Here is a 2011 shot of the group on the arch. Note the people below and in the upper left
corner.
The plan was for me to go up and set the rappel ropes,
Barbara would stay below and make sure the ropes reached the ground and take
pictures. I really underestimated the
approach. I was carrying two 90m ropes,
one is not long enough. We hadn’t scouted
it, nor had we researched the approach.
So much to our surprise there was a little 5.3 climb on the backside to
reach the top. Someone had set top rope
anchors and carved foot holds out on that section. So up I go, unprotected, carrying two ropes. And then it got worse.
Another section of 5.3 smearing, I took the wrong route and
wound up on some 5.5 stuff, unprotected, 80 foot cliff below the slab I was
on. After slipping once I down climbed a
bit and re-evaluated what I was doing. That’s
when I noticed the wear on the rock where the other groups had gone across the
face, not up it.
This brought me to an area that was above the arch. It had a 5.3 down climb to reach the top of
the arch. Someone had placed an anchor
at the top this, so I set up a safety rope to do the down climb. A slip here could result in a 100 drop to the
rock below.
Barbara was wondering what was taking so long so decided to
follow me up the rock. So she did
basically the same thing I did, the little 5.3, then the smear on the slab, she
got a slip on the slab also, but she had to down climb the 5.3 unprotected to
get back to the bottom. Scary stuff.
I had left a lot of gear in the truck; this was supposed to
be a simple rappel from anchors. So when
I reached the rappel station I noted that there were two set of anchors, the
original ones and a new set. It was
apparent that the guide service that leads this has set up some safer, more
reliable anchors. I would have gladly
abandoned some web to use the new anchors, but I didn’t have it with me. So, after finger tightening one of the old
anchors, I set up the double rope rappel, it was do or die time, going back was
not an option.
Barbara signaled ropes down and untangled, so started the
rappel. Its always the first step that
you get the wooley boogers.
The rest of the rappel was pretty amazing but went
smoothly. It was almost anticlimactic
compared to the approach.
Walking down the edge was fine, just don’t look down,
concentrate on the rock before you.
Then the big step off, nothing but air below.
And down I go;
Just hanging around;
The rope pulled free without a problem. While pulling it out I stopped to see where a
single rope would reach, about 20 feet above the ground. We talked it over and decided a repeat for
Barbara to be able to do it was not in the cards. It took me about a half hour before my hands
would stop shaking.
In hind sight we should have scouted the route or hired a
guide. We totally underestimated the
complexity. This activity should have at
least three people to accomplish; two climbers that can do a standard
multi-pitch climb, and on observer to check the ropes for the rappel. It wouldn’t hurt to have the observer hold
the ropes at the bottom. It was
difficult to keep from spinning while free rappelling. It was also a good thing I wore gloves. My ATC and auto-block both got pretty
warm.
Would I do this again?
You bet. It will be a lot less
scary because I now know all the particulars and can plan a safer trip.
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