Sand Trap Anchor & Poe Canyon and the Hogs

Anna Rehkopf rapping, No Kidding, North Wash Nov 2009 (Poe Canyon)

Before heading into more serious things, a lazy-ish weekend in North Wash was in order. No Kidding provided a good opportunity to test out the new Sand Trap. Dave Buckingham and Anna Rehkopf from ZAC and Springdale drove up for some slot action, and we met 'the gang' in North Wash. Mr. Brejcha-your-legs and Dan Ransom signed up for No Kidding, Dan happy to be a worker rather than cinematographer for a change.

Anna Rehkopf rapping, No Kidding, North Wash

The seldom seen – moi!

One of many No Kidding raps into pothole-ish ledges.

Dave playing Air-Trumpet.

Sand trap.

First person raps with a meat anchor backup.

No Kidding is a nice little canyon with a bunch of short drops. The challenge is to do it “ghosting”, without leaving a trace. We and others had done it before with Pot Shots, but the Sand Trap makes it EZ.

Dan rapping off the SandTrap, positioned in a nice indent near the lip.

But don’t worry – we only use this on short rappels!!! (Not)

Anna “on stage” for the last rap in No Kidding.

Sometimes, it takes considerable effort to get the Sand Trap to ‘clear’.

And down it comes…

Next Day – Hog 1 and Hog 2 – it’s a Hog Fest!!
Just a few pictures here: Rick Thompson, Bob Stevenson and Anna in the Boss.

Up top for a Hog 2: Santa Claus, CC, Rose and Jen from Salt Lake.
Uh Oh, then it’s time for The Main Event!

But really, this post is about our return to Poe Canyon. After October's partially successful trip, Ram was anxious to get back at it and "send the project", the project being to complete Poe Canyon, a difficult, remote canyon on the Waterpocket Fold by 'fair means' - in this case, without using the bolts in the canyon, using advanced natural anchor techniques and technology, and careful downclimbing. Steve Woodford's invention of the Sand Trap earlier this summer had helped a lot, and we came back to Poe Canyon with a revised Sand Trap to try out.

Returning to Poe Canyon, with a new team- Steve Levin, Ramoo, Rick Green, Brendan Busch, Dan Ransom, and I.

Shoreline, Waterpocket Fold, Clouds.

And here it is, Poe Canyon itself (above our camp). Doesn’t look like much, does it?

Hiking in: this time, we followed the Entrada Bench most of the way.

Steve Levin, the man, the myth – on vacation after a couple years writing
the new, standard-setting climbing guidebook for Eldorado Canyon, Colorado.

Morning finds us with light packs, heading up towards Poe Canyon.

Hiking to the put-in, crossing the major side-drainage (which awaits a descent, project name: “Jiminy Cricket!”)

Suiting up. It being a tad cold, wet suits seemed in order. The gang is ready to go!

Then some pictures in the canyon.
We Omnisling the first drop in the canyon, which Spidey downclimbed (very scary) the last two times.

Levin on one of the many, many raps…

Pulling the SandTrap on the same rap.

Rick rapping into the “Arch Room”.
Ram shallow-water jumped this one last time – but the water was lower this time, so using the SandTrap seemed wise.

Here’s a drop we thought might be downclimbable, then a catch at the bottom…
Ram down-sliding.

Levin is the test-downclimber, checking it out for Brendan while on belay. (No problemo)!

And then there were a few drops and stuff like that. Which we did, using the SandTrap and the pot shots for getting across the GIANT KEEPER! We removed two of Goofball's bolts (with permission). We got past "the wart" by doing a climb-up - lower sandbags - to a guided rappel. Fun!!

Good to have it done, though 'projecting it' kind of takes away some substantial piece of the accomplishment.

Then down to the BIG, final rap. We had to bring sand from upcanyon. SandTrap rappel, 197 feet to the deck. Out in time for an easy dinner.

Next day, Ram takes the boys off to Happy Dog while Rick and I, on vacation, wander up the Fold.

Third day, shown here, Ram rallies the clan early to hit Baboon before hiking out to the boat.
Then we went home.