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North Wash

So you like 'em skinny, eh?

Spend some time in North Wash, and you'll get a plentiful dose of skinny canyons. Some people refer to any canyon who's bottom is less than your arm-span as a slot. What do you call a canyon that is not as wide as your arm?

There are a variety of adventures available in the area. North Wash canyons are cut into very soft Navajo sandstone, and vary from narrow to very narrow; and from friendly to not-friendly at all. Somewhat surprisingly, the nastier slots seem to have smaller drainages, but cut to the same depth - and thus are skinnier. You want to see skinny - take the 10 minute walk to the end of Sandthrax, where a quite substantial drainage exits through a 2" crack. Ominous.

Something For Everyone with an emphasis on fun!
The canyons themselves and the moves involved in climbing through the bowels of the earth are fun, when you are mentally and physically prepared for the experience. There are fun things to do in a few hours, with or without a rope, and routes that will keep your attention all day. Most routes involve quite a bit of climbing, and many will test your ability to conjure up a zen-like calm - even when you really don't want to.

North Wash is one of Utah's more adult canyoneering areas. Self-reliance is the name of the game, which makes this a poor place for beginners to hone their skills. Visit with a North Wash veteran, and work your way into the harder slots. In the last couple of years, two parties have been lucky to escape with their lives when they under-respected the canyons of North Wash. There's a couple of stories over on Shane's website - Here's One Story Well Worth Reading.

Please practice a   NO-BOLT ETHIC   when visiting North Wash. The area yields easily to natural-anchor techniques, though this may mean using deadmen, cairns, carefully-placed chockstones or other advanced techniques. Bring some webbing, and welcome the challenge of playing by natural-anchor rules. ALL the canyons in the area have been descended, so please figure out a natural-anchor solution as your predecessors did, before reaching for the drill.

Season

Fall, Winter and Spring are the best times for exploring North Wash. Just too darn hot in the summer. March, April, October and November are usually good times, and sunny days in the winter can be very nice indeed. North Wash sits in the rain shadow of the Henries, and often has the best weather in the area. It is also low in altitude. That said, being caught in a rainstorm in a North Wash canyon would not be very pleasant.

Though there are year-round pools in a few canyons, in general these canyons dry out quickly. One advantage of visting in chilly weather is the opportunity to wear more clothes that both keep you comfortably warm and provide protection from abrasion.

Equipment

Skinny slots tear up both you AND your gear. Bring as little stuff as possible. What you should bring:

Helmet: bring one. In addition to protecting your noggin, it can also sometimes be used as a "cheater rock" to attain a crucial couple-a inches upward in a tight slot.

Clothes: you'll want some of these. I usually grab a bunch of old, cotton clothes from the back of my closet for a weekend in North Wash - and throw away half of it when I get home. It's good to wear long pants and knee pads if you have them, plus a long-sleeve t-shirt and a heavy cotton sweatshirt. This will provide protection to your knees, butt, elbows and shoulders - the parts that take the most abuse. When wearing a wetsuit, it can be wise to throw an old pair of shorts on over the rubber.

Shoes: climbing-type approach shoes or 5.10 Canyoneers work really well here. You'll be doing a lot of pushing, edging and wedging, so your shoes and feet will get beat up. Neoprene socks are good to wear in North Wash. Full swims are unusual, but getting the feet wet is not.

Gloves: Like your hands? I like mine, so I wear gloves in these slots, to keep my hands from getting chewed to, uh, gerbil food. A simple $5 pair of leather gloves from the Stan's Chevron work just fine.

Harness: most of these canyons have only a few rappels. I usually bring my lightest-weight, most-beat-up-already harness for North Wash, and sometimes just use a Swiss Seat. Taking your harness off between rappels works well if you have a belt for a bunny strap.

A Mae West Bunny Strap is a sling used for hanging your pack below you when chimneying a slot. Smart canyoneers have one figured out in advance, rather than rigging one in the field. I like an over-the-shoulder sling girth-hitched to my pack, and another sling girth-hitched to that. I can clip this with my Spelegyca to hang it 6' down, or clip the first sling to hang it 4' down. When pushing sideways through narrow slots with a smooth floor, I just drop my pack on the ground and let it drag behind me. Use of a bunny strap requires wearing a belt or a climbing harness.

Slings: bring a handful of slings, and a couple long pieces for rigging anchors. Two or three twenty foot pieces could end up being real useful.

A Pack. A small one. Bring as little gear as possible, and pack it as compactly as possible. Your pack will also get chewed up, so bring one that you've already gotten good life out of.

Facilities

North Wash has a two-lane highway running through it, and qualifies as the middle of nowhere, with good access. Hanksville is 26 miles to the north, and has a couple of gas stations, a couple of motels, and a few non-gourmet restaurants.

Camping: there is a nice campsite between the mouth of Leprechaun and the mouth of Sandthrax. Please help keep it nice. Don't drive on the vegetation - stay on the established roads. Please camp in places that have already been mooshed by previous campers. Don't piss and crap in camp! Either take the short drive to the Hog Spring vault toilet, or cross the highway to isolate your detritous from present and future campers.

Loo: there's a vault toilet down at the Hog Spring picnic area, 5 miles south down the highway. Well worth the short drive.

Water, Store, Phone, Ice, Rescue Services: all available in Hanksville.

Does this wetsuit make me look fat?

There's a saying among through-hikers on the Appalacian Trail - Hike Your OWN Hike. It applies here.

Some people really like this stuff, some people don't. Being small helps. Being fit helps. Being into it helps. Being able to ignore pain helps a lot. Having the appropriate techniques and travelling with the right people helps an awful lot.

How big are you? I am 5'10" tall, 170-180 lbs, HWP, chest about 42. My descriptions are written from MY point of view. If you are bigger than me, you will have to work harder than me to get through or over stuff. In some places, a LOT harder. There are places where the width of the canyon does not increase going up, therefore, if you don't fit through, you are going back. The route Shenanigans in particular does not allow chimneying over. The canyon is 12" wide for at least 80 feet upward. I sure hope that bit of sand in the bottom does not wash out, 'cause that thing'd be a bear without that sand there forming a floor.

So be careful, and make your own decisions. If the canyon does not match my description - GET OUT! Keep track of places you can exit the canyon. Other people in your party might be having an entirely different experience - Squeeze Your Own Slot.

Routes

Leprechaun Canyon - A Nice Hike     2A II     A nice hike through a subway-like section, then to the skinnier part of the canyon. Gives the first-time visitor a chance to check out the skinny stuff before heading in from the top. Clamber up the right and/or main forks as far as your fun factor allows.

Leprechaun -   Three Technical Forks     East Fork - 3A II     West Fork - 3A II     Main Fork - 4A III     Three fun technical routes of progressively greater seriousness. Makes for a good weekend of gettin' scraped up.

Sandthrax    Sandthrax 4A III (SLOT X) 5.10 C2     Fun, in a twisted sort of way. Committing, with a difficult, climbing crux.

The West Forks of Butler    Shenanigans 3B III     Three fun forks with a little more meat on them than Lep. Shenanigans is the best of the three, but is restricted to people under 180 lbs - large people just plain don't fit.

Woody Canyon    Woody 4B II     Down the Ticaboo road 12 miles or so is Woodruff Canyon. A side branch of this is called Woody, an interesting and fun pothole canyon which makes for an athletic but shorter day.

Maps

Maps are available at the Canyoneering USA Store, or download and print the 250kb versions here.

 

	Leprechaun Complex, North Wash Bigger Version Hikes and routes in the Leprechaun complex.
	The Three West forks of Butler. Bigger Version Longer, more strenuous and less comfortable journeys in the Forks of Butler. Good stuff for intermediates to adults.