Conditions:Boltergeist Canyon-20160908174555
Latest: |
6 Sep 2016 (9 yrs, 1 month ago) |
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| Reported by: | CC (93 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Ok |
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| Waterflow: | Dry |
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| Wetsuit: | None |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Normal |
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| Time: |  2 hours
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Team: 2 people with experience level Advanced
Trip report URL:
Comments: Lots of mosquitos on a hot day with only some stagnant water in various pools. We had to wear the rain jackets & lucky to be wearing pants to avoid too many bites. Still had bites on the face and upper body. The pool after R4 was low and was able to stem over. We used a 200' rope for all the rappels and did not have to use our 120' that we carried as a backup.
Rappel conditions as of 09-06-16:
R1 80-90' over 3 stages on a tree LDC which goes past several potholes instead of various down climbs
R2 60-80' to a ledge and slight overhang
R3 60-80' twisting in the RDC direction, do a test pull to make sure the corner does not tangle the ropes.
R4 60-80' webbing around a rock, consider the pull as the webbing location and grooves in the edge make the pull tough. Things such as block getting caught on the lip and ropes caught in groove. At the bottom of the rappel is the long pool that may be stemmed. During our visit, we noticed some webbing to the tree on the RDC ledge that people may have used as a hand line to traverse above the pool. It is 15' above the pool so a bit exposed and the tree is small so we decided to stem the pool.
R5 had two anchors that we noticed. webbing on tree and bolts/chain, unsure of length.
Exit for short route: we went left and up past the webbing on the tree and chain bolts. A bit exposed and tricky climbing up slabs and boulders for those. not sure what was below the R5 or its exit.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
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| Ok | Dry
| None
| Special challenges  | 2 hours
| Lwd05 (4 reports) | ||
Comment: Okay canyon with more rappels than the close-by Yankee Doodle. Webbing was fine. Only two bolt placements so be proficient with anchor building. Be mindful of rope pulls. Ended up taking the short exit and bypassing the final rappel due to the significant rope grooves left in the soft sandstone. I would recommend a FiddleStick for the last rappel.
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| Low
| None
| |  5 hours
| 5 people Brand new to Intermediate | Dyln cole (82 reports) | ||
Comment: With rain earlier in the morning, we were able to catch a trickling fall and lots of water running in the exit drainage, so so cool. If this were the standard, this canyon would be exceptional.
Lots of rope grooves have developed from lack of retrievable anchor usage. Webbing and bolts looked good today.
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| Ok | | | | 1 hour
| 2 people | RFontaine (313 reports) | |
Comment: Decent, very short. Big drop is niceish. Canopied creek at bottom was pretty, would be a good swimming hole for the summer! We climbed out up the via ferrata after visiting creek. 1.5hr total.
Combined with the far more interesting Yankee Doodle for a quick afternoon.
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| Great | Dry
| None
| Normal | 1 hour
| 2 people Brand new to Advanced | Kirbside (98 reports) | |
Comment: No water in the canyon. Saw no one else in the canyon.
It took us about 1.5 hours car to car as we were taking it slow and reviewing how to rappel. We skipped R5 and R6 in favor of an easier exit as we were starting around 4:30 pm. Overall I enjoyed the canyon but wouldn't make a trip for it unless you are also doing Yankee Doodle.
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| Good | Dry
| None
| Normal |  3 hours
| 2 people Advanced | Nclegg (445 reports),Pam (14 reports) | |
Comment: Descended down to the creek, which was a surprisingly pleasant destination. IMO, the canyon isn’t worthwhile if you exit early and miss both the final rappel and pretty exit drainage. KML file has been added.
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| Good | Dry
| | Normal | 5 hours
| 5 people Beginner to Advanced | EMoorcroft (451 reports) | |
Comment: Unique awkward rappels. R1 drops you into the canyon and is straightforward. R2 could possibly be downclimbed but is pretty neat stemming off the huge chockstones. The last rappel has some hideous rope grooves. We took the last rapp to the shelf just above the big pothole. Then proceeded Left Up Canyon to the via ferrata exit. The via ferrata exit by headlamp was what made this route even better.
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| Good | Dry
| None
| Normal | 4 hours
| 4 people Beginner to Intermediate | Anhimal (12 reports) | |
Comment: All anchors were fine. We rapped off the tree at the end.
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| Great | Dry
| | Normal | 2 hours
| 2 people Intermediate to Advanced | Toddk (17 reports) | |
Comment: A really nice, scenic, fun little canyon. Weather was perfect. A rope pull issue cost us 20 minutes, but that didn't ruin our splendid mood. Didn't see anyone else in the canyon, which was a surprise, as we ran this together with Yankee Doodle, which was crowded with guided groups.
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| Good | Dry
| None
| Normal | 2 hours
| 5 people Intermediate to Expert | Exitfiftyone (22 reports) | |
Comment: After reading the beta for Boltergeist, I expected it to be pretty lame - but with record heat, we wanted a short/easy day. I was pleasantly surprised to find the canyon pretty enjoyable, and the mostly-shaded exit (including a cute grotto!) didn't hurt. A couple rappels had tricky starts, though a few could be avoided by downclimbing. We did the full 150' rappel and were able to avoid rope pull issues by LAMAR connecting two ropes with double EDKs and rappelling double-stranded, but using a Fiddlestick would have been a better option. Bring extra webbing for this canyon - even though it seems to be a well-maintained trade route, a couple anchors are rigged so the webbing scrapes across the rock.
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| Good | Very Low
| None
| Normal | 3 hours
| 3 people Intermediate | BWylie (24 reports) | |
Comment: We went for Boltergeist immediately after Yankee Doodle Hollow starting around 1:30 pm. Scrambling down into the canyon went very easily, there were some standing pools of water where none at all were seen in Yankee Doodle. Some rappels had tricky starts that were enjoyable, but not too long and functioned as good practice. The very last rappel was an excellent freehang for at least 90' of the total 100', and we tied two 200' ropes to continue to the canyon floor at 150'. There were very prominent grooves in the rock and the previous groups' solution had been to lengthen the rappel for the last person by 5' to avoid getting caught in the grooves but this resulted in an incredibly awkward start we did not use. Once at the bottom we had to climb back up RDC to get a good angle on the pull and it took several minutes.
Overall the canyon was cooler and had more fun rappels than Yankee Doodle, although it would be technically harder for a beginner. The hike out was significantly more pleasant as it was shady near the stream for almost half and fun rock scrambling for another third.
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| Great | | | | | CanditionBot (2103 reports) | ||
| Good | | | | | CanditionBot (2103 reports) | ||
| Ok | | | | | CanditionBot (2103 reports) | ||
| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2103 reports) | ||
| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2103 reports) | ||