Fat Man's Misery

All anchors ok, only flowing water at the very end

We brought wetsuits but didn't need them. Leave the wetsuit at home it is way too hot for it. Didn't use any webbing and all anchors were in great shape. It was crowded, we saw probably 50 different people. East Fork of the Virgin was flowing at 38cfs and was really fun to wade through after a very hot afternoon. Potholes weren't more than waist deep, the last was stinky but very short thankfully. Exited up French Canyon (short and beautiful!). The log jam wasn't hard to get up but someone already placed a rope so that helped a bit.

Did the canyon with a group of three in 8 hours. Canyon was full of water from rain the previous day. We were glad that we had wetsuits on. We did not put on our wetsuit till half way through the technical section of misery canyon, we would have been faster if we put them on from the first rappel. Had one dead mans anchor under water. Hike out was nice because the sand was still wet.

From the entry on, we found water in many spots - never too deep except for a couple of very short swims. We stayed in the watercourse all the way down. There are a total of 4 nice arches in the canyon that I counted to add to the photographic interest. Barracks section is impressive. Thought this canyon offered a lot of variety - rappels, downclimbs, scenery, etc. Lots of bang for the buck! Hike in/out is quite sandy but scenic & we had some cloud cover coming out. Trail is very easy to follow both in and out. GPS not necessary. 10 hours for group of 4 at a leisurely pace.

Misery is currently tippy-top full of warm water. It's not perfectly clean and clear, but it is mostly fresh and not stinky at all. Water was flowing at a trickle when we were there, but it was after a night of heavy rain, so don't expect that if you visit.

All anchors are in good condition. We encountered no deadman anchors and didn't need to construct any (as mentioned in the previous review).

There is a lot of excess webbing in the canyon and on trees around the rim. Please consider taking out a little more webbing than you leave behind.

It took 11 hours for 3 of us to go through.

Great canyon, had lots of water, the east fork of the virgin was beautiful. We HL'd most of the short raps and most of the anchors were in excellent condition. One or two of the deadmen looked a little suspect, but we stood on them for all but the last guy and they held. The hike out was hard, which could drop the rating for some, but I'm young and stupid so I give it a 5. All told and with time spent taking pics and playing in Parunuweap it took us 12 hrs.

water was good. webbing and lines all good. cloudy and rained most of the hike back. took 13 hours for 7 of us to go through, but we werent in a hurry

A great hike through fat man's - just a little tricky getting into the right canyon. Took a wetsuit and was glad I had it as it was a cool day.

At the end of Fat Man's Misery when I got to the East Fork of the Virgin, the river was pretty high, but manageable. The gauge near Springdale read 6 ft/140 cfs, and I don't think I'd want to do it much higher than that.

I got the gauge readings here:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?09404900