Bogley

Iceaxe · Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 7807 Location: Local Bordello

Anyone interested in a little history on the Zion Heavy hitters? Anyone interested in who placed the first bolts? Or who had the skill and courage to put in some of the most famous canyoneering routes in North America?

Mike Bogart, Dennis Turville and Mary Dern have the first documented descent of Imlay. They called it Trolls Treat. They did the canyon in 28 rappels and placed 13 bolts sttarting from Patato Hollow. June 7, 1978.

Mike Bogart, Dennis Turville, Mary Dern and Jan Hansen. Have the first documented descent of the technical section of Kolob. September 1978.

Mike Bogart, Dennis Turville have the first documented descent of Heaps. The waterfall exit is exactly 440' high and I know this because the first documented descent followed the watercourse and not the now standard "bird perch" route. September 23, 24, 25 1981

And at the time, canyoneering was referred to as "Gorging" to Mike Bogart, Dennis Turville, Mary Dern and Jan Hansen.... as in descending a deep gorge.

:popcorn:

rockgremlin · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 4075 Location: Hotel California

Are they still alive? Still active in the sport?

shaggy125 · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:48 pm Post subject:

Very interesting stuff. For those interested I found the story off of Tom's site that tells of the Devils Pit. The story is taken from Zion's black book and was written by Royce Trapier, his partner was Norman Harding. They claim in the story that this was the first successful descent ever made of the bottom of the canyon. Did Mike Bogart and Dennis Turville possibly skip part of the canyon? Or were these guys just not aware that they had done the canyon the year before? They mention that they added a bolt to the two existing at the Birds Perch (there are 4 bolts there today) so obviously someone had at least done the rappel before.

Anyway, for anyone who hasn't read the story already it's pretty interesting. Just a note, they are descending the canyon via what we now refer to as the Gunsight Entrance or North Fork of Heaps. There is less water and serious stuff before the crossroads when doing it from here rather than from Phantom Valley, which is the standard way of doing it today.

http://canyoneeringusa.com/history/heaps82.htm

More interesting history about Zion Canyoneering.

http://canyoneeringusa.com/history/index.htm

Eric.

Iceaxe · Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 7807 Location: Local Bordello

Dennis Turville is now a professional photographer. He has posters and photgraphs hanging in the new Zion Visitor's Center. He lives in Toquerville last I heard. I know a couple of fellas from Utah did Kolob with him a while back. Dennis and Steve Allen were the "experts" called in to testify for the NPS when the scouts got whacked in Kolob. (Lloyd Bush who was teaching a canyoneering class at the U of U at the time was the "expert" for the families).

Mike Bogart lives in SLC and retired from canyoneering in the late 80's.

The others mentioned were friends and I don't have any info on them.

Yeah, I never understood Royce's first descent claim of Heaps which is what lead me to do a little more investigating. The first group did the entire canyon. Heck, his own TR mentions existing bolts for most the canyon, including the finish. Also.... by strict definition Royce never completed the entire route because he climbed out at the "Devil Pit" and entered further downstream.

I'm not here to argue first descents.... just posting dates I know are fact.

.

rockgremlin · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 4075 Location: Hotel California

How do you "retire" from canyoneering? I assume he enjoyed it?

Sounds kinda weird to retire from a recreational activity that you enjoy.

Iceaxe · Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 7807 Location: Local Bordello

rockgremlin wrote: How do you "retire" from canyoneering? I assume he enjoyed it?

I think its something you will understand better when you get older.... but....

You get married, have a family, pursue other interests, don't do canyons anymore.....

I've corresponded a little with Mike and he is a nice enough guy but he doesn't seem to have any interest in canyoneering anymore.

Dennis and Mike also did some of the first documented descents in Escalante. I'll see what else I can dig up and share with you guys.

.

Iceaxe · Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 7807 Location: Local Bordello

Here are a few more details I know..... Turville and Bogart did a full Right Fork of the Great West in Zion in 1977. It was not a first descent as beta was given to them. I have no clue who gave them the beta or when it was first descended completely.

What we now call the Imlay Crossroads was referred to as "Quadruple Junction" by the pioneers.

I wish more of the history of the canyoneering pioneers was available. It's a shame that most of it is disappearing with time. Heaps was near the end of Bogart's career. He did only four more first descents after completing Heaps.