My excitement and anticipation about returning to Zion to descend Imlay for the first time had been growing for months. Thanks to my friend Chris for leading me through on Sunday May 5th 2014. We dropped my truck at the temple at 3 am, made the long drive up to lava point, while dodging various critters that had made their way onto the roads, and started hiking from the West Rim trailhead at 5:15 am. As night turned to day, we made it to Potato Hollow. It was a glorious site peering into the depths of Imlay from the entrance as the sun arose from the east. The view was truly awe inspiring and one I will never forget.
Made it to the crossroads at about noon, filtered water, sat in the sun and ate lunch, then it was off to battle the log soup. I don’t know why but I thought it would be a good idea to throw my pack ahead of me and push it through and over the logs. Bad idea! After working myself to near exhaustiion, I put my pack back on and army crawled the rest of the way, climbed up the log jam relieved to be through the worst section. Pot hole escapes were a non-issue given the full conditions. The final two narrow sections were cold so we hurried through without taking any pictures. Stopped several times to refuel and drink water. Having a 60 ft length of rope was key since the raps are short and rapid fire. So much fun and the final rap (as opposed to the penultimate rap) into the narrows was the icing on the cake! Enjoyed the stroll through the narrows, and the burgers and beer at Oscars afterwards.
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Taylor
Awesome! Have only sneaked Imlay but planning on a top down trip this summer. Being in Zion backcountry/wilderness has become a spiritual experience for me. Thanks for posting this great report.
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Rapterman
Nice trip report Tyler! Heading for Imlay in 2 weeks and your post is getting us psyched!
Really glad you liked your CRITR.
Best, Todd and Desi
Tyler Ley
Changed it. By the way, first time trying out the CRITR and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and intuitive it was to add friction on the fly! Thanks to Todd and Desi at Canyonwerks for creating this awesome device! And thanks to Tom and ICG for the Bagarino – having this rope bag and a 60 ft length of C-IV was money!
ratagonia
The final rappel goes into the Narrows. The Penultimate one would be the one before that.
(says the English usage police)
Brian in SLC
From Latin paenultimus, from paene ‘almost’ + ultimus ‘last’.
Nice TR!
Kuenn
Nice pictures, thanks for sharing…Imlay is on my short list.
What was your trail head to exit pace and time?
Southern Canyoneer
Congrats!