Keyhole with the Meisters

I wanted to show off some of Zion's amazing slot canyons to the Meisters, so we chose to take a run through Keyhole. Given that the weather had been highly unpredictable, it was the right choice given that the canyon was short and thunderstorms were a definite possibility. We got an early start and our first stop was Zion Adventure Company. My old neighbor Jon worked there and he helped us find some gear before we set out. We were able to get a permit from the Wilderness Desk and then it was through the tunnel to the east side of the park. It was already warm out as we packed up our stuff. We had a good crew as Brent, Laurel, and Will were all coming with me.

The hardest part of this whole hike is just getting to the canyon. First, we have to pack up all our gear and haul it up some steep slick rock. Then we had to descend a very steep gully to just get to the canyon. From there, we started putting on some gear. Laurel and Will had decided to rent wetsuits. I was a bit disappointed to see when we got to the canyon that it was basically bone dry. Some of the simpler down climbs were made more challenging by the lack of water to climb down into. It took us a bit of extra time to get everyone down these drops. Luckily, I remembered most of them and led most of the time. I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe. Brent and Laurel figured it out really quickly and if they were nervous about it, I couldn't tell. Will was nervous about some drops, but that made me happy to because it meant that he had a real fear for the danger potential. He had plenty of adults around to help him out and I was really proud of just how well he did on his first time at a young age. We made it through the middle section without any injuries and now it was time to harness up.
I was a bit concerned about how my elbow would do given that it was still coming back to normal from my inflammation, but so far, so good. The first rappel in Keyhole is the most fun. It took Will a bit of time to figure it out as when you are a newcomer, the hardest thing is putting enough weight on the rope. Soon we were all down into the smelliness of the very dry canyon. We did get a bit of a dip after the first downclimb into the pothole, but still no big issues. We continued down the next two rappels trying to show a few techniques about bottom belays and how to descend the rope. Our first set of other people came by. We were going to let them use our rope, but they were having as many issues as us, so we just moved on.
There is always the 100 foot swim to take care of at the end. This became more like the 100 foot wade though. It was so low. I think everyone with wetsuits was happy because they avoided the canyon rash of rubbing against sandstone, but warmth wise it was not entirely necessary. Soon we were popping out of the canyon. I usually sneak out behind people, but now at the sneaking out point, there was a large tree lodged there to make for an easy exit. I think everyone was pleased with the canyoneering trip and they got to have a bit of an adventure. It was fun for me to as it had been a number of years since I had done any canyoneering. We spent the rest of the day preparing for our mini road trip that would start the following day.