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Luke

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Heaps Canyon

Through the Eyes of a Beginner Canyoneer

6-23-07

Heaps canyon in Zion National Park is a challenging canyon.  I was not aware of just how challenging it was until actually on the trip.  Prior to this trip through Heaps I had only done one other canyon route.  That route was Fat Man's Misery, which is a technical canyon but pretty low on the difficulty level.  After getting through Fat Man's Misery I wanted to do more canyoneering, Lots More!

After doing Fat Man's Misery, I had been shown a video someone had made of a group going through Heaps Canyon. It looked like quite the adventure and made me want to go check it out.  Needless to say when Ron asked to go along on a trip through Heaps Canyon I jumped on the opportunity.  Boy howdy was I in for an eye opening experience.   Heaps Canyon was not a little step up from Fat Man's, it was more like a giant leap to the other end of the difficulty spectrum.

There are a couple of approach routes to where you leave the West Rim trail to drop into Heaps via Phantom Valley.  The first option is from The west Rim trailhead by Lava Point which is about 8.3 miles from trailhead to drop in at Phantom Valley, with an elevation loss of about 200 feet.   The second option is to hike up from the valley floor via the Angel's Landing trail which is about 6.7 miles from trailhead to drop in at Phantom Valley, with an elevation gain of a little over 2000 feet (4320 ft up to 7340 ft).

The four of us (Ron, Bonnie, Brett and myself) took the second option up from the valley floor via the Angel's Landing trail.  The route we chose had beneficial attributes; first it was 2.2 miles shorter and second there was no car shuttle need since the route would start and finish where the Zion shuttle service was running.  The down side to this route was the elevation gain of over 2000 feet.  That is pretty significant elevation gain, when you are hauling water for a couple days, full packs loaded with harnesses and gear, bivvy stuff, ropes and what ever else you thought you needed.  The big load and the 2000 foot elevation gain added up to be quite the task for a newbie.  I was used to big hikes and back packing with elevation gain, but this seemed to a bit different.  In retrospect I would take the other route in from Lava Point over this route any day.  The route may be 2 miles longer but would be so much faster considering elevation loss rather than gain.  This would more than make up for the shuttle time required.

We planned on taking 2 days to get through Heaps.  Turns out we needed 3 days and had to bivvy for an unplanned night which was pretty darned miserable (but created some fond memories).  The technical portion of the canyon is only about 3 miles.  That may not seem too far, but DO NOT UNDER ESTIMATE THIS CANYON!  The narrows sections and pot holes seem to go on forever like some sort of test.  Lots of work, but well worth it in memories!

Saturday

We left Ron’s house (Las Vegas) about 4am ate breakfast then drove to Zion to get our permits ready to go.  After the drive, checking in at the back country desk and riding the shuttle to the trailhead we were on the trail at 8:15am.  We wanted to get a very early start to keep out of the hot morning sun as we started the climb up the Angel’s Landing trail to Scouts Lookout.  8:15am wasn't cutting it for getting out of the heat. 

Soon after leaving the trailhead for Angel's Landing we were climbing steeply up the trail toward Scout's Lookout.  The climb up to Scout's Lookout  took more out of us than we had anticipated with the warm morning sun and the steep climb.  We a 15 minute break at Scout's Lookout to get our energy levels back up.

From Scout's Lookout we continued up the West Rim Trail.  Along the West Rim Trail we all started to feel the effects of the load packs, rope bags, extra water and the heat of the sun.  That day was supposed to get over 100°F.

I had recently gotten over an upper respiratory infection and was still on the antibiotics for that.  Not being fully recovered from the infection I was really feeling the climb.  As we approached the next major climb up to Cabin Spring (sometimes referred to as West Rim Spring),  I started getting slower and slower.  Ron expressed concern for me and kept asking if I was ok.  I told him I was but the climb was taking it out of me.  We stopped a couple times so he could pour water over my head and get some Gatorade down me to prevent heat exhaustion.  The others were feeling the heat and the climb as well but not quite as bad as I was.  I was pretty much bed ridden the weekend before this trip due to the upper respiratory infection and had not fully recovered.

When we got to the turn off for Telephone canyon and Cabin Spring we stopped for quick lunch break and to filter water to replenish what we had drank.  While at lunch Ron and I discussed if I would be able to finish the canyon.  Ron said only I could answer if I would be an asset or a liability.  After thinking about it for a minute, I told him I would be an asset "After" I got past the climb.

When we left the lunch area we were still climbing up and I was still traveling slowly.  We used my GPS to get us close to where we needed to leave the trail to drop into Phantom Valley.  We split up as we looked for an obvious route then regrouped along the way.

Since this was a learning trip for me I was given the option to set up the first repel and was happy to do so.  There were two possible spots to repel from.  One rap station was set up on a large piece of sandstone and the other was set up on a good sized tree.  I decided on the tree as an anchor rather than the sandstone since I didn’t like the idea of how brittle sandstone can be.  The rap from the tree was more secure but had more obstacles in the way for the rap down.

After dropping down the fist rappel the ridge was very awkward to travel on.  It was difficult to keep balance on the steep terrain while wearing a pack and hauling a rope bag so travel over to the next rappel was slow.   It was like a rough knife edge in places with strong breezes that kept you a little off balance.

After setting up and finishing the second rappel, we found ourselves in Phantom Valley where we needed to hike along wide open sandstone slick rock south toward the top of Heaps Canyon.   We made it to the mouth of Heaps a few minutes after 7pm and decided it was getting too late to continue into the first narrows since it was getting dark.  We had planned to be half way down heaps to the Cross Roads at this time.  Day 1 took took us about 10.8 hours of travel time with all the slow going up the steady climbs.

We found a good spot to camp on a smooth rock surface then went to a pot hole to filter some water for the evening.  I was surprised to find the water tasted very good after sitting in that pothole with who knows what fell in with it. 

We had decided to wear our neoprene booties that day (anticipating being further down canyon and in water).  Wearing them all day in hot summer heat makes your feet sweat a lot!  When I took off my neoprene booties at camp, I was able to pour 3 or 4 ounces of water (sweat) out of each one!

After setting up camp, eating dinner and settling in, Brett broke out some apple cider and brandy to enjoy just before going to sleep.

The frogs in the canyon were very loud and sounded more like bleating sheep. That night was a bit chilly but we did manage to get sleep.  We had brought minimal sleeping gear since we planned on only one night in the canyon and were told we could use our wet suits to keep warm.  The next night we found out just how not true that is!

Sunday

When the sky was just starting to lighten up a little, it was time to get up and start preparing for the day.  We ate our breakfasts filtered water and got into our wet suits.  We left camp at 6:10am to enter the first narrows.  The day was full of continuous work and the need to focus on the moment making it difficult to recount a play by play of the day.

We started the first narrows by climbing down a few spots using webbing to hold onto.  When we reached the first rappel into a water filled pot hole, we set the ropes then threw backpacks and rope bags about 20 feet down into the pool.  I had been travelling with my wet suit pulled down over my waist so I would not over heat.  When I rapped down into the pool of water I was reminded of that fact with a SHOCK of cold water.  I could feel my chest tightening up as the cold over powering feeling of the cold water started to take over.  I got up the other side and out of the water as fast as possible.  You only make a mistake like that once.  Yup, only once.  After getting my wet suit pulled up I was able to get back in the pool to assist with shuttling packs through the pool.  After all the packs and people were safely on the other side of the pool we were ready for the next one.

Bringing extra rappel devices turned out to be a pretty good idea.  Ron lost his rappel device in one of the water filled potholes.  Since the cold water can steal your dexterity and wearing gloves can add to the cumbersome feeling, it can be difficult to get the rope out of the rappel device without dropping it.  Especially while treading in murky water.

I learned a valuable lesson at one of our down climbs.  We were using webbing for a hand line and when it was my turn I wrapped the webbing around my hand for extra grip.  Ron asked if I was comfortable doing that.  I told him I was and that I had done it before and could let the rope slide around my hand like a rappel device.  After getting part way down, the cosmos taught me my lesson of the day.  I found myself hanging by one hand with my feet about 3 feet off the ground.  The webbing had tightened up and locked onto my hand painfully trapping me there just hanging by one hand.  Fleeting thoughts of loosing finger or dislocating knuckles whizzed by.  I worked and wiggled my hand until my knuckles finally squeezed through the webbing and I dropped hard to the ground.    My hand hurt for a few hours after that but was intact and working properly.  Lesson number 2 for the day, don't wrap webbing around your hand when hand lining down.  You only make that mistake once.  Yup, another hard truth that only needs one lesson.

As we climbed into and out of various potholes, or climbed over and through log jams, or over narrow uneven terrain, we all had to handle each other’s packs.  Passing the packs from one person to the next was the easiest way to get them over or around certain obstacles.  Ron’s pack quickly became known as the behemoth.  It weighed as the heaviest pack in our group at over 60 lbs.  Pull it out of the water and it soon becomes heavier.  Each time we pulled a pack out of the water, it was normal to hold it up and let the water drain from it before continuing to man handle it.  We were always in a hurry since there was limited time so we did not always let all the water drain.  The behemoth seemed to weigh anywhere from 70 to 85 lbs when it was pulled from the water.  It weighed so much more than our other packs (Luke’s pack mid 40’s, Brett’s pack mid 30’s and Bonnie’s pack mid 30’s).  As we were passing packs in assembly line fashion we started warning each other when it was being passed.  We would say something like “careful, it’s the behemoth”.

Some pot holes would be a lot of work to get through but were fortunately set up so that we could get a zip line set to shoot them across.  Setting a person at each end with rope attached to their harnesses seemed to work pretty well.  If it was a good drop and each person pulled back hard enough to tighten the line, a pack would almost make it to the other side.  This was typically not the case though.  Most of the time the pack would stop near the middle where the sag in the line was greatest.  We would have to lean back and pull as hard as we could to get the bag to bounce along another few inches or a foot.  Sometimes a traveler line would need to be set up to pull them along the zip line.

At one point I had climber out of a pot hole then dropped into the next pothole.  I found myself in a keeper I could not seem to get out of.  The wall on the other side went straight up out of the water about a foot then started to slope over very slowly .  There was no way to get a grip on it since it was all smooth sandstone.  There was no way to get a grip on anything or create enough friction to hold myself up.  All I had with me while treading water was a rope bag.  I took out a bunch of rope and tied a clove hitch around a carabineer then clipped it to the rope bag.  Then I threw the rope bag up and over the edge so I could use it as a counter weight.  I tried to pull myself up on the rope bag and found I could only pull about 30 pounds before it started to slide back to me.  I was able to pull on the rope bag enough to get me a few inches out of the water.  Then I could use my other arm to wrap as much of the slope as possible to create enough friction to hold me there.  The newly found friction combined with the little pull from the rope bag got me another inch or so up as I slapped the wall looking for another bite of friction.  Repeating over and over I finally managed to worm my body up and out of the pot hole.  If the water were any lower this would not have been possible.  When I got myself over the top I could not move for a minute or two.  I just lay there breathing as fast and hard as I could in order to catch my breath.  This keeper hole gave me just the level of experience I was looking for.  I got to get out of it with on my own, with my own plan and it was just difficult enough that I know I gave my all to get out.  By keeper standards this was most likely small potatoes.  But in that moment I felt like I had accomplished something, and it felt good!  It was very eye opening.  I could see how easily someone get get stuck in a keeper and just tread water until they ran out of energy and drowned or went hypothermic.

Just after getting out of the keeper hole Ron called and asked for me to go back to where they all were since they needed help.  I told him I would have to rig a way for me to out again before I was willing to get back in.  After rigging a rope to get out again I went back in the keeper and now needed to get out the up canyon side to get to back to the rest of the group.  This truly could have been a keeper for me as the up canyon side was inescapable for me.  They threw me an etrier to get back up.

Ron and Bonnie use the buddy boost method to get out of another keeper later.  Bonnie worked very hard at yet another keeper with a rope bag as well.  We all cheered when she made it to the top.  Getting past these keeper holes was quite fun but can become quite challenging as the water levels drop.

Another trick we used was using a person as the anchor for people to rappel down (the body belay trick Ron showed us in Fat Man’s Misery).  The last person then uses a pack as their anchor and a few people work hard to pull the pack over the edge.  You need to be careful where you place the pack.  If it is too hard to pull over someone needs to climb back up to go get it.  If it is not hard enough to pull over, the last person ends up having it slide while they are on rappel.  We used this technique a lot during the day.

After reaching the end of the first narrows, we were greeted with a large sandy area at the other end of a pool of water.  If we had time it would have made a beautiful spot to stop for lunch.  We made it to the Crossroads at 1:10pm and took time to evaluate if we should continue the route or take the escape route.  We were worried about time but ultimately decided to staying on route would be by far the safest choice.  There were too many unknowns with the escape route like lack of water, a long final rap and little to no beta on the route.  We also knew if search and rescue were notified they would not be looking for us along the escape route.  After eating lunch at the cross roads we continued down Heaps.

One spot in the canyon had a log jam we needed to navigate through.  It was deep and dark in this section of the canyon with high twisted walls and the log jamb above added to the darkness.  Travel without a head light was possible but difficult even in the middle of the afternoon.  If you wanted to see any details (like your rope) a head light was a good idea.  Once at the top of this particular log jam we then rappelling about 80 feet down to the floor of the canyon where it started to lighten up again.

Almost the entire day was spent traveling across and through areas where walking along a path was not possible.  The typical travel was as follows: Climb over or around rocks, log jams or potholes while carrying or passing packs from person to person. Throw the packs down into the water 15 or 20 feet (the pools looked like and airport baggage claim at times).  Rappel down, a lot of times into a water filled pothole.  Swim through areas of water while guiding floating packs with you.  Work together to drag, pull or push the packs and rope bags out of the water.  Set up zip lines to get packs across difficult areas.  Climb on or over each other if it helped get out of situations.  After each situation it was a very short distance to repeat one or more of the above mentioned activities (Rinse and Repeat).  This was an exhausting day that demanded constant work and focus.

The 7mm full body wet suit I wore was just enough warmth for doing Heaps.  I got a little cold a few times through the day generally caused by being in some of the colder pools with periods of low physical activity.  Once out of the water or getting active or in warmer water warming up was pretty quick.  Most of the pools were in the 50’s with a few dropping into the 40’s.  When the water temps dropped we decided to switch from our rappelling gloves to the neoprene gloves with Kevlar on the palms.  I was amazed at how well these held up to rappelling as well as climbing rocks and logs.  Most pools looked and smelled pretty clean.  There were a few however that looked like they had some sort of film on them and smelled like raw sewage.

By 7:10pm we had finished the second narrows and were ready to start the 3rd at 13 hours into our day.  Ron mentioned it would probably be a good idea if we stayed another night in the canyon and stopped here since it was getting dark.  We all agreed.  Ron and Brett hiked up a ravine to try and get cell phone reception with no luck.  While they were gone Bonnie and I set up camp by starting to filter water, start a fire and get the bivys set up.

Our dry bags all got some water in them and most of our food got wet.  Unfortunately it is not possible to filter the dirty water out of soaked food.  The only DRY food I had left for that night and the next day was 2 granola bars and a pack of Jack Links.  My water filter was quickly plugging up from impurities in the water like sediment and mosquito larva.  It was almost useless after getting about 2 quarts of water.  Brett's filter clogged after a short time as well, even after letting the water settle before pumping it.  A steriPEN or the MSR Miox might be a better option here but the water would still need pre-filtering from the mosquito larva and the tiny worms floating in the water.

Prior to leaving on this trip a friend told us that we could sleep in our wet suits to keep warm since that is what they did on a trip through Heaps.  The night temps were in the 50's and the wet suits proved to be VERY COLD!  My wetsuit performed well all day but it was now a different situation.  With no physical activity to keep us warm the wet suits were now acting like our own personal skin tight swamp coolers.  As the water evaporated from the suits it took lots and lots of body heat with it. With the night temps dropping it was obvious we were in for a very cold miserable night!  The fire was a good way to keep fairly warm but we needed sleep and pulling away from the fire was hard.  I went to go pee a couple times and found my wetsuit stunk of urine.  I had been urinating in it all day and it had not rinsed out thoroughly enough.  Ron and Bonnie’s air mats were flat from holes created over the days journey.  My pad got a hole in it because I set it too close to the fire and an ember burned into it.  Ron, Bonnie and I had emergency bivvy bags and no pads.  Brett had an air pad but no bivy.  We were all extremely cold and miserable sleeping (or trying to) that night.  I woke up a little after 1am to Brett sitting by the fire he started again.  A got up to pee and sat by the fire with him a while to warm up and we went back to sleep.  Sleep that night was very difficult.  All in all I slept very little.  Ron said he had never shaken so violently in his life.  I don’t think Bret slept at all.

Monday

I woke up about 5:20am to Ron, Bonnie and Brett by the fire.  They had been up for sometime because they were too cold to sleep.  Luckily I was able to get some sleep the last couple hours of the night.  I had looked at the map and had a good idea where we were.  Just before leaving I was able to get a fix with my GPS and found we were right where I thought we were, only 0.3 mile left to go until we reached the last three rappels.

For breakfast we mixed some dehydrated fruit and mixed nuts that had been soaked in water.  We added more water and boiled them to make a “Fruit and Nut Stew”.  We could not filter out the water that had soaked into the food but we could add to it and boil it to make it safe!  If you can't beat em', join em'.  The next batch of food for breakfast looked bad but did not taste too bad.  We mixed some of Brett’s water soaked oatmeal with my water soaked Ritz Crackers, Pretzels and pecan pie flavored pecans.  We boiled that into a mush that tasted like pancake batter with a maple flavor, “Heaps Pretzel Porridge”.  It did not look all that great but it did provide calories for our journey.  I did manage to take a picture of the "Fruit and Nut Stew" But regret to not have taken a picture of the "Pretzel Porridge".

We left camp at 7:58am and headed down the third narrows.  We immediately hit more pot holes to rappel into and swim through.  This meant more hard work getting packs out of them on the other side as well.  Shortly before doing rappels 16 and 17 the canyon opened up just a little to a bubbly moonscape looking area with water in it.  It was incredible looking.  Shortly after rappel 17 we found the place to climb up to the final 3 rappels (18, 19 and 20).  Before climbing up we took off our wet suits so we did not over heat.  This was the end of the wet part of the canyon.  It was too risky to take the packs up the climb (about a 5.5 or 5.6) so we went up without them and pulled the packs up using a rope.  The rope quickly cut ruts into the soft sandstone which put a little perspective on just how fragile the rock was.

At the top of the climb we took a break to dry out in the sun and snack on some of what we had left.  While up there Brett was able to get a call out to his wife Erika.  We found out she and my mom had both called search and rescue to report us missing.  Erika then called search and rescue to let them know we were ok.  They in turn called my mom.  We found out they do not send anyone out on the first day people are missing, they wait until the second day.

After resting then making our way over to the top of rap 18, we were all glad to be doing the last 3 raps in the daylight with lots of time to spare.  Unlike a group of 3 that did Heaps a few weeks prior.  They were doing the last raps in the dark in a hurry and made a rigging error.  Two of them made it down the last 300 foot rap ok but the 3rd guy fell about 270 feet and landed next to his buddies.

The final 3 rappels were 50 feet, 150 feet and 300 feet respectively.  The bottom of one rap was the top of the next.  They essentially make up one long rap about 500 feet.

We started the  rap18 at 11:48am with Ron leading the way down and I stayed in the rear to come down each rap last and clean ropes.  We needed to stage people along the raps since there was very limited space at rap stations.  Due to the space constraints and the need to be careful this series of raps took quite some time.  I finally left the top of rap 18 at 1:10pm and went down to Ron where we we cleaned up the rope from rap 18.  Ron then went down rap 19 to join Brett and Bonnie on the Bird Perch at the top of rap 20.  They set up the 300 foot final rappel to the Upper Emerald Pool.  I was still waiting at the top of rap 19 since there was no room on rap 20 (the Bird Perch).

While I was waiting at the top of rap 19 I was able to take in the views.  Being 450 feet over the Upper Emerald Pools and looking down on it with all the day hikers was beautiful!   I knew the moment Brett touched down by the pools because I could hear all the cheers and applause from the day hikers at the Upper Emerald Pool.  After Brett and Bonnie were at the bottom I was able to Rap down from rap 19 at 2:45pm to join Ron at the bird perch.  When I got to the Bird Perch at the top of rap 20 I had a hard time getting my thoughts together until I could find no place to put my feet.  After finding a place to wedge feet I was able to focus on getting anchored in so we could clean the ropes from above.  After getting the ropes put away I went down rap 20 at 3:08pm.  Ron followed after me and touched down at 3:48pm.  I was amazed to see it took 4 hours to get down the last 3 raps.

The final rappel was awesome.  It took a couple minutes to kick, pull and push my pack (dangling below between my legs) through the crevice and over the ledge.  After that it was a free hanging rappel for almost 300 feet on a rope 9mm thick.  I felt like a spider on a web slowly descending to the ground.  This was a view that only birds get!  All around me were high vertical cliff walls that formed an amphitheater like area with vertical walls.  The walls had water streaks here and there where water had stained them over time.  There were sections with green moss and small plants hanging on them.  In the middle at the bottom was the Upper Emerald Pool which had a light blue hue to it. The color contrast of the red and white cliffs, water trickling, green plants on the walls, lots of trees and the bluish colored Upper emerald pool below was incredible to say the least!  The view you get while hanging from your spider web there is simply breath taking.

As I got further down the rope began to twist a bit.  At first this was no big deal.  But as it twisted more and more it started to spin me around and the rope I was on started winding around the other rope.  I started slowly spinning and at first enjoyed the view.  I saw the emerald pools then the cliff faces, the emerald pool, then the cliff faces, the emerald pools then….. you get the idea.  It began to make me a bit nauseous.  I told Brett I was getting a bit tangled up but there was nothing he could do since he was on belay.  I rode it out until the ropes were twisted together all the way up to me.  When they could twist no more, they began to unwind as I descended and I started to spin the other way.

The Emerald Pools attract a lot of day hikers since it is a short distance to a beautiful area.  Unless told of the Heaps Canyon route, most people would find it impossible to think of someone coming down from these cliff walls.  It comes as quite the shock to a lot of people when they see it.  When my feet touched ground the day hikers let out a big cheer and applaud.  They did this for each of us as we touched down.  It was great and made each of us feel like a hero. 

I thought of  the 3 days of hard continuous exhausting work, spending the coldest night of my life in a wet suit, eating boiled slush for breakfast, looking over the beautiful things I had seen over the past 3 days and just finishing a mind numbingly awesome final rappel.  After all this and having a crowd cheer for you on touch down felt like being a big hero!  This is a memory for a life time.

We cleaned up the ropes and started hiking the Emerald Pools trail back to the Zion Lodge at 4:21pm and made it to the lodge at 5pm making for a 9 hour day.  Brett and I were hiking together.  When we reached the lodge Ron and Bonnie were there with ice cream and water.  Ron handed me some money and told me to go get some for Brett and I.  We all sat and had ice cream and water together.  It was a good moment!  That ice cream tasted so good! Then we caught the bus back to the visitor center where we had a celebratory beer while packing up the car.

On the way home we stopped in St. George to eat.  I was so exhausted I slept all the way home.  I wanted to help with the drive home but was so glad Bonnie was ok to drive.  I do not think I could have made it very far without needing to pull over and sleep.  I was flat out exhausted!

The back pack I used for this trip is now trash along with a pair of hiking pants I wore over my wet suit for pockets.  I ended up with holes in 2 dry bags and my sleeping pad.  Both my GPS and one of my cameras (water proof models) took on water and need to be repaired.  Anyone preparing to do any serious canyoneering should keep in mind whatever you bring into the canyon, WILL TAKE A BEATING.  Hint if you plan to use dry bags to keep things dry in a demanding canyon - Double dry bag it.

Jumping from Fat Man's Misery (my first canyoneering experience) to Heaps Canyon (my second canyoneering experience) was a pretty big leap.  The leap was bigger than I would recommend but in the end was oh so worth it.  I was even more hooked after Heaps than after Fat Man's.

The trip stands out in my mind as one of the best adventures I have had to date and I want more!!  Epic Fun!