Rapping Royal Arches after Washington Column?

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	Forthright · Jan 27, 2015 · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 110 If you can hike out of Royal Arches and over to the North Dome Gully, why wouldn't you hike over to Royal Arches and do that rap route after doing the Washington Column? I understand if you had a giant haul bag it might be pain, but other than that I don't see a reason not too. 0 Flag Quote
	john strand · Jan 27, 2015 · southern colo · Joined May 2008 · Points: 1,640 Crowds. the fact that the RA rap route starts at the end of the traverse. not quite the end of the climb..and the ND gully descent is WAY faster 0 Flag Quote
	Muscrat · Jan 27, 2015 · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 3,625 Not sure what is wrong with rapping the column? It can be a cluster at times, but not too bad. Every time i rap Arches i swear i will walk ND gully, every time i walk it, i swear i will rap Arches next time. They both suck eggs! And once you top out the column once, who needs the last pitch? At least on SF etc. For that matter, who hauls SF upper pitches? 0 Flag Quote
	Muscrat · Jan 27, 2015 · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 3,625 john strand wrote:Crowds. the fact that the RA rap route starts at the end of the traverse. not quite the end of the climb..and the ND gully descent is WAY faster HA! Not with my knees!! Ouch 0 Flag Quote
	Tom Nyce · Jan 27, 2015 · Flagstaff, AZ · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 45 If you are at the top of Washington Column, it is much faster to do the N. Dome descent. I haven't done the RA rappel, so can't say if it has the usual chances of problems that an average multi-pitch rappel has. Many times, it is faster and safer to hikedown/scrambledown vs doing multi-pitch raps. I've done the Royal Arches route, and Washington Column, and went over to descend the N. Dome Gully both times. On one of those descents, I was passed by Werner Braun (after one of his numerous ascents of Astroman). I figured that I was taking the best route, if he was descending there. 0 Flag Quote
	john strand · Jan 28, 2015 · southern colo · Joined May 2008 · Points: 1,640 The best "descent" would be up and over Crest Jewel..then out to the road 0 Flag Quote
	MP · Jan 28, 2015 · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2013 · Points: 2 Yes, you could do it, but: you would have to do an unprotected 5.5ish slab traverse (the last pitch of royal arches) with your haul bag to get to the start of the Royal arches rap route. You would then have a bunch of rappels to do. other options include: 1) north dome gully 2) rapping the South face of washington column (hopefully not knocking things onto any climbers in the process) 3) hiking out on the long but easy hiker's trail (whose name eludes me at the moment). 0 Flag Quote
	Greg Opland · Jan 28, 2015 · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2001 · Points: 181 Not to mention if you scramble your way down to where the raps start on the Column, the likelihood that you'll drop big fat rocks on unsuspecting climbers below increases exponentially. Not to mention you'll be blundering through their party on your way down while they're trying to climb. Kind of disrespectful. 0 Flag Quote
	Fail Falling · Jan 30, 2015 · @failfalling - Oakland, Ca · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 916 failfalling.com/ClimbingBlo… Which is better? Go down the North Dome Gulley of death? Wander over to Royal Arches and rap forever and ever and ever? Here’s my attempt at an answer Yes to RA. Easy hike over to the top of RA from the Column (actually, 200-300′ of bushwacking to hit the trail proper, but whateves) Two rope rap from top of rim to the start of the RA raps (you have to tension/traverse quite a ways, but it was never difficult because of the low angle nature of the slab) Note: Make sure when you go off the obvious rap tree from the rim, you have your ropes on the climber’s right of the bush right in front of the tree. I didn’t and because I used a reepschnur/biner block [due to core shot in my second rope], the loop got block got snagged up on the pull and so I had to go back up (easy 3rd/4th class) and move it to the right) I assume if you don’t use a block and rap normally with two threads, this wouldn’t be an issue. Easy slab to sheer raps straight down with minimal issues with ropes getting hung up. I will say that having a rotor/swivel for your bags is essential. Because of the less-than-vertical nature of some of the raps, if you’re riding the pig then it will twist the rope and cause a good long time at the next belay sorting through the spaghetti. I’m not sure how rapping with the bag attached to your belay loop would change things. I ended up just backpacking the haul bag because it was small (30lbs or so because it was the leftover bag from my previous climb that we had gone up to retrieve.) 5 minute walk to car with your stuff once you’re down. Easy peasy to break it into multiple loads if you’re completely worked without too much time loss. I would NOT do this during the day or afternoon because you’re going to be slow, there’s going to be issues, and it’d be rude to hold up the freeclimbers with the aid junk show. Although there would be a certain happiness to forcing them to share the rap stations with your filth and stink after multiple days on the wall. The raps are straightforward enough that I think it’s preferable at night anyways. North Dome Gulley isn’t a bad descent at all, but when I did it with the main solo bag with most of the weight (minus portaledge, fly, one rope) it was a horrendous 4 hour ordeal for me (at the 20′ downclimb of the broken buttress, I had to cut the haulbag loose and watch it fall thinking, “please stop rolling, please stop rolling” until a bush stopped it. sorry lil’bush), continuing down the trail to the indian caves was soul-crushing as well. In comparing the two descents, I would def prefer the RA raps for a solo and the ND Gully with a partner. (ND is def going to be faster with two people, but a soloist can shuttle multiple bags to the top of RA easily then descend with the entire kit at once.) 0 Flag Quote
	Scott O · Jan 30, 2015 · Anchorage · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 70 Do it in the off season. Leave the pig at Dinner Ledge. Rap the route. 0 Flag Quote
	David Coley · Jan 30, 2015 · UK · Joined Oct 2013 · Points: 70 Scott O wrote:Do it in the off season. Leave the pig at Dinner Ledge. Rap the route. +1 0 Flag Quote
	MP · Jan 30, 2015 · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2013 · Points: 2 you're assuming they're doing the south face (or a route that goes through dinner ledge)... 0 Flag Quote
	Scott O · Jan 31, 2015 · Anchorage · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 70 mpech wrote:you're assuming they're doing the south face (or a route that goes through dinner ledge)... A safe assumption for 80-90% of parties. 0 Flag Quote