Long Branch
The Long Branch of Sleepy Hollow: two separate narrows sections of sustained XX stemming, and one party went four straight hours without touching the ground.
Nat Smale's 2007 account is the route description, because RopeWiki has no approach, descent or exit beta at all. Camp on King Mesa, leave at 6am with headlamps, drop into Coyote, get onto the slickrock at first light, then rim walk to the break at the end of the first narrows and stash water and gear there before continuing to the head of the slot. That stash is the whole plan: it is your only resupply and your only bail. The first narrows took Smale's party just over two hours and ended in a keeper pothole solved with a pack toss and a swim. The second narrows took four and a half hours and read as long, strenuous and insecure, with big silos, hard ups and downs and parallel walled sections with no footholds where the whole stretch demands total concentration. Steve Allen, who named it, described his own descent as sixteen hours of danger and delight. Treat the trip reports as the beta and budget a very long day.
Logistics
| Manager | BLM Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument |
|---|---|
| Permit | No permit required. |
| Coordinates | 37.4393, -111.0698 |
Sources
- permit: https://ropewiki.com/Long_Branch
- manager: https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument/plan
- desc: http://www.canyontales.com/tale/?i=longbranch
- notes: http://www.canyontales.com/tale/?i=longbranch
- grade: https://ropewiki.com/Long_Branch