Hi, It’s cold, wet and slippery. Micro Spikes should be a must. I lost a camera in the first rap pool, reward if found.
Trip Report
Hi, It’s cold, wet and slippery. Micro Spikes should be a must. I lost a camera in the first rap pool, reward if found.
Ram
LOVE the pictures, especially this one!
Ram
Curious about this trip. What did you wear? How many of you? Where did you enter? How did the camera get lost. What did you learn?
I am careful where I use micro-spikes, as they can scratch soft sandstone rock, except where there is more than a layer of ice, deep snow, or both. Glad you got out of Echo. That is one serious place this time of year.
The park seems to have a short memory about the danger in Echo. They can close it when it is safe and not have it register when conditions evolve to make it dangerous, year to year.
Sam Serna
I wore the same clothe that I wear when I hike in below 30F weather. Over my clothe I wear a dry suit and a shell. I test my gear in water the day before the canyon in the same area. I want to make sure the suit will not leak and that the cold weather will not affect me much before committing to
the canyon. This is the second year that I ran wet canyons in the winter. There were two of us, waiting in line to rappel gets cold very fast. The camera got lost because I made a poor choice of thinking it would not slide out of my deep pocket. I’m a go-pro guy, this is my first wet camera. This was the first canyon I have ever taken a point and shoot camera. I can’t imagine anyone getting through Keyhole or Echo this past weekend without
micro-spikes. There was a sheet of ice over most of what I walked over. I tried to stay off rocks. The down hill walk into Keyhole was a slide down on my butt. We rigged a temp anchor and rappelled down what we normally walk or down climb. The dirt was frozen. I will try to post some pictures that I got from my Go-pro later tonight. I the future I will tether my camera. The one thing I did learn this year is that you have to expect some ice climbing.
Ram
Thanks for the reply. Also the segue to mention, for everyone’s consideration, when micro-spikes are worn. Wasn’t being critical of your use. Sounds like you had a ton of ice and only some snow cover? You were there, I was not and I have used them often. Our winter group has had disagreements on when to and when not too use them. Or more often, when to take them off and when to put them on. It is an interesting topic
I love your comment about sliding down the hill. Snow on sandstone. Done that a few times, hoping I don’t slide over snow covered cacti. Sounds like you were totally warm. What canyons did you run last winter? Any pictures of them. Looking VERY forward to seeing the go pro footage.
BTW there are members reading this that have clandestinely used Springdale swimming pools to test dry suits before using them in a winter canyon. Too funny.
I too have heard the crash of snow and ice in Echo. Made my heart go flitter flutter, especially the time it happened just after and just out of sight from where we had just passed. Tom’s thread and link in the 2nd post, has many an Echo story from over the years, after the initial trip report too.
http://canyoncollective.com/threads/echo-canyon-zion-hazardous-conditions-until.24217/
The third post on this thread talks about the crawl through tunnel you mention in Echo. Was your crawl on the left wall looking down canyon? Have flow? Fun stuff
Congrats on your safe passages thru the canyons. It is beautiful, is it not?