It was reported a couple months ago that there was a new, odd, superfluous bolt backing up a cairn at the first rappel in Leprechaun… or something like that. For those familiar with the system, ‘the first rappel in Lep’ is rather non-specific – there are seven spots that could be the ‘first rappel’. I figured it was probably at the very top of East Lep, and as I had a few hours available driving back from Ouray, and there was a pleasant light rain falling, I threw some tools in the pack and went for a stroll.

First Stop, East Lep, here’s the map.

The top-layer rappel in East (A) can be walked around, but we usually rap off an easy-to-build cairn. There was a well constructed, though oversized, cairn here, and no bolt.

I walked around the drop and then back over to the real first rappel (B), or at least the moderate downclimb that leads to the first rappel. Alas, some people rappel here and there are nasty rope grooves – which encourages other people to consider it a rappel. No bolt seen down in at the real rappel, nor up here at the rope-groove inducing rappel point, which did not have an anchor present.

Twenty feet along the left edge, I found another cairn anchor (no bolt) above a set of more-recent rope grooves. The webbing on it looked nasty, so I cleaned it.

Next, I followed the slickrock over to Middle Lep. The top-layer descent is an interesting downclimb, and I would check that on the way back. The usual first anchor here (A) is off a sling inside this stack of huge rocks – no bolt seen here.

There is another branch that can be used. I have used the area to teach meat anchors, and it can be used to start Middle Lep. There are some chockstones in a good place to sling for an anchor, and they had some tattered webbing which I cleaned off. Still no Bolt.

I took the short walk over to the top of West Lep.

West has two little forks at the top that meet perhaps 40 feet on at a drop – the approach is down an easy slab. The usual first rap is at (A). Coming from Middle, I crossed the top of (B) where we rappelled once at Freezefest, when the low-angle slab was snowy. No anchor at (B), as expected.

At (A) there was a dug in dead-person anchor, with the webbing extended well over the edge (for a change). Previous anchors apparently did not extend over the edge as indicated by the prominent rope grooves here. I left this anchor as is.

Ugh!

LNT vs. LYM… Ten feet away, someone carved the sandstone – proponents of the “Leave Your Mark” philosophy as opposed to the usual “Leave No Trace”.

Finally, above the western little fork (C) was an anchor consisting of a large cairn and, alas, a bolt. This seems an odd place to rappel. It does lead down into a nice slot, that opens out in about 40 feet to the real first rap in the canyon at (A).

A three minute walk up from there would allow a person to clean the anchor, should said person follow the LNT philosophy. (Rappel where you wish, but please do not leave behind webbing that is easily cleaned.) The bolt here is mysterious – perhaps it pre-dates the cairn anchor. Just seems odd to spend the effort to put in a bolt when there is an abundance of rocks, and the rappel is definitely optional.