There were other obstacles in this section, including this deep Pit of Doom, passed easily by a traverse on canyon right, then a short rap to where Aaron is, which is the anchor point for a longer rappel.

...dancin' on the edge, above the large drop...

Finally, we arrived at the Big Drop. Todd and I scurried forward to assess the engineering requirements. The BD starts with a 100' rap into a comfortable slot above the 300+' smooth, vertical drop. Here Rich is hanging out in the comfortable slot, waiting to assist the Drill Baby Drill types...

Not far below the lip of the drop is the Rope-Eating Crack, with three ropes stuck in it. From the anchor, we could see how the rope would run down and then INTO the crack and get stuck. Some time in the past, plucky canyoneers (or Banditos) had set up a three-bolt station down adjacent to the Rope Eating Crack, but there were only studs left from this anchor. The perch offered a small stance, and Todd and I used this to install two 1/2" x 3-3/4" Powerbolts. There were also doubts about the length of the rappel. Given much choice, we would have carefully positioned out anchor to be about 280 feet above the ground, so it could be done with a 300' rope (accounting for shrinkage). But the little ledge offered only one position for the anchor. We set up a Lower-And-Rappel and Todd went down first. I lowered out about 10 feet of rope, and this was enough to get Todd to the ground. We then pulled it up and re-rigged out 300 foot rope without the contingency.

There was a big pile of trashed rope at the bottom of the rap.

My newly-cut 300' rope was just the right length. Eeeeks!

From the bottom, here is the top HALF of the Big Rap. There is also a mid-wall rap station, but it is 15-20 feet off-plumbline, and we did not even think of using it.