Englestead Canyon - Zion

March 25, 2022
Englestead Canyon with exit down Orderville Canyon

Englestead and down Orderville. We had estimated the canyon would take us 12 hours. We met John at the visitors center at 6 am. He would be our shuttle and canyon partner for Englestead. John is a new partner to us but is an experienced canyoneer. Laura and I were looking forward to doing a new canyon with someone more experienced than ourselves. Our group of 5, Laura and me, John and Isaac and Nicole drove to the east side of Zion and parked about a mile from the Englestead parking area due to mud on the road. Choosing to walk rather than risk getting stuck, we were parked and moving at 7 am. It took about an hour to reach the head of the canyon and when we arrived, we knew it was going to be a cold day. We'd already been walking on snow and ice and the canyon would be no different. As we all geared up in wetsuits and harnesses, I made an effort to be ready quickly. I wanted to rig the first rappel and show our new partner John that we were a strong group and he would not have to be our guide. Isaac belayed me across a patch of ice and to the anchor and I set the first rappel with a 300' rope. I verified all was good and set off on the rappel knowing that efficiency would be important today. Laura agreed to go last and bring the pull cord. I lowered down the first rappel, descending past several ice falls and large blocks of ice at the pothole 250' down, eventually reaching the bottom of the rappel at 300'. Wow, that was a long one! John came down second. I had expected to see Isaac or Nicole come down next but it turned out that they decided not to join us in this canyon. They were bailing and Laura was on rappel. This happened to work out nicely because they were able to then pull the 300' rope and take both of the long ropes back to the car, saving us from carrying them all day. We simply switched to using John's 200' rope and pull cord combo. It also saved us a shuttle trip, or about 2 hours at the end of the day!

 

So, when Laura reached the bottom of the rappel, Isaac pulled the long rope back up they headed back to spend a tourist day in the park. Laura, John and I continued down the canyon, efficiently moving through the first 5 rappels. We would descend short drops onto frozen pools and were continuously on snow. We crossed several sections with 20+ feet of snow. We weren't sure if this made the canyon easier or more difficult but it was beautiful and fun. 

According to the information we had there would only be 5 rappels. As we descended, we soon learned that was not the case at all. One after another, they kept coming. We believe that we did about 17 rappels total before reaching the exit of Englestead into Orderville Canyon at 12:30 pm. 5 hours to complete Englestead.  We had made excellent time to this point and were happy to now be at the walking portion of the day, the Orderville exit. The snow stayed continuous until we were within a mile or so of the Orderville/Narrows junction. It was fortunate that we were able to walk on top of the snow without postholing otherwise we would have been in for a long exit. As we neared the exit of Orderville, we encountered one mandatory rappel and several swims that were about 25' across. We kept moving smoothly with few breaks and were at the narrows junction at 2pm. 1:45 of walking with the tourists in the narrows and we were at the bus at 4 pm.

The Guillotine

Not Imlay Canyon - Zion

Zion National Park

Not Imlay Canyon, 

March 24, 2022

Going to Zion in March is cold but to avoid the permitting and lottery for popular canyons, you have to be there before April 1st. So, it's the last week of March and we're Zion bound once again. This time with our friends Isaac and Nicole. We met at the Colorado Springs airport and flew to Las Vegas Wednesday. A late bedtime Wednesday night and a few hours of sleep before our 4 am alarm and we were off and rolling Thursday morning. We arrived to Zion at 8 am and secured our permits for Not Imlay canyon. While I filled out the paperwork for the permits, gear was packed and readied by the others. We parked at the visitors center and rode the bus to the Angels Landing trailhead. We were walking up the steep trail at 10 am and quickly made it to our cutoff at Scouts Lookout. Turning off the main trail and onto the West Rim trail, we followed the path for several hours. At one point I saw something carved into the concrete path. It said "ED" and I knew at that point that my late father was watching over us that day. It made me smile and reminded me to be careful in this dangerous canyon today. Climbing over and through some snow along the way, we all arrived at the head of Not Imlay about 2 hours after leaving the bus. 

The first rappel was long at almost 300' so we rigged the long rope and Laura went first. Isaac and Nicole followed and I rappelled last, bringing the pull cord with me and being careful to keep the strands separate for an easy pull. 

After several more rappels, the canyon narrowed down some. While it was still a very steep descent, water was now running from snow melt. We downclimbed and rappelled several waterfall sections before reaching the final long 270' rappel into the Narrows. 

Upon reaching the final rappel, we noticed that the anchor was covered in ice. Rather than tie a new anchor, we chose to put me on belay so I could lower to the edge and chop ice away to uncover the anchor. I grabbed one of Laura's trekking poles and proceeded to chop away at the ice for 30 minutes before successfully uncovering and releasing the anchor. Once again, Laura went first and I went last. The rappel into the narrows is spectacular and is about 150' free hanging. As we all got to the river safely, we pulled the ropes and it was late in the day now, already past 6 pm. We knew we needed to hustle to catch the final bus back to the visitors center by 7 pm. Moving quickly, we descended the narrows to the Temple of Sinawava and out to the bus at 6:50 pm. Phew, that was close but we made it. We headed out of the park, ate some dinner and crashed for another early wake up call the next day. Englestead, here we come!

Mt. Sherman

March 12, 2022

Mt Sherman

14,037'

Looking to get some altitude and another good day out in safe winter terrain, Laura and I settled on Mt. Sherman. Driving toward the trailhead and as the road became snow packed, there was a car parked with a sign that said "When you get stuck, call this number". We chose to park by the car and hike from there. With a late start, around 8:45 am, we started out on our 9 mile round trip from a mile below the Leavick mine site. The first 3 miles was road walking on packed snow and had me wishing we were skiing rather than walking, but unfortunately Laura is not approved by the doctor to ski yet. The road walking went quickly and we were soon wandering our way up the east slopes of Mt Sherman. We chose several drainages that were low angle snow and eventually made our way to the saddle between Sherman and White Ridge. We summitted at 1 pm and ate and drank doing our best to stay sheltered from the wind. On the descent, the wind picked up and we would stop and turn our backs when the big gusts hit. The hike back to the Jeep went smoothly and we finished our day around 4 pm.