It’s our second day of exploration in the Roost and I’m thinking of bailing out again. I took the day off yesterday, after a few days of exploring, because I didn’t feel like it and I was conserving my strength for the following days. Okay, let’s face it, I’m searching for excuses to stay in bed. The wind is blowing and the sunrise is beautiful but it doesn’t give much confidence for a warm day. In fact, it’s looking like it’s going to be a nasty day weather–wise. I push myself out of bed. Ram and Amy are doing an established canyon so I have that option, but I decide to follow the exploratory group until the drop–in to see if I start feeling like it.

The car spot and approach is easy and I decide to go downcanyon to the first difficulties, to see what’s what. We do several sections of easy stuff and stroll through sandy washes like the group did the day before. It’s taking it’s time slotting up and we know from the map that we’re going to descend 600 feet or more in the canyon at some point. After a quarter mile of gradual descent we come to a point where the canyon tightens up and gets serious.

We stop for an early lunch and then enter the slot. I am apparently going along today, in spite of my earlier hesitation. There is very little wind down in the canyon and all the work is enough to keep one toasty. The canyon immediately forces you to chimney along horizontally as the narrow slot drops off below you. Less than a hundred linear feet into the business and you are forty feet off the deck and starting to have your doubts. Isn’t there a way to go low? I am fairly far back but it looks like one could go to the bottom and stay there.

Will we be forced back up by constrictions? Will we continuously be required to climb up and down on very strenuous terrain, or will the low road work? The group decides to back out from this high road and scout some more from the rim. A small side joint of the canyon allows us the option of rappelling into the middle, to ascend from below while a diminutive group tries to go low through the narrows from the top. That way we would have two canyoneers probing from below and two on the rim while two more try to push the low road through the slot. The second half of the canyon looks less daunting and shouldn’t be a problem.

For the top group, the plan was not to cause an epic or slow up the group, but to descend in from the top until an impassable or extremely strenuous section was reached and then turn back, so we would only have to reverse the original downclimb into the slot. If we had to reverse the moves it would be difficult, but we would only have to do it once. We would only bring a short bit of rope and our harnesses to give a belay or hand–line if necessary. The middle team was to explore upward without the benefit of gravity. They would be our main group with the greatest chance for success, but it would be a lot of work. The rim crew would stay on top until we were sure the canyon would go. Without them it wouldn’t be safe. With rim team in place we could always jug back out and call it a day. The rim crew would make the exploration possible on our terms.

Aaron (5′10′′, 135 lbs) and I (5′3′′, 132 lbs) set off again to the beginning of the slot and entered immediately with an elevator down into the spooky depths. After a short distance the canyon drops again with a small, sinister and skinny drop to the very bottom of the slot. We are in a small chamber with only reflected light. Ahead is a narrow section which bends around the next corner out of sight. I curse myself for forgetting to carry my headlamp into the business. Since Aaron is 16 years old, I pull the oldness card and we develop a game plan where I will push forward while Aaron stays at the wide spots to see how things go. He climbs as well, or better, than I but I can’t take the responsibility of killing someone’s son. Me first.

I can see light streaming in from beyond the narrow section and I hope things will open up again. The narrows are short and I soon break out into another chamber which is the bottom of an irregularly shaped silo. Before me is another small narrows with light at the end. Aaron comes forward and I set off again down the narrow fissure. The walls are vertical, so the movement is rather easy. It hasn’t turned slanted and strenuous. It’s just very narrow sideways movement with what we like to call the duck walk. The lighted chamber is the same as the last and Aaron quickly comes forward.

The next narrows looks to be thinner. Shenanigans narrow. Sure enough, this one’s tight. We are still on the bottom, moving on a slim ribbon of sand, occasionally having to climb up a few inches to push through the minor constrictions and undulations of the walls. Everything we’ve done seems easily reversible, except for the entry elevator shaft. As we break out into the chambers along the way, I think I can see footprints in the sand. Has someone been in here recently? How did it go for them? Are they very skinny people? The next section looks narrower still and we begin to hear voices. The acoustics in these canyons is incredible. We can hear our group below with great clarity from what seems to be quite a distance.

We push through once again to another wonderfully lighted miniature chamber. I begin to feel some confidence that we will play through. The voices are a strong boost for the explorer’s willies that I’ve been feeling, the light is better and the next narrows doesn’t seem as slim as the last. We see more footprints in the canyon, but they are obscured by the prints of some small desert rodent which has run up and down the sandy bottom. A couple more mini–narrows with chambers and it’s really beginning to open. The voices are right there in front of us. We climb through a final small section and there are Tom and Denise, standing in a beautiful corridor that is shaped like a mini Subway. They have seen footprints too.

A few hundred feet further down we come to the boulder field in the middle of the canyon where it opens up and our rim team awaits. Hank and Malia rappel in to join us for the final half. I am confident that I can reverse the canyon if the lower section shuts down, but it looks fine. We can see the end of the canyon where the walls pull back in to a nice patina stained alcove. Tom and I take off from the boulder field and quickly descend 40 feet to the bottom. The canyon is very undulated and shuts down a bit after a very short while, forcing us off the floor. Here is the up and down strenuous stuff that we feared would be in the narrow slot. We are continuously forced to chimney and squeeze up a bit to bypass narrow constrictions. The group is moving well and jokes and laughter are ringing down the canyon but the sweat is really starting to flow as well.

The crux for us is a narrow snake–like section that necessitates chimneying up 15 to 20 feet from a very narrow stance. Getting started is the trick and then it’s a grunt up to a comfortable chimney position. We shuttle the oversized exploration packs across to ease the upclimb. Denise decides to try the S–curves at the bottom of the slot but soon finds herself unable to advance or retreat in the tight, curvy space. We have spied a couple of rap rings on a rapide in the sand at the base of that tight section and Denise occupies herself with trying to retrieve them while we pull out a rope to extricate her from her impasse. Alas, it it too narrow. She can kick them along, but she can’t bend over to pick them up. A happy hooker would do the trick. With the help of a rope from above, Denise is able to pull herself out of her predicament.

There are still chambers between the tough sections where we can rest, so the canyon is fun and not too fearsome, but it is mighty tiring to go up and down at these spots. It’s turning out to be a great time and a tough enough finish to put some spice on the experience. In fact, this is a blast and it’s all in just a few tenths of a mile! After some more toil with oversized packs we emerge into a magnificent amphitheater for a snack before the hike out. I’m very glad I didn’t stay in bed. We had a fun and complete day in every way on this exploration. They don’t all turn out that way.

The footprints and rap rings turned out to be those of the guidebook author Michael Kelsey and his small exploratory group. I would say that you will find this canyon in a guidebook near you soon.


Dave

December 2, 2006

© 2006 Dave Pimental