The Young Turks of Arizona invited Ram out to explore a few canyons around the north end of the Grand Canyon (the Marble Canyon area). This became ‘Ditch Fest’ and I somehow wrangled an invite for me. Here’s the crew: Todd Martin, Aaron Locander, Steve Ramras aka Ram and Rich Rudow.
The weather declined to cooperate, and we ratched back the ambition of our first trip. Good weather was predicted for the 6th, not so good for the 7th, worse after that. Rich and Todd had a slot they wanted to explore that was a two day—over to and down the slot the first day; down the river and climb out an exit on the second day. We figured we could do the float and climb out in the rain, if we had to, but HAD to get down the slot the first day, to camp on the beach.
There was a bit of a hike to get to the slot ... then we started down the slot. Rich and Todd had taken two trips down here to find the route in and to size up what the slot would require. So we knew about 10 raps up to a big one at the end, probably 200 feet. Pools. Wetsuits. Etc.
My faith in the low–friction nature of polished limestone was not rewarded, as the rope stuck good just before the last rappel. We fiddled with it for awhile, but finally Rich climbed back up the rope to see what was sticking. Not much, really, a pigtail of twists had caught the blocking biner.
Finally, we got the final rappel set up. Ram was cold so we sent him down first. We did not KNOW how long it was, but the guess from Todd was pretty close to 200 feet. From the top, it kinda looked like about 200 feet.
Because the previous rope stuck and had a short anchor sling, I used the wait to extend the anchor for the final rap out to the edge, which seemed rather unnecessary with the polished, low–friction rock, but ...
We could not see the bottom from the top. Ram started down and still could not see. 150′ down, the rap passed a ledge and went free, and Ram could see the rope resting on a slopey ledge, 50 feet above the pool at the bottom. How slopey? Hard to say ... down to it, Ram finds 5 extra feet of rope, and a ’reasonable’ but not comfortable ledge ... YIKES!
We soon were all down, thankful for our good luck. Another 10 feet and ... trouble for sure. We made our way to the beach, set up camp, had a little dinner, and settled in for the night, expecting rain to show up at some point.
We were surprised to wake to blue skies, puffy clouds. Better get on the river while it lasts! These guys had found these Micro Rafts that were small and light enough to be carried down into the Big Ditch. Kinda chilly on the river, being about 1′′ off the surface.
Well, I guess I should explain about the rescue ...
These boats are neither maneuverable nor particularly sea–worthy. We stopped to portage a riffle, and then had to deal with the eddy below the riffle to get back on the water–heading–downstream. The eddy resisted. I paddled more aggressively and made it into the edge of the rapid’s runout, hoping to be taken downstream. Just as I realized that this area of water was dominated by upwellings, the water was domed to my right ... and the boat fell right over, into it.
Not much of a wipeout, really, considering you start 1′′ above the water. I grabbed the raft and the pack floated away. Todd bore down on it in the Big Green Machine and took it to shore. Aaron rescued me, then we fought the eddy for a bit. That kayak paddle came in handy and we finally reached shore.
Rich informed me that I had the honor of their first Colorado River Wipeout and successful rescue. Well, quite an honor, I would say ...
Then we hiked up 3000 feet to the rim and Aaron’s car. More than a couple–a miles of dirt road got us to the highway; an hour on the highway got us to camp. Aaron headed back to the big city. For the rest of us, it was cold and dark, a quick and delicious Ram–meal, then Rich and I went and fetched his car, a 3–hour endeavor.
In the morning, with an unfavorable forecast and very stiff knees, I headed back to Mt. Carmel for some R&R (rest and resuscitation) ...
Tom
© 2009 Nolan Thomas Jones