Custodianeering

This is a copy and paste from a Facebook Group the poster was a Kurt Williams:

If you've been on this page or within the narrows over the last week, I'm sure you've seen my rope hanging from Not Imlay in all it's shame. Here is a breakdown of how it got there and our future plans to retrieve it.

On 9/16, our group attempted to run Imlay canyon via the sneak route. We parked at the grotto and stared just before 5am. By 8am, we had reached the right side sneak route and began descending into what we thought was the crossroads. After climbing down the downed tree, we came to a fork in the road. Left followed the drainage and right followed a climbers trail over the canyon ridge and reconnected into the drainage further down trail. We had a map of the route but did not have the route description. Looking at the map, we thought we were further up the Sneak Route trail and that the fork in the trail was the cleanly marked on the map...it was not.

After suiting up, we traveled down the drainage until we reached the large open area. This is where we started to second guess ourselves and in hindsight, should have turned around. We checked the map again and were reassured we were in the right location, we weren't. "Perhaps there was one more rap before the trash compactor?" "That narrow section down below must be it." By this time, our wetsuits had become drenched with sweat and we started to overheat. We couldn't wait to climb into the cold trash compactor to cool off. It was the combination of hopeful rash thinking, false confidence with our map, and blind ambition that led us down the first rap which inevitability committed us to the route.

I've read about not imlay on ropewiki but couldn't remember all the details of its description and exact location. Once we got down to the final rap, and we knew we didn't have enough rope to retrieve. Our main objective was to get everyone safely to the ground. Getting the rope would be our second priority.

We carried 2 60m ropes and a 100ft rope plus another 100 ft of webbing. We decided on rapping with our two 60s and using my rescue figure 8 to pass the knot. We used two hollow blocks to protect above and below the knot. We placed one hollow block below the knot before lowering the rope so it would be a simple clip in when we arrived during the rappel. Before we made our final rap, we set up a practice system on the tree above the last drop until everyone was familiar with the moves. We must have ran through the sequence 100 times, testing any possible scenario that could go wrong. I also carried a ropeman ascending devices & third hollow block as backup. After we all made it down, we cut the line so no one would climb up and began planning our retrieval process.

On 9/17 we started looking around town for a 300ft rope but our plans were quickly changed with the forecast of rain the next day. (One of our group also had a 3pm flight out of vegas on 9/18, making the only salvage option to be a very early am trip). Since time was not on our side, and no rope was worth risking a thunderstorm, we canceled our second trip and began planning to return a few weeks later. I eye sore of a hanging rope would have to wait.

I've spoken with the parks service and am planning to return on Oct 15th. My biggest headache now is the possibility of a goverment shutdown on oct 15th limiting our access for the salvage mission. If anyone in the area is able to help me out before then, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Hopefully by reading this, people will learn from my mistake and not take that first right after coming down from the right side sneak. Not Imlay is a fantastic canyon for a group with the proper equipment. Beautiful views, fun down climbing narrow section, and epic final rap all in view of hundreds of narrow day hikers.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Behunin Canyon Zion - 10-24-2021

Willie Hunt ran through Behunin and removed the chains rigging Rappel 4 (which have been tearing up the rock for about 10 years, since I installed them). Here is the before and after... Thanks Willie!

Good Day Jim yesterday. There was actually a lot more than this, but I already threw the rest away since the rest didn't have any salvageable rings or quick links.

Last rappel in Behunin, the "old" rappel anchor, now used as a safety for rigging the more exposed "new" rappel anchor.

First descent of Behunin may have been this report from 1974... some of the bolts shown here were put in some time after that...

3 old bolts plus 1 new bolt (probably mine, circa 2004) - but required cutting 6 rapid links to remove the chains. People did not like my 6mm rapid links and added large ones after I installed the chains (circa 2006?).

No picture of the completed work as it was dark by then.

Hacksaw easier than using a wrench on the rapides? Or, were they that tight?

Mighta been easier and faster to just take off the hangers? Or take a bolt cutter?

What'd you replace the chain with?

Hopefully didn't leave that stardryvin and the leeper? Ugh.

Dark...don't most cameras have flashes? Ha ha.

Is the new anchor still webbing?

Tools I had: Hacksaw, vicegrips. Shoulda brought a big Screwdriver too. All the rapides were frozen shut... with better tools I might have gotten one or two.

Maybe shoulda just opened the bolt hangers. Maybe shoulda tried to remove the bolts. But I left them all.

There is a strand of webbing from the good bolt (lower bolt) to the top bolt on the new anchor, as a safety clip point for reaching the new anchor.

More work will take place here in the future, including removing bolts, and replacing the 15 year old (or so) 1/2" Powerbolts with glue-ins.

A different set of tools is required for these tasks. Also useful would be more daylight.

My camera has a flash, but really, I just wanted to get outta Dodge. As it was, the last bus waited about 10 minutes for us to hop on board at the Lodge. That trail back to the lodge sure is long when you just saw the 'last bus' pull up... thankfully, two peeps from our party ran ahead and were able to hold it.

Tom

Yeah, beats spending the night in the bathroom...(!)

Someone should sneak a cordless angle grinder into your pack...(I have a 20V DeWalt...amazing how fast it can cut metal...). You guys should really get a waiver to be able to use power tools for maintenance...

Thanks for the work!

Tyler and Tyler are both on SAR - THEY could probably get a limited waiver. They are ASCA trained.

Tom

Music canyon yesterday, 11/6/2021.

JITFC !