Pine Creek-3CRII

[mtngoat59102]

February 13, 2005

Just came in the door a little while back from doing good 'ol Pine Creek. It was flowing like crazy today and Pine Creek will never be looked at the same by me. I will send some pictures in the next few days when I get them downloaded, it was Awesome!

The canyon was not an unreasonable task for people who have experience dealing with moving water and techniques associated with these conditions. Our worst fear which did not prove to come to life was log jams from the recent storms. I would rate this route R in it's present condition because the route could present unknown obstacles like the whirl pool we had to swim like crazy to get out of at the base of the Cathedral Rappel. There was another such strong whirl pool in the first pothole on the first two tier rap.

The water was very cold and continuous, wearing the appropriate gear was vital. The beautiful hallways after the Cathedral provided what felt like endless swimming. The one fun and frustrating feature I have never encountered before was the walls of foam bubbles produced by the flowing and frothing water. While swimming you would encounter a three foot high wall of bubbles which completely obstructed your view down canyon. Not to mention these bubbles carried grit, sand and dirt from the canyon and not breathing it in while swimming was close to impossible at moments. My first encounter with the bubbles resulted in my inhaling more than my share and leaving me with a foul taste in my mouth I will not soon forget. After the first go around we developed a highly technical bubble swimming technique that greatly reduced the amount of the foul stuff that was consumed. :-) I got a great video on my digital camera of one of these bubble swimming sessions.

I'm hesitant to go bragging up how great this route is in it's current condition due to potential danger but if you're so inclined to take the risk these conditions where amazing. The Gifford (Grifford?) drainage right above the parking lot above the tunnel was flowing into Pine Creek and for those who know the area well that should be a good indicator of how wet it was at the time.

Pine Creek is a common destination for people in the summer months and it has almost become over-looked as a serious route. The NPS performed 7 rescues in Pine Creek in 2004 and this canyon is considered 'easy'. It was really cool to see Pine Creek as a 3CRII route and we feel lucky to have seen a side of that canyon few will.

[sonnylawrence]

Did you measure the flow and water temperature? What did you use on your hands. I understand you used wool socks inside the Gortex booties/dry suit.

[verlyndhawks]

Neil,
Sounds like a blast. I'm curious. On the Cathedral rap did you come off the higher or lower set of bolts? I'm assuming the lower would have had too much flow going over the fall to get around the corner to the bolts.

[mtngoat59102]

The lower bolts where used at the Cathedral. However, it was necessary to use the rappel anchor from the above drop to reach the anchor at the Cathedral. The flow and resulting waterfall at the Cathedral was awesome. By rappelling right to the edge of the Cathedral waterfall from the above anchor you could lock off on that rope and work your way around the corner to the next anchor and use your cows-tail to clip in and transition the rap. The rope attached to the above anchor was pulled from the Cathedral anchor by the last person down, which was me on this occasion. This was the trickiest spot in the canyon and while the procedure was simple, messing up would most likely kill you. It really gets your attention performing these rappel transitions in and beside pounding waterfalls; I can see why our European counterparts view ‘dry’ canyons as a waste.

I wore a 3mm pair of neo gloves on my hands as I have in the past and they worked great. I do however have a pair of XXL work gloves I cut most of the fingers out of and wear the leathers over my neo to help them last longer.

Feet – from inside to outside - Poly sock liner, nice thick wool sock, gore-tex bootie on dry suit with a 3mm neo sock on the outside of the bootie. I had to pull the foot bed out of my 5.10’s to make them fit but my feet only got a little cold vs. frozen.

Water – Much of the water was from rain and it felt mild at first. Once we reached the narrows it felt very cold and every time you stepped out of the water you where steaming like crazy and could see vapor from your breath.