Summit Mount Majestic and Canyoneering Hook Canyon, Zion National Park, UT

ACA was having a Rendezvous in Zion. Sure, let's check it out. Since permits were hard to come up with, and the selection of canyons "in-condition" was small, we decided to check out the purported route up Mount Majestic from the first raps in Behunin.

The team for this adventure was Patti Rambert, making a guest appearance from So Cal, Sharon Talboys, Alicia Scotter and Tom Talboys.

An *early* start finds us on the shuttle, then off with the touristas preparing for their daring ascent of Angels Landing

Perhaps we can sneak around from Behunin Pass to the ridge. NOT. Just a bit of a cliff in the way. Darn.

After losing an hour on that misadventure, we rapped down into the main canyon, and proceeded to the first rappels in Behunin. Then up the ridge above. Great views back down into the regular route in Behunin.

We made our way up the ridge, mostly pretty easy, toward the summit. Here, we sidehill the false summit on steep brush to make our way into the gully. Steep and brushy, but not too bad.

Mr. Talboys led the tough final pitch, 4th class or easy 5th. The rock was soooooooo bad, I was grateful to have a rope on. Couple of short pitches, right on the crest, threading through the trees – kinda like fun, only different.

Finally, up on the summit plateau. The Manzanita looked manky due to some kinda fungus. We march over to the north summit block, and hike up toward the top.

Wow, what a beautiful summit! The middle summit block looks a little more difficult to ascend, and is listed on the map as being one foot higher. But, with time short, we disdained the actual summit and had to make do with the north.

OK, summit tagged. The day was wearing on, and we had a barbeque to get to! The easiest way down is maybe probably Hook Canyon, between Majestic and Cathedral dropping north. Since I had been down and up this canyon, it seemed like the wisest choice.

But first, let’s poke our nose into the adjacent canyon, the REAL Behunin…

Bit of a canyon down there, though it may be more like a gully. The very top looks like about a 250′ free rappel to get in.

We whack through the oak and manzanita over to the other side of the plateau. We quickly find ourselves rapping into Hook Canyon, and NO, I did not go fetch my t-shirt…

One rap at the top, and then quite a bit of downclimbing. Being a bit loose, we spread out to minimize the chance of dinging someone with a rock. Sharon’s out front there somewhere…

Being north-facing, Hook Canyon holds snow fairly well. The snow made for fast going, and we were quite grateful.

One last rappel, and we’re down in civilization. Funny, in the dark, we had 3 or 4 rappels…

Another beautiful day in Zion. Victory picture high on the slickrock, still a bit of a hike to get back to the road, but it’s pretty easy with daylight.