UT: North Wash – Slideanide Canyon 3/13/13

Day two of myself and Jake’s canyon spring break saw us in the Poison Springs area. After the East and Middle Forks of Leprechaun the day before, we were exhausted. The original plan was to hit two south side canyons on the 13th and the last on the 14th before heading to The Roost but three canyons sounded daunting. So we decided to do one the first day and see how we felt about a second on the next. After little debate we decided on Slideanide.

So after a fitful night sleep and with an early start we struck out for the canyon. My least favorite part of canyoneering is the seemingly endless desert walking that can occur and Slideanide was proving to be one of those. But luckily camp isn’t too far from any of the southern drainages so we hit Slideanide quickly.

Well, I thought we hit it quickly. Jake wasn’t so sure, especially when we hit the first drop. Those that have been to Poison Springs can attest with us that the drop ins are very impressive. Jake has a thing about open drops, making them all much bigger than they really are. So he felt we at Constrychnine. Even with multiple reassurances from the beta and me crawling to look over the edge he was barely convinced. I had to agree that the rap looked longer than the beta but it was certainly better than the other two entrances. Finally I set up the rappel and just told him to go. Down we both went and the fun began.

Slideanide has and extremely fitting name. Many of the downclimbs were exciting slides that ate our already tattered pants from Lep. I’m sure if Jake had not been wearing thermals under his pants I’d have seen plenty of cheek. We rappelled two drops that seemed too sketch to DC from the top. One was doable but would be freaky and the other seemed too wide. The canyon kept exciting! A major, 55 footish downclimb ended with a clang from Jake. What was that I ask. He claims a stick. I accept it although it seems wrong.

Then we hit a spot that looked wrong. The beta talked a bit about the final rap being two stages in a convoluted dark slot and this appeared like that. There was however no webbing at the top for an anchor and to DC looked too freaky for either of our blood. So an anchor needed to be made. A brand new 30′ of webbing pops out and after some careful fiddling I get it around a boulder that should hold. Now to cut the webbing…. Uh oh. I left my knife in the car. Jake should have a knife. It’s disappeared. We heard a tinkle earlier? That was probably the knife falling out after the big DC.

So we’re left with a conundrum: use all 30′ of webbing for a small anchor, figure out how to DC the first bit, or find another way to cut the webbing. I rummage through my pack and Jake through his. The sharpest thing I find is a safety pin in my med kit. I decide to give it a whirl. I’m uber cheap so that webbing meant a lot to me. After a while of scraping with the point of the safety pin, I get out my tweezers and start pulling and breaking the fibers. Chewing with teeth was occasionally used. 45 minutes go by and I have a hole my pinky can fit through, through one side of the webbing tube. I’m getting aggravated. Surely there is a better way!

I look around and a lightbulb goes on. A flake of rock was sitting by my anchor boulder. I take the webbing and put it against the canyon wall. I start to saw at it with the flake. It’s wearing away because it is sandstone but the affect is immediate. Within five minutes the webbing is cut! Jake goes down to check if this is in deed the final rappel. It is, I go down, we both figure out how the second stage worked (odd anchoring was used by the last party) and quickly we’re at the bottom! A bunch of trash or canyon epic was avoided!

I mentioned how much I disliked the approach trudge, the exit is worse. While the exit to the rim is quite fun, pretty and visits a sweet arch, the walk above the rim was the opposite. I’m sure it was not that long but it felt forever. Camp sure felt good to see. An off day was in order so no second Poison Spring canyon. Oh well, it’s a great excuse to return.

A video of the trip, second one I’ve ever donw so don’t judge too harshly: