Boltergeist
Last Candition: December 10, 2011
Bone dry. No Mud. Much better than the first time I did it. Last rap is the highlight.
All water is avoidable, trying to downclimb all but the last rap can make things more interesting.
Not all that scenic. If you are looking to kill time with challenging down climbs and/or rappels, then maybe consider doing it. Some water and mud (most can avoid it). Rope got stuck at the rappel/down climb before the 100 foot rappel at the end. There are multiple loops of webbing around buried boulders. Rope got tangled and last one on rap in our group did not notice.
All water is avoidable. Lots of water on the exit. Beautiful conditions. Be advised that there is a bird's nest with three eggs in the downclimb slot with a very worried mama bird. Probably best to use the rappel option for now.
Canyon was flowing, lots of splashes in shallow pools and dropping down waterfalls.
Even after the rains of this week, all water avoidable.
1-2" of patchy snow and ice. Lot of water, mostly frozen in upper canyon, water on second rap full probably waist deep. All water avoidable.
Anchors in good shape, webbing on 2nd rap showing some wear.
Access road snowy, muddy, sloppy, but makeable with 2wd vehicle, but a little hair raising at times.
Bailed after 2nd rap due to time constraints and newbe kids. First time on short route, easy to find and navigate.
Awesome winter canyon!!! All water is avoidable and anchors are in good shape.
Awesome winter canyon!!! All water is avoidable and anchors are in good shape.
Fun trip to take a friend who'd never been canyoneering. Set up a semi-guided rappel to avoid a swim/wade in the second-to last rappel. Last rappel can be split up into two with a rap ring off a tree for a 40', can reasonably be done in two with one rope if you've got a 200' rope, or you can swing to the right and down climb the last section after the big drop. Took a refreshing dip in the silty swimming hole below the waterfall before we made the climb. It was still early so we ran over to Yankee afterwards.
Had a great time in Boltergeist. All anchors were in good condition, including a couple that weren't in the beta where some just walk around. We enjoyed doing five rappels instead of three. Stemmed over puddle at the base of the second mandatory rap, it sure looked skanky. 4 hrs at a very leisurely pace.
Spring temps forecast for Leeds was low 70s and felt great. Very little water in canyon. Took four local high school students (3 noobs) through for their prom "day date" with one other adult. The six of us took four hours car to car. Beautiful day!
Got to the TH and bailed on descending it. The road had been recently graded and was nice...until the snow hit. 4" of snow that morning. Extremely muddy. Got stuck in 4x4 for an hour. Would not recommend taking this road until it drys out a bit. As we passed Bolter, there were MANY waterfalls pouring into it. Expect a lot of COLD water and snow on the exit climb out.
Some ice and snow in the canyon early, making it a little slippery, but it clears up by the time you start rappelling. Several pools of half-frozen water, all it avoidable with careful footwork and in one case using an alternate anchor higher up the wall to make a diagonal rappel.
Good, but dry. Route was short and fun. The large rap at the end has an easy approach. Dry spell left little to no traces of water in the canyon. The Exit out Water canyon was a little over grown but no bad. Stream was flowing but all water was avoidable.
Dry/avoidable mud. Stream/waterfalls on exit route worth hiking up to the top; very scenic, worth dodging the trees & brush for.
A decent canyon. We installed a new anchor on Rap 1 (for us Rap 3). We cut off 3 unused and 1 used anchors. Come on folks, if you install a new anchor, haul out the old stuff. Narrow water at the bottom of Rap 2 (Rap 4 for us) was waist deep (I'm 6' 1"). Recommend sending pull side down before last person and have others pull it high to LDC so it doesn't get on top of rappel side groove. Makes the pull much easier. Last rappel lots of fun. Beautiful waterfall in Water Canyon on exit.
3 of us went in. All the anchors were in place, It was wet in a few places. Had to do some stemming over standing water. Lots of misquotes in a couple of spots. very unpleasant. But the canyon overall was lots of fun.
Anchors and webbing looked good. The second rap had some standing dirty water but not smelly that we had to rappel into. The water went about waste deep. All other water was avoidable.
Replaced webbing on two rappel stations. A little avoidable water at bottom of one rappel. Lots of goat droppings.