Calm Collected But Dangerous | Mindbender | Alcatraz

September 4, 2015 In Robbers Roost By Andy LaFame

Mindbender | Alcatraz | 2015

Trip Report

Brad, Emily, Jen and I drove together from the front range. Jorge, Jan and the dogs drove from Hot Sulphur Springs and, of course, got a flat tire on their way. Brent and Cristina drove from Phoenix.

I scouted a couple camp sites on google earth before the trip, one of which we’ve hiked by while exiting Blue John in the past, and after a little exploring around the area we decided to camp off of the Lower San Rafael Road. Great little spot since that access road to the Maze area of Canyonlands doesn’t get too much traffic. We were far enough off he road to not notice any cars that did drive by. My guess is this site is pretty popular with people hiking into Blue John since the typical exit brings you right to this spot.

On the second or third night of the trip we experienced the worst lightning storm I’ve ever been in. We could see the storm coming in from the southwest and had enough time to gather our things and get into vehicles after dinner. It lasted about an hour from what I can remember and lightning was striking no more that an 1/8 of mile to the south, then east of of as it passed us. We were right on the edge. Anyone in Bluejohn Canyon would have had a hell of a hour sitting through that if they were trapped in that storm. Below is a quick timelapse I caught of the storm coming in. I grabbed my camera and brought it in the car right as the storm hit us so I didn’t get any of the worst of it on camera.

Aside from that storm the rest of the stay at camp with nice and relaxing. We only did two canyon because we all were pretty beat up from doing Alcatraz on the second day (read: Jen had no skin left) and decided to do a small hike down the west fork of Bluejohn until we hit any technical sections since the whole camp crew was with us. Once we came to the first drop we hung out a bit in the shade and then made our way back to camp and proceeded to work on whatever beer was left for the trip.

Mindbender

I had done Mindbender in the past using Kelsey’s guide books but couldn’t remember which one of the forks I liked the most. Going off of climb-utah’s beta we decided on Mindbender instead of Not Mindbender. After going through it I think it was Not Mindbinder that I remember liking more. Mindbinder was fun, though.

I don’t remember the starting time but I’m sure we were at the trailhead by 10 since we didn’t have a far drive from camp. Taking two cars to leave a car at the exit is recommended for these canyons.

The canyon has some nice narrows and nothing too skinny or hard to get through. The final rappel is large 120 ft. free hanging rappel that requires setting up a deadman anchor. A deadman (as seen in a photo below) is where you secure webbing to a rock, ideally placing the rock below a lip of a pothole or somewhere that can naturally provide some friction on the rope for a reduction in weight/stress on the anchor itself, and then stacking rocks on top and burying in sand. It took about 45 minutes to properly place the anchor.

Once we were all down, it’s a 45 minute hike in the wide lower canyon with steep 300 ft. rock walls on each side. The exit requires some scanning on the east wall for a weakness in the canyon where ancient moki steps are carved out on a steep section of the canyon wall. It is now a 40 foot exposed 5.6 climb – the lower 25 is easily scaled and the final 15 feet is a little unnerving which required setting up a rope for some in the group to climb comfortably. After that section is an easy route finding hike up the slick rock until you reach the top where the car shuttle is parked.

Alcatraz

As the name might suggest this canyon is a little tough to escape for some. You’ll need to come prepared for some tight squeezes and/or able to climb over said squeezes. The canyon starts with a rappel off of your car and then quickly tightens up.

Alcatraz is a beautiful, very narrow canyon and does not let up in difficulty for a good 6 hours or more. Jen found this canyon particularly hard to get through and I take responsibility for not assessing her skill level properly before entering. Jen’s an old canyon rat but had taken 4 or 5 years off before venturing back in with us on this trip. She had no issues with Mindbender but the constant squeezing, stemming and chimneying needed to escape Alcatraz ended up being a little too much for her. The guys in the group had to work extra hard to help her through – physically and emotionally.

In the end, we got out and even though it was a little later than expected and missing more skin than we anticipated, it was still a fun canyon. I decided to descend it again nine month later with a couple of canyon newbies, though, both had climbing and mountaineering experience.