The girlfriend and I had a few days off in Late January and had rented the yurt at Goblin Valley.
The plan was to drive from Escalante and check in at yurt. Some friends were suppose to meet us for the goblins lair but their schedule didn’t pan out so about 8 am Monday morning on way out of town we decided we would go and do West Fork Blarney and check in to yurt late.
Let the fun begin: Found parking area easy enough and packed are minimal gear besides my only rope which is 200 ft. Can you say overkill haha.
We made our way up enjoying the snow covered Henry’s in the distance and practicing our Irish accents.
I had read once about someone dropping into wrong canyon in this area so we checked our beta and our GPS three times before downclimbing the slab into the head.
Here is where our 200ft of ill packed rope raised my ire. spent about 20 minutes untangling the rats nest. We knew we wouldn’t need all of it so we rigged a big coil ball with half of it and locked it with a quick link. this would be the 100 ft we wouldn’t use.
so first rap went fine as we double checked that both ends of rope hit ground. double stranding devils! second rap i must have miscounted or something because i’m on rope and the girlfriend
says ” better check to make sure rats nest is on the ground” lo and behold i get on the vertical peer over and nope rats nest isn’t on ground. I had thrown 70 to 80ft of rope down canyon not leaving enough for the rats nest to hit canyon floor. Well I began to feed the extra single strand thru my pirana until i saw the quick linked pile of coiled rope hit the ground. lesson learned. I actually anchored myself with left hand above my device and worked this extra rope thru with my right hand. Not recommended.
Hey i learned a valuable lesson. 3rd and final rap i was very critical of how i threw my rope and 100% confident i had my bites right as ya can’t really see the bottom at that last station. Turned out just find.
The canyon was bone dry and provided fun downclimbs.There was a 4th anchor on a chalk stone above a beautiful downclimable crack so i made fun of that.
This was my first lead and I learned lessons. The biggest one is i’m getting a 120 ft rope now so if friends can’t make it I have something more usable and appropriate for Canyon.
Blarney head
Girlfriend didn’t trust this single piece of webbing so we moved quick link to double webbing in next picture
Double webbing she trusted more
the awesome room after the 3rd rap
and of course i did a youtube video with some drop kick murphy’s as the sound track
at 1:20 you can see the dreaded rats nest haha
West fork Blarney is very beginner friendly. Beautiful narrows. straightforward raps.
Kuenn
Good for your girlfriend, now we know who brought the brains!
Enjoyed the trip report, looked like you’s guys had a great time. (Could just imagine hearing it my “Wiskey friends” best accent, ya know.)
One question I’ve gotta ask, so you spend 20 minutes untangling enough rope to do the canyon….would the extra 5 to finish the job really put that much of a damper on the parade? It’s those pesky little things that often lead to the cascade of bigger (and often “bad-er”) things.
wisconnyjohnny
I don’t quite understand the question. We untangled 200 ft of rope and then tightly wound 100 ft of it up in a neat coil and locked it with a quicklink, so we had 100 ft of readily usable rope. We have a 120 ft of New blue water 9mm being cut for us this week here in Escalante so we can not have this problem again. Hope that answers your question. And yes Girlfriend brought brains
Kuenn
My bad, I thought your reference to rats nest in the video meant you left some of the knot in.
wisconnyjohnny
at the second rappel i pan video down for a quick second and you can see coiled blob
John Styrnol
I’ve never done Medieval Chamber.
John Styrnol
I’d get the rope bag first, but that’s me. Sounds like the way your going, you will have 2 ropes un-manageable.
wisconnyjohnny
Haha maybe however i finally took the time to learn a Mountaineer coil this morning and with money tight the Girlfriend and I are making newb canyon plans for Red cliffs or North wash with max 60ft raps. I kinda loathe carrying the 200 on smaller canyons. I also had to buy new shoes this last week and A Jawa outfit to hike in.
we will get the bag in 2 weeks rest assured.
Oh BTW is medival outside of moab bolted now.? Could use 200 there.
John Styrnol
Sounds like you need a Imlay rope bag.
wisconnyjohnny
Yeah of course. First thing is first. A 120 ft rope and then bag is next after that. Trust me the Imlay bag is 1st choice followed by canyon weeks or whatever they call it.
Any how i’d like to keep my money in Mt Caramel. haha
wisconnyjohnny
Let me clarify that this is the Left Fork of Blarney in case ya missed that by me referring to it as West Fork