Amy and I thought we were being so smart. Winter canyoneering requires extra caution, but we thought we’d planned for all the variables- there was no water in the canyon, and we picked a canyon where you did all the climbing on the approach. So, if there was snow, we’d be able to just turn around and find something else to do that day.
Things were off to a good start. There were two sections that were a little tricky for us. (Neither of us are talented climbers), but we got through them with teamwork, and with me using Amy’s leg as a handline. (This was very efficient, by the way!)
We dropped into the “canyon,” which wasn’t really much of a canyon at all, just a series of drops leading down to Park Avenue. There was no anchor for the first rappel, so I pulled out some webbing and we built one. No big deal.
After that drop, Amy pulled the rope while I looked for the anchor for the next rappel. Ummm... where were the bolts? There were supposed to be two to the left of a boulder. Well, we searched all over and could not find bolts anywhere. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was more like we felt like we were losing our minds. We finally pulled out the last of my webbing (which actually has a bunch of knots in it because I’d been using it as a handline) and built an anchor around a tree.
Then we wasted a ton of time taking pictures in this most amazing spot. I didn’t even think it looked real... it felt like there was a green screen there or something.
We got down to the next level, where everything was covered in snow. We were able to see the tracks of the guy who had gone before us. He had traversed way over to the left. We put on our microspikes and started to follow, but then we got to a particularly exposed spot and I said, “NOPE,” and we turned around and inched back toward flat land. The slickrock was steep and icy- not a good idea.
At the third drop, we were faced with a dilemma- again, no anchor. But this time, it was a problem... I was out of webbing, and Amy realized all of her webbing was in Chase’s pack. Jesus take the wheel!
But wait a minute! We still had that webbing Amy had taken from the approach! I was only half kidding when I said God put that webbing there just for us! There really was no logical explanation for it being there!
We built the anchor and completed the rappel, and that brought us to the final and biggest rappel. Once again, no anchor. We could see where the guy ahead of us had dug around boulders, looking for an anchor. We could tell that he had eventually rapped off a boulder on one side of the cliff, but it did not look very stable. There were a bunch of other boulders, but they were waaaaayy back from the edge. We didn’t have enough rope for that; we needed webbing. It was getting late, and we needed to just make something happen. We finally settled on a shrub. It did not look very secure, but the plan was for me to go down first with Amy backing it up. If the anchor didn’t feel secure, she’d use one of the rocks that was way far back and we’d just leave the rope and come back for it later. Luckily, the shrub held just fine.
The next complication was that the rope was going to get tangled in the shrub, so we wouldn’t be able to pull the rope. Long story short, we used my daisy chain. And whoever went through that canyon next was probably like, “What kind of morons....?” But whatever, it worked in a pinch! We were just surprised that such a popular canyon had no anchors in it. And definitely a little embarrassed and hoping that no one would follow in our footsteps and rappel off that shrub.
It was almost dark by the time we made it back to our car. Even though nothing went as planned, we really enjoyed the opportunity to problem solve together. U-Turn isn’t really much of a canyon, but those views of Park Avenue were pretty sweet!
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