Spry Canyon with Visitors, Zion National Park, UT

I consider hosting capable foreigners as part of my duties as Emperor of Utah Canyoneering; thus each year I take the opportunity to show off some of our lovely Zion canyons to visitors from foreign lands. This year in May and June, I had three sets of guests... From Italy, over for vacation and to see the American West, Luca, Sara, Silvia and Roberto came for a visit and a quick, easy canyon. Roberto and Luca are prominent leaders in the Associazione Italiana Canyoning, explorers of new canyons, and organizers of an annual rendezvous in Italy. Whew, busy men they are, and we found time to get in a pleasant Spry Canyon trip.

Luca Dallari and Roberto Schenone set to simul-feedbag-rap the first rap in Spry.

Ahhhh, the ever tedious feedbag-rappel – works best on a low angle slab such as this. The group ahead was coiling their ropes and was minimal on gear – but we did not see them the rest of the day!
Spry was the wettest I have ever seen it, and we were glad for the wet suits we brought, though they seemed foolish at this point, with temps in the 90s.

And the ladies – Sara Morando and Silvia Carlarino.

Hot and Cold. While we were setting up, a huge snowbank hidden in the corner collapsed into the bottom pothole.

The V-slot downclimb had a real pool, so we suited up. Luca enjoying a cool splash.

The narrow slot downclimb/rap had water at the bottom, so we stemmed over and avoided the wetness…

… or enjoyed a little splash in what passes for clean water in Utah canyons!

The infamous “comb rappel”, off two bolts into the black slot.

Rapping the “second flute rappel”, though chosing the first flute!

Into the “slot swim”. Though the canyon had lots of water, sand had also washed in, so this “swim” was a waist-deep wade. Still, the wetsuits kept us at a perfect temperature.