left the car and 102 when we returned.

We made one mistake on the first rappel- we should have extended the anchor to prevent rope grooves. Once we got to the bottom we verrry gingerly whipped the rope while pulling it to prevent one. If you visit this canyon in the near future please consider extending the anchor through the mini-potholes. Also, it will make your pull a lot easier.

A really creepy thing happened to us on our descent. We climbed under the rockfall and into Belfast Boulevard and were enjoying to cool air and the tremendous view above. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness we noticed a few daddy long legs scurrying onto the walls above. Tony mentioned that there were about 30 on the wall above him and many more down canyon. I unzipped my pack and removed a flashlight. I turned on the flashlight to find a cluster about 75 of the buggers about a foot from my face! I looked down canyon and saw three more very large clusters about head high.

I frantically turned off the light and went for my backpack. Just then the zipper busted spilling some of my stuff on the pitch black ground below. Frantically, I stuffed my cargo shorts with stuff and hauled my busted pack out of the slot while avoiding a facefull of spiders. Sheesh, it was a little too Indiana Jones-ish in there for me.

The photos below will tell the rest of the story. Enjoy.

Chambers

On June 24th, 2012 Tony and I ventured through Chambers Canyon.

We left for Hanksville from Salt Lake about 8 AM. We drove straight to the trailhead, had some lunch and started hiking around 2 PM. It was 100 degrees when we left the car. This was a bad idea, we knew it, and we did it anyway. I took 3 liters of water, Tony took 4.

We meandered down the scorching sandstone to the mouth of the canyon and discovered that Tony was missing his knee and elbow pads. His pack had somehow come unzipped and dumped out part of his stuff on the way down.

Like any friend would do, I threw on my armor and dropped into the cool shade of the canyon and relaxed. It was about 80 degrees in there. It took Tony 45 minutes to find his pads and return. Finally the canyon was underway!

Chambers is an awesome canyon, extremely physical and dauntingly skinny. Overall, it was just a bit more difficult that Middle Leprechaun Canyon. The canyon is just a little too narrow to make stemming easy.

The crux of the canyon is crazy. It looks just like the rest of the canyon until you try to squeeze through. And you cant. Then you try to climb up. And you cant. We were tired and dehydrated by the time we arrived at the crux so it was pretty intimidating. Tony is a good climber (5.11) and he had to fight like hell to get to the top. It took him about 5 minutes to get up 20 feet. He pulled our packs up and I eventually made it to the top of the crux as well. Whew.

Soon we arrived at the subway/cavern section, and it was spectacular! The photos below will tell that part of the story.

We soon arrived at the end, victorious! We were all smiles while we relaxed in the shade. Chambers is truly a classic. We had an outstanding experience.

The hike out was a miserable, hellish experience. It was 8 PM and 92 degrees when we arrived back at the car. I consumed 3 liters of water during the hike, then drank an additional 3 liters of water before my kidneys started working again. Very seriously, I should have packed 6 liters of water for this hike, but that would have been a large and heavy load to haul through such a skinny canyon. Don't be foolish (like us) and attempt this canyon during the summer.  You simply can't transport enough water to stay hydrated for the entire hike.