Hidden Splendor Slot Fest, May 3, 4 and 5, 2002

The OCA / CanyoneeringUSA Annual Imperial Slot Fest was held at Hidden Splendor Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 3-5. What fun. About 30 intrepid canyoneers turned out for a weekend of gnats, canyons and sunshine. Many new techniques were shared, new friends made, faces connected with email names, and good times had. Friday, I took a group of Toms through Quandary Direct. Tom Jones - moi; Tom Talboys from Salt Lake; Thomas Haskett from Pocatello; and Ron Westlund from Delta, an honorary Tom for the day.

We found the canyon very dry. Arriving at the first drop of the Direct route, we found a freshly drilled bolt above where I had removed my own piece of hardware last fall. Hmmmm.

 

We moved a large boulder into position and dug it in as a deadman. Not too hard, really, but it was nice to have a lot of manly brawn along on this trip.

 

Here you can see the new bolt (red hanger), fresh drilling dust and my poorly filled hole from the drilled angle I placed 2 years ago and cleaned last fall. The bolt was a 3/8" red tip Rawl Powerstud in a sloppy hole, and cleaned really easy. It's kind of remarkable that such a sloppily placed bolt actually held for a few rappels.

The first "Direct" rappel leads into a deep pothole, currently about calf-deep. Exitting this pothole is difficult, but could be done using a three-person shoulder stand, or a pack toss (tossed from the rappel point) For the pack toss, tie the end of the rope securely to the pack - this often requires tying through multiple straps and loops on the pack. Fill the pack with non-breakable stuff, and have it be as heavy as you can easily make the toss with. It is remarkable how well a surprisingly light pack can be used in this way. Toss this pack past the pothole and over the next lip (see ropebag in the picture). Rap into the pothole, then ascend the rope to get out. In this case, we used the Happy Hooker to hook the edge, then climb out. Here, Tom climbs while Tom and Thomas spot him. And the rest of the canyon was fun...