Wives Canyon (3 & 5)

Wives approach

We negotiated with the other group, we would bring the rope in, set up the giant rappel, and they would take the rope out and we would just leave it there for them to both use and then carry out of the canyon.

Fred was able to join.

We gave the other crew a walkie-talkie and subjected them to our whale tendencies. But also were able to confirm that the rope was there and they were good to go, and everyone had a fantastic time.

Wife 3

So when we arrived, there was a ton of webbing, a lot of webbing, that was tied together, and like extended almost like twenty feet. And it makes sense, like both for the pull to extend it, we set up a courtesy though, meaning like we had the attachment point higher up just to help people start the rappel, and then we moved it back just to help with the pull, but we ended up just having to inspect a ton of webbing, multiple different threads, varying widths as well.

But we needed a volunteer to go first, and I was closest, so I ended up doing the rappel first.

I walked off, you’ve got like 10 feet on a wall before it slowly backs off and exposes the overhang.

I definitely took a couple pauses to really take in the views, which was quite stunning. You’ve got just a huge open mouth, full overhang, and then the canyon below, and because I went first, after I did my belay, I took a lot of photos and videos.

There was rock fall. The rock fall did bounce off walls, so the beta does say don’t be directly under and we’d validate that’s accurate.

Wife 3 exit

To get to the next rappel though after the big one, we all just downclimbed. It looks weird, but super easy.

I think the anchor was set somewhat high.

When you exit the canyon and it starts to open up, we went right.

Wife 5 approach

So for Wife 5, again, we’ve already done the approach. This time though, we went a bit further down the trail before almost U-turning to get less angle on the slope. The slope kind of goes diagonal across.

And we almost went early, so we had to go straight up and then across. This time we went further down and then turned around to get a shallower angle approach.

We found two small slots. So I went down into the canyon. Some of us went left, some of us went right, and the answer is to go right, which led to a partner assist before the first rappel.

Wife 5

I’m not a big fan of favorites, just canyons I’d do again, canyons that I struggled with. If they’re pretty, I’m down. If they’re unique, I’m down. So no favorites.

I’d definitely do them again. And that included the first big rappel on Wife 5.

There was some water. It definitely got a little deep here and there. Some was avoidable via stemming. We had some people try to help other people like pull us across when we got to the bottom of the rappel so we didn’t get in the water Water was cold, but like very minor. And, You know, it might have been deeper in spots, but it wasn’t like persistent throughout the canyon.

I think there’s a separate super narrow rappel where we try to kind of Everyone seemed to struggle kind of plowing through. One person stemmed super high, but then was at risk of swinging in. I opted to do a backpack on one shoulder and try to push it through, which was fine. I think my key thing is I was keeping my camera on my shoulder, I have a little almost phone pouch that I put my small point and shoot and video camera on. And I was trying to keep those protected, but definitely was facing, even putting the bag by itself and having on one shoulder, felt like I had moments of Like, the camera being almost scratched. So my plan wasn’t perfect, to say the least. So, again, super narrow.

I feel like we had something with an awkward pull that we ended up fiddling. The canyon bent almost 90 degrees right down canyon, and then bent back left. And so the pull kind of went around that edge, if I’m not mistaken, which again, we fiddled and again are trying to prevent additional wear, ‘Cause there’s a lot of rock grooves in these canyons.

I feel like it was more just fun trying to avoid the mud, which wasn’t completely preventable. I think we’re all trying to keep the rope dry, which also didn’t work out on the pull. The slack fell in.