Utah Black Hole of White Canyon TR

[RedRoxx44]

Public service announcement--for those cold water swims---WETSUITS ROCK----I love mine, a full with detachable sleeves from Sierra Trading Post for $39.50, built in rubber kneepads, 3/2 mm. Now back to regular programming.

The Black Hole was a tremendous experience. A very good one considering I am shy of big groups, and once again meeting a bunch of folks I knew only from the internet. We had 22 folks going thru, and considering the large group, it all went like clockwork, taking us some 5 hours and 20 minutes to make the trip. All guys except for two women and a young lady of about 12 I think.
I went up early to hike to a favorite ruin area of mine, and of others, PageRob I think, containing a wonderful ruin with an impressive paint job. I love coming here, and took time on Fri to roam up and down the canyon, to visit other outlying structures, to climb a level above and follow the ledge run out, and find some other pictographs of probable Basketmaker origin.

I spent the night in the back of the Cherokee about 10 miles from the meet spot, to get some sleep, I-17 traffic had proved terrible and I had not gotton to Flag to spend the night until about 1:00am Thurs nite.

Up early, I rechecked my bag, drybags, chosen gear. I sort of knew what to expect, but so much solo hiking has taught me to be self sufficient and carry all I need. The wetsuit was kinda bulky, and I knew the pack would be a lot smaller once I had it on.
At the meet spot I was the early one, meeting John and Felecia who had driven over from Southern California, this was the start of a week long vacation for them. They knew our trip coordinator, Shane Burrows, well.
Soon the others trickled in. The Black Hole TH parking lot was full. Lots of laughter and joking and gear strewn about. The typical start to any trip. We introduced ourselves around, I'll never remember all the names. Certain folks formed groups, you knew they had hiked or canyoneered together before. There were a few lone wolves like me. We set up the car shuttle in short order and at 9:00 am only 30 minutes later than the meet time, we were hiking in.
The approach is a short steep side canyon that leads down to the main White Canyon. You start walking downcanyon, the walls tall and pale beige, the canyon boulder strewn and sandy. Easy to negotiate here. It starts to narrow up and you walk in low sculptured walls within the canyon. We came to the first obstacle of boulders, the way down on the left led to a deep looking green pool, the right was downclimbing. I did a very awkward chimney with assistance after attaching a hand line which really wasn't needed. Longer legged people did better. The first pool was long and wall to wall, the sacrificial lamb declared, "It's not too cold", until he got a little deeper then said " It's a lot colder!!". We wimps decided time to put on the wetsuits. Stripping down to a bikini in front of a bunch of strangers was a little weird for me but after the underwear parade I decided what the hell. I think everyone at least had a shortie wetsuit. We repacked, made sure had a little flotation, camera secured, and away we went. The wetsuit made the cold water swimming almost enjoyable. We had quite a few short swims, some long ones, and deep waders. Most of the water was in the 50's so it was sure nice to not feel rushed going thru. The folks wearing the shortie suits seemed to get out of the water quicker I noticed.

Now some dry walking after the first long swim. The canyon got more serious, big boulders, big drops with deep dark pools, we walked the ledges which led to some fun downclimbing. I don't know why I always seem to follow the young guys on these things. They jump down 10 foot ledges, tiptoe across sharp tops of boulders. I usually found another way, but had some help at some spots, mainly moral support "come on, you can do it". Much appreciated. I was thinking this is challenging, decided I was a baby, felt better when a guy said, "this thing has some hardcore sections".

More swimming, that was fun, coming up against the sandstone, grasping it for support and rest from the longer sections.
We were not yet to the Black Hole, it was beautiful watching the canyon twist and turn and change, some easy walking, some bodily contortions through the rocks.

We come to the main event. I don't like the jump across. It is downhill, but to about a 2X2 foot square sloping ledge. Ugh. The alternate was really pretty easy. There was some webbing in place, but you could do a friction body drop down a crack and lower yourself with your arms to a foot hold. I had my pack handed down, swam a pothole, then climbed up the the launching point to get in the Hole.
Man, it was dark in there, for only a short way. The canyon is tight and narrow here, very little sun, and jammed up somewhat with some debris. It drops here too, so you have to do a Tarzan like move on an old rope someone left attached to a log. No footholds, just swing and drop, about 8 feet. The entrance was like a horror movie, you are in deep water, must squeeze by a log into darkness, swimming walls just feet apart, but your legs dangling beneath you, unable to touch bottom. It was amazing. Just got away without the headlamp. I took my last picture inside here, floating on my pack, I accidentally left my camera cord compressed in a corner of my Otterbox, not sealing it completely. Oh, well, it was my cave digital camera, and on it's last legs anyway. For a return trip I would get a disposable, waterproof camera for this adventure.

Through the hole. Magical. We came around the corner and it was just the best!! This short section made the trip for me. Some boulders had collapsed in, making a short tunnel. The water was probably only a foot and a half below the ceiling. The sun's rays played on the silty water through cracks between the boulders. It was incredibly gorgeous. Hopefully someone got a picture of this. You swim with the ceiling just above you, the walls about 3 feet apart, so you can jam yourself in there and rest if you choose. The rest of the swim was in the sun, just lovely after the deep dark cold. We sought the sun in the canyon bottom, and took a break for lunch. It says something that I sat out in the sun in the wetsuit, never unzipping it, ate, and lounged about and never got too warm.. The highs were only in the 80's, the lows in the 40's so a little cool for this outing but a supernice day for the sand slogging we did in the dry parts of the canyon.
We moved on. More swimming, one place was problematic because you would find bottom, walk, then suddenly step off.
Some wading, then some serious bouldering. I got out in front for part of this, because some folks were waiting for others to catch up and I just kept walking. One place I couldn't see how to get out of swimming a pretty nasty narrow section of debris filled water. The downclimb was worse with a belly flop entrance and I did not want my face in the muck. There was no bypass so away I went, me listening to the others splash in behind me.
Soon we were walking and the canyon opening up. It was getting hotter but we weren't sure when we could ditch the wetsuits. Our fearless leader coordinater was doing sweep duty. We got to a side canyon which was an exit, but the difficult one, we knew the easier one was just downcanyon. Off came the wetsuits in preparation for the hike out. The exit was easy to recognize and has been cairned, a little steeper than the entrance trip. I had a little shoe trouble here with velcro being filled with sand and not sticking, but hey, what do you expect for Wal-Mart $18.95 canyoneering shoes. I had purchased these men's shoes and done a short hike in them, impressed with the sticky rubber, and I was able to fit my orthotics in them, I followed everybody in their 5.10's and went where they did with no slippage or falls. Think I'll buy another pair.

We hiked out, jumped in the back of the shuttle pickup truck for the quick trip back to pick up vehicles. Some were planning another short trip that afternoon. I headed back to Flag to meet Brian for some lava tube exploration and spend time with him.
I met another excellent group of people and had a wonderful time. Hope to make a repeat of this one. I will put up some pics and link to the other site for their TR's and pics.

From Kazak's shots:



I'm almost at the bottom of the downclimb and---

Finally the real TR with pics up at--
http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7268


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You can rest when you're dead

[PageRob]

Wow, very sweet trip. I've wanted to get down in there, but I'm not sure if my technical canyoneering experience is enough to do it. Pictures are sweet. I'd heard it was chock-full of logs, so that's awesome that it isn't any more. I was back up that way a few weeks ago before the San Juan trip, dropped in on that ruin again. Good times, and found an easier way down into the canyon this time. I think mid next month I'm gonna be off again on a long, dry hike NE of Kayenta. Gotta go to Kansas first though . Seems like you're able to get up that way pretty often.
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Anywhere is within walking distance if you spend the time.

[kurthzone]

Wow, that's awesome Letty! Looking forward to the photos and/or links.
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;o)>

[RedRoxx44]

Some of the motley crew--full write up and pics by others on the trip in a link I posted in my main write up between the two pics I linked-- this photo courtesy of Iceaxe uutah.com

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You can rest when you're dead

[kurthzone]

Those swimmers make West Fork look like a wading pool!
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;o)>

[RedRoxx44]

A couple of the guys on the Black Hole trip encountered a trapped Red Tail Hawk in another slot canyon. This is the entertaining account of the rescue, including the wild animal rehab folks. Unfortunately doesn't detail when they first found the hawk, which created some "manly squealing" from the canyoneers and fears the "eagle, which was huge" "would rip them to shreds with it's talons". I laughed a lot when I read that one.

Good Job Alex and Marc---

http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7346&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
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You can rest when you're dead

[GeorgAz]

Wow Letty! That's amazing! You should be a technical guide! Gorgeous and very impressive. Sounds like it was a great crew as well. Very cool!!Thanks for the amazing pics!

[RedRoxx44]

Kinda cool video of trips thru the Hole--

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UlHoPRxQA84
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You can rest when you're dead

[Trishness]

Letty,

Terrific trip report and pics! I can hear UTAH callin' my name!!!!!


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~~~Trish~~~

"Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess; it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains." � J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings.

[Tom Treks]

[IGO]

[IGO]

These are my kinda drops.
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"Surely all God's people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes - all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them." John Muir