Benign Canyon

This weekend, I did so many things that were outside my comfort zone, and you know what? It was fine.

I was invited to this Canyoneering Chicks Rendezvous, and I really wanted to go, even though none of my friends could join me. I had met the organizer once, but she was really nice so I figure her friends were, too. And I was right! I arrived at the campsite and everyone was super friendly. But I didn’t see Charleen, the only person I knew... and talk around the campfire soon turned to the fact that it was 9:00 and her group had not returned from the canyon yet. A group went out to look for their car at trailheads. When they returned, they had found the car and narrowed it down to a few possibilities. We devised a plan. It was after 11:00 at this point, so a group was going to go into Hanksville and put in a call to SAR. We knew they wouldn’t send anyone at this time of night, but at least the call would be made. At first light, we would split into groups and descend the canyons to look for them. We knew it was likely they had a PLB, and we knew they’d be prepared with emergency overnight gear. But there was an 11 year-old girl with them, and that was the biggest concern. We started heading to bed, gearing up for what was sure to be a big day the next day. So crazy how I showed up for a fun, casual rondy and it had turned into a rescue situation! 

Thankfully, at 12:30, they arrived safely back at camp. They had gotten a late start on a difficult canyon, and it took them longer than expected. They overshot the exit, went back to it, and decided it was too sketchy to do in the dark, so they had to hike alllllll the way down the wash in search of a better option. We were so relieved to see them!

It took a while to get things organized the next morning. There were around 20 women, and most people were being very polite and saying, “I’m up for whatever!” making it difficult to figure out who actually wanted to do which canyons. Then we realized there were a ton of people who wanted to do Benign.  We decided to split into two groups, and I asked everyone about hiking pace; I wanted to make sure I was going to be with people who didn’t mind taking their time. I mean, if we were doing a big canyon with limited daylight hours, of course you want to be quick and efficient. But this was a 3-5 hour canyon, and we had plenty of time. After much confusion, someone finally got out a whiteboard and had everyone sign up for a canyon. Brilliant. And then we knew who was where in case a group didn’t come back. 

I ended up in a group of total strangers. I had chatted a little with one of the ladies around the campfire the night before, but that was it. A girl named Elisha was leading, and her friend Amy was really competent as well. I appreciated them taking a chance on me, an unknown. This was huge for me. Two years ago, I remember being scared to show up at the Anti-Rondy (where I knew so many people!) because I was afraid I wouldn’t find a group who would let me tag along. I felt like I had nothing to offer. For yesterday’s canyon, I was upfront that I have zero pothole escape skills (that’s why I wanted to do this canyon; it has just a few potholes and I wanted to go with people who could teach me), but I knew I could handle myself and help other people with everything else. 

We talked a lot about sequencing, and I was able to go first/last on several of the rappels. As the canyon went on, I saw the other girls trusting me to help more. It meant a lot to me that they trusted me to belay the 11 year-old. Elisha started asking for my input when there were problems to solve. It just felt like such a milestone to show up in a group of strangers and be a contributing member of the team and not a hindrance in any way. Yes, there were a few places I got sketched out and needed a hand (steep slickrock exits are not my friend!!!), but that’s part of canyoneering. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and that’s why it’s such a great team spot. 

Okay, this blog post is already way long and I haven’t even talked about the canyon itself yet. So, Benign was a different kind of canyon. It wasn’t particularly narrow at any point, although there were some good narrow downclimbs. We got to the first rappel, and poor Bella (the 11 year-old) just froze and started crying while she was on rope; clearly her experience the night before had traumatized her. To make her feel better, someone asked, “How many of us have cried in a canyon?” And every hand went up. After that first rappel, Bella got her confidence back and was a total rock star. I was so impressed with this girl! It made me wish even more that I could take my students canyoneering sometime. 

(Amy on the first rappel... we were all startled when a huge lizard went flying off the edge of the cliff! Luckily, it lived and took off, but it was big enough that we thought it was a rock at first!)

(One of the first drops that you could downclimb, handline, or rappel... you can see how wide open the canyon is further down. Just a different kind of canyon!)

There were some good wide open downclimbs in this canyon, and those are my weakness. We got to one where Elisha went down first (she found a different route than the rest of us took). I was up next. Normally, I would have just asked for a handline. The girls were more than willing to do that for me. But I said no, I’m going to try this more difficult route and rely on Elisha to spot me. The first moment was scary, but then my feet caught on the rock, and as I slowly lowered myself, Elisha caught me and it was totally fine. It was a huge moment for me! I need to be more trusting that my partners will catch me and not be so quick to go for the rope. I need to be willing to be the last person at risk more often. And honestly (confession time), I think I’d rather be LAPAR than have the responsibility of catching someone. This is the next skill I need to work on; I need to learn some techniques so I don’t have to worry about dropping people! 

(The scary downclimb... this isn’t me- these are all pics that I took- but this is what I did!) 

(Another great opportunity for a partner assist... it actually wasn’t that difficult with a person below to guide your feet into the footholds.)

We heard voices behind us at the first downclimb and wondered if it was another group from the rondy. But they didn’t catch up to us for a long time; they were moving more slowly. After a while, we arrived at an ominous keeper pothole. It would take a three person pyramid to get someone out of it. On top of that, there was a live snake in it! 

We had a few options. There was a bypass on the left, but it looked way scary, and penalty points were high if you slipped; the pothole was deep. According to the beta, some groups were by passing up on the right and rappelling back into the canyon just past the pothole. But we couldn’t get up there. Amy scrambled up on the left side and reported that there were some small trees that could potentially be used as anchors. Elisha and I conferred and evaluated one of the trees and decided it was our best bet. We would back it up and make sure it held. If there was any question of it not being secure for the last person, that person could go into the pothole and we could pull them out. 

As we stood up there making plans, we heard the other group at a distance. We thought it would be fun to break for lunch and see how they decided to approach the pothole. They joined us for lunch, and we probably lost an hour of time at this spot. Looking back, we shouldn’t have waited for them because they went ahead of us, and then we got held up at the rest of the rappels. This is why the canyon took us over 7 hours. 

Their approach was slightly different than ours. They had someone go up high on the left side of the pothole and be a meat anchor so people could tie into the rope and do the traverse around the pothole, but without any risk of falling in. Then, the last person just used our anchor to completely bypass the pothole.

All in all, it was a good problem-solving experience, but I still didn’t come away from it with any pothole escape skills. There were a few more potholes, but none were particularly difficult to get out of. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities. 

(Short rappel into a pothole that required a buddy boost.) 

(Looking out over the last rappel- red rock, green trees, blue sky. Gorgeous.)

The canyon ended with a really cool downclimb that reminded me of the big one in Slideanide. The first three people rappelled it. I went next because I wanted the rope there just in case I needed to grab it. I wish I had been brave enough to go sans rope, but in Slideanide I was actually tied into the rope, so this was a step in the right direction. I did grab onto the rope a few times, but I really didn’t need it. Thank goodness for my wide hips and the friction they provide! It was such a fun downclimb. 

Unfortunately, this is where the fun ended. The exit hike was highly unpleasant. All that beautiful vegetation that was so nice to look at from the top of the rappel was NOT fun to bushwhack through and made navigation extremely difficult, even with the GPS. We crossed the creek several times, sinking knee deep into water and mud and cow poop and who knows what else. The air was thick with mosquitoes, which attacked every time we stopped to evaluate our route. The brush was too high for us to get our bearings; we couldn’t see anything. We lost a lot of time just trying to get out of that mess. But once we found the way out of there, the exit was pretty straightforward. And by that time of day, we had some nice cloud cover and a pleasant breeze. Everyone still had a positive attitude, even after that thrashfest. I especially appreciated Kimberlee, who is a new canyoneer but kept telling us how awesome and amazing we were and giving us all pep talks (including herself). I know I say this a lot, but I really do love how canyons reveal people’s true colors, and this was a group of genuinely fabulous people. They invited me to do Chambers with them next weekend. I can’t make it, but I hope there will be more canyons in our future!

And I would not recommend Benign canyon. It gets high ratings, but I didn’t think it was any more amazing then some of the surrounding canyons. Up until the exit, I would have said that I’d do it again. But after that... nope. It was a one and done for me.