Anna was in town for a week of fun canyons, and tried to set up a Heaps trip. It did not set up, so we backed off to Telephone. Grabbed a permit in the morning (thanks Erin), hopped on the very full rush-hour bus, made it to the trailhead about 9am. Compared to last week, it was not all that hot out. As in, it was hot, just not Scorching Hot! I was Jonesing to do Telephone because I had not been in quite a while, and I know the burned up stumps for the first rappel had all rotted out by now. How should the first rappel go?
We started smelling smoke on the way up, and had a bit of smoke and falling ash all day long. Arriving at the head of the canyon, we were surprised to see a rope disappearing into a crack. Is Telephone that popular? The party ahead of us was just getting ready to climb their stuck rope… Bailey went down and helped them free the knots stuck in the crack, then helped them get the rope pulled. Not a good place for that rap. But what WAS a good place?
Bad Choice for the first rappel – Bailey helping them pull
As in many situations, there is no obvious best… but not in this case. A large, flat rock lay right next to the place where the water goes over the edge, allowing an easy rappel start, a beautiful rappel line, minimal webbing and easy rigging (and inspection). So we rigged that up and went on it. The rap was 155 feet this way. We went down into the shade and enjoyed the coolness. Second rappel off a jammed stone, awkward start, stem over a skanky pool – the usual stuff.
Anna on the first rappel, 155 feet
And off we were. As Bailey launched on the first rappel, a gang of five showed up behind us — CRAZY! I thought this canyon was obscure! But we kept ahead of them, outta sight, man!
Rappel, Rappel, Rappel. We re-rigged a few that were needing re-rigging, mostly for being short. We downclimbed a few and meat-and-caught a few. Found a few blackberries. Noticed the smokiness was increasing – was Zion Canyon ablaze and we would have to hike out the top?
Yet ANOTHER nuisance rappel
Eventually the last rappel. We slid on down, found more blackberries including RIPE ones, traversed steep dirt and huffed it over to the West Rim Trail. Eventually we found the source of the smoke – the top of Cathedral Mountain was ablaze.
Fire atop Cathedral Mountain – gave us smoke the whole day
We chilled at the top of Walt’s Wiggles as the Park Service was concerned about blazing tree trunks falling on our heads as we traversed Refrigerator Canyon – but eventually let us go… and go we did, to another very full rush hour bus, and to Oscars for some well-deserved victuals. Mmmm. Ribs!
Better Canyon than I remembered. Well worth a yearly visit. With better fitness, more water and less heat, we might have even thrown in Behunin – but not on this day!
ratagonia
More pics on the Latest Rave show this. The closest rocks in the photo above washed out so it is harder still. Yes, going to be troublesome. Shoulder Stand?
Probably the best thing to do would be to drill in a new anchor at a normal height. There are plenty of natural anchor opportunities in the area, among the rocks that keep peeling off…
Tom
Tom Collins
If I remember correctly you can kind of walk/scramble up that side to get above the bolts so maybe two could go up and one belays the other down to the bolts so he can clip into them and hang there while replacing the webbing? Doesn’t sound comfortable, but still easier than trying to do it while stemming, since its pretty wide there. I haven’t actually been up above there so I don’t know if theres a suitable spot for a meat anchor.
Mountaineer
Good memory Mike. Yeah it was high when you were checking it out.
Mike Zampino
I have a bad memory, but wasn’t one bolt station way up high (probably due to washed out rocks)? I remember thinking the bolts would be difficult to reach if the webbing needed replacing. Has that station been fixed? Is there a better way to reach the bolts?
Mountaineer
I really like Telephone, one of my favorites in Zion. Interesting another group arrived behind you? Hopefully you didn’t feel rushed. Sounds like you were efficient, even with fixing all the raps. I think it is becoming one of the popular ones?
When our group was hiking back, a group passed us late in the day also determined to do Telephone.
Great pics, thanks for sharing.