Pictures and Story by Dave "Wyoming" Pimental
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The next morning I returned to Piglet and quickly found a gully that would take me to the rim by way of some steep chalky sandstone slabs. Once on the rim it was a small matter to find my way along the canyon and see that there were several promising places to enter and escape the canyon. While hiking along I noticed a white object down on the ledges below that looked like some kind of trash. I would check that out after I had scouted to the head of the slot and beyond. In the open canyon above the first rappel I found the carcass of a bighorn ewe that looked to have been there for a couple of years.
Although the first rappel isn't necessary, it does signify the beginning of the slot. On my scouting expedition I by-passed the dryfall on the left side and moved downstream through a couple of short sections which have some small drops which looked down-climbable, especially if the first person rappels and the others climb with a spot from below.
I continued to climb in and out of the canyon and quickly determined that the canyon had a few short escapable sections and a final section that is inescapable and contains the wonderful 50 foot elevator that I had seen the night before. I climbed up and down canyon from every entry I could negotiate alone. The entry to the final drop was guarded by a downclimb that I couldn't reverse, so I could see the final corridor which should lead around the corner to the grand finale elevator, but I couldn't actually go right to the brink of the drop. Instead, I reversed a bit of canyon and climbed out to look from above the final drop. Up on the dome, I could see the corridor and the slot beyond as it finished out and dropped into the open canyon below.
During the scouting I came upon the white scrap of trash that I had seen earlier. It turned out to be the radio collar of the bighorn ewe from up above in the canyon. Apparently the flash floods of the last few seasons had transported the collar down a couple of hundred yards and deposited it thirty feet above the canyon bottom.
As an aside, I later brought the collar to the BLM in Hanksville and they put me in touch with the folks who do some of the bighorn studies. I was able to return the collar and inform the sheep people where Ms Ewe is resting for eternity. They were very appreciative and expressed an interest in hearing of any bighorn sightings by the roadside in the North Wash area.
So, I had scouted the canyon and determined what hazards lay within. Now, all that remained was to pull the trigger. I had looked at all of the canyon and downclimbed a couple of the problems. The only real mystery left was the final hundred feet of corridor leading to the 50 foot elevator at the bottom.
