Darija wrote:Yea, except for his estimate for Bridge Mountain......claiming 6 hours roundtrip. That is literally impossible, we were moving-we got close to the summit, but never reached it because we ran out of daylight and had to bail at the start of the final 5th class pitch, and ended up taking 11-12 hours roundtrip. This mountain had extremely sketchy sections, like random flimsy bushes for anchors and questionable terrain and very specific route selections (straying off intended route leads to inevitable cliffs). I'm of the general impression that there is a 30% likelihood of death when doing Zion peaks. GPS and preferably track is necessary if you plan to be hiking out after dark.
His estimate for Bridge Zion is 6-8 hours.
The other fellow who has written up this "hike" is Branch Whitney; he recommends 8-9 hrs and also gives it a class 4 rating. I just looked at the track logs, and my group took 7.8 hrs, but we had one very methodical, safety-minded guy who slowed us down a little
(this includes a substantial stay on top, and a 0.25hr side excursion through "The Vortex"). None of us were in your kind of condition (that's a compliment). However, I set handlines just twice, and did so while other folks were catching up, so there was no wasted time. If one does real belays up there, it will slow you down a lot. I bet you were carrying a big heavy rope and gear; I was carrying just 100' of 15mm webbing and two slings.
Bridge Zion is the creepiest mountain I've ever done. The class 4 rating is very deceiving; on that traverse, if you slip, you die-- no doubt about it. (BUT note cp0915 comments at length about the danger.) The anchors there are really sketchy; I'm still thinking of a way to protect that stretch. If a recent rain has washed sand over the rock, slipping is all too easy. Above the traverse, I followed a guy who knew every subtle ledge, so it was easier to save time. There is a way around the last wall, mainly through bushes, and that saves time.
I presume you now have a GPS record, but if it might help and you ever try that again, I'll send you my GPS track.
Ah-Rick's injury. It's such a shame, because I keep thinking it could have been avoided. Basically, after I briefly investigated the slope which he ended up falling on; I backed off of it because I had a bad feeling about it and started traversing right to find an alternate drop in for gunsight canyon, staying on higher ground. I was already on my way when Rick called me back-at the last second he spotted a tree anchor that was on that same slope that I had not liked and had already turned away from. Well, that same slope ended up completely collapsing under his feet which was escalated by the huge boulder breaking loose. I also keep thinking if this could have possibly been avoided if he had immediately clipped into the webbing around the tree(naturally one would do this, because the terrain was so freakish, questionable, and significantly exposed), since to get to the rappel rings, it required stepping down 2 feet and grabbing hold of that large boulder as a hand hold, which then broke loose and crushed his ankle.
Everything worked out as well as it could. Everything is 20/20 in hindsight.
I thought I heard a copter going overhead Saturday, when we were just S of NGA, but that might have been a tourist deal.
As for loose rock... cp0915 is such a nice guy, that he offered to show a random fellow up NGA. The guy seemed stuck below the crux, and cp0915 almost got him to the ridge; but on the way, the fellow set off a 5-minute rockfall, and cp0915 held this heavy guy on belay for that entire time, as rocks went flying by.
EDITS: additional info from old thread,
in blue italics.