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| James rappelling down the first drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
Please read the beta on ropewiki carefully before descending this route.
http://ropewiki.com/Not_Imlay_Canyon
A fatality happened here back in 2015 which had to do with the first 2 drops in the canyon
Not Imlay canyon is quite the exotic run inside of Zion National Park where elevation loss is around 800ft in around a quarter mile of length.
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| Heather, Tena, James, Andy, and Justin preparing for Not Imlay Canyon |
Not Imlay Canyon passes by the world famous Imlay canyon which is one of the best canyons IMO I have ever
visited and one of the most popular canyoneering routes on the planet.
We woke up to catch the first bus from the visitor center and headed up angels landing and the west rim trail to the turning point into the imlay sneak and not imlay.
The conditions were great as it was a cool breeze and sunny. The weather looked great for our run into Not Imlay.
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| Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We hike for a total of 2 hours to a clearing where the impressive views of the narrows came into play and another perspective of Mystery canyon could be seen.
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| Andy coming down the 6th rappel in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
Once we got to the first rap, we gathered our gear together and looked over edge. we could see and hear the narrows below ! This was a great perspective of Zion and I am glad we got to experience this.
I looked around for any alternative anchors and I could only find the massive line of webbing in the dry watercourse going over the edge.
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| Tena coming over the 3rd drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
Not Imlay Canyon is rated at a 3AIII but I would give this run a 4AIII
for is rope length and actual technical route. We obtained beta from
BluuGnome and that beta stated that the first rap was 100ft to a pine
tree and another 180ft rap to the bottom of the sequence. The beta
stated that the first rap is 30ft to the north of the way point and
watercourse which was checked on multiple occasions and we did not find any webbing.
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| Justin going down the narrow passage in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We did find one anchor with a very long length of webbing that was connected to a tree in the
watercourse. We used this anchor and figured that since the BN way point was within a 30ft radius, like most other way pointed anchors in Zion, we used this anchor. James got on rap and he rappelled down to find himself short roped. Since we figured this was a 100ft drop to a tree below (according to the BN beta), we rigged a 200ft. rope and I had him bring down the 330ft. to use for the next drop.
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| Justin about to drop over the 6th Rappel in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We rigged an eight block which was very helped as we lowered him to a ledge where he could get off rope and set up another anchor. We could not communicate well due to the canyon walls and the sound of the narrows. I realized that James and Tena did not send the full 200ft. of rope down which I was concerned about as I always toss the full length of rope to the bottom.
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| Heather going over the 6th rappel in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We came down to find that James set up another anchor to a tree on a ledge and we rigged the 330 and doubled it down to the bottom. The 330ft rope was at its mid point so we performed a 165ft drop to the bottom of the second rap.
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| Justin looking over the last drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We continued to come down and found that we were not able to pull the first 200ft of rope. It was stuck due to friction or a combination of friction and some other issue.
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| Justin on the 6th drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We rigged another pull line to this pull line and directed it down to the bottom. Justin was able to get a vantage the least amount of friction and successfully pulled the rope down.
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| Heather going over the last drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We spent some time working our way down to the second drop but we made it and got our ropes down. We figured that we did a 180ft drop and a 165 ft drop.
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| Justin, Heather, and Andy looking out into the Narrows in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
The best course of action will be to rig for a rap down to the 2nd drop. We had a 330ft rope for the last rappel but canyoneering USA states that a 270ft rap will get you down to a ledge and if you have enough rope, you can rap down 300ft. to the bottom of rap 2. THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH RAP 1 and 2. My recommendation is to bring a 300ft rope for this canyon to use for rap 1 and the last rap.
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| Andy rappelling down the last drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We continued down to find a 115ft rap that poured over to another ledge. We used a 80ft rope that we doubled up and found that rap to be 40ft. (due to the half mark on my rope). Once at the bottom of this drop we went through a stemming section and a 20ft rap.
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| Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
Once we got back onto walking breakdown, we could see the narrows close and we only had two raps left.
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| Andy coming over the edge in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
Rap 6 was a 90ft rap down to a bigger ledge where the last rap is located. As of 9/26/2017 the webbing in rap 6 should be replaced.
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| James in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
Rap 7 is the big drop. Some estimates found that this is a 230ft drop and some others have found this drop to be 280ft. We brought a 330ft rope to make sure we had enough rope to get down. We had the 200ft. pull cord dangling down and had about 30ft. of 9mm rope left that reached the bottom. According to James there was only enough rope to tie ropes together, so there was no access rope. I recommend at least a 300ft rope so this can be used for the last drop which will work great. I have always thought that some canyons could use a survey with a disto and this might help.
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| Tena in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
The last 120-140ft of this rap is open air and will drop you right into the middle of the narrows. Pack the rope in a rope bag and bring it with the first descender so you don't clock someone walking through the narrows.
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| Heather going over the last drop in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
We all got down to the bottom and we were bombarded with questions on how we get the rope down and what it is like coming down the cliff. There are lines of people walking into and out of the narrows in this section which was quite the spectacle. I almost got into the sword fight with my trekking pole vs. a selfie stick as we walked out. what a great canyon to descend and a great change of scenery from a traditional zion canyon run.
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| Heather excited to be looking over the narrows in Not Imlay Canyon, Utah |
