Abysmal Canyon, Death Valley National Park

Late January and February had been quite wintery in Mt Carmel, so I was looking for relief. I had heard great things about the canyons in Death Valley - and tales of epics too. Ram hooked me an invite on the big trip, and off we go. First day (for me), we got invited on an exploration right off. Excellent!!! Nothing better than that. The canyon turned out to be beyond Bad... it was Abysmal! As it turns out, it was WELL beyond Bad and started the week off with a bang.

Early morning, we leave camp at 5 am and drive up to Dante's View, which looks down 6000 feet to the floor of Death Valley at Badwater. Then head north along the ridge for aways. Only two canyons of this massif have official names on the USGS map—Coffin and Bad. Since the canyon we seek is well past Bad (and has a big drop in the middle (The Abyss)), they have named it "Abysmal".

Here's the gang, about to drop off the ridge. Scott Smith, Mike Schasch, Rick Kent, Mark Duttweiller, Steve Ramras, DB and Courtney. (T Jones taking the photo).

Here's out fabulous journey from Space, courtesy of Google Earth.

Down the ridge, into the abyss. First we go down about 600 feet, then across the face of the mountain for quite a way, past a ridge (white arrow) to gain the head of the canyon.

One of the early downclimb/rappels. Could downclimb, but even though the rock is gneiss it is not nice, with some loose blocks, so we did half and half. Here's DB downclimbing to get on rappel...

And then on rappel.

Ram as anchor, Mark as backup.

Mark on Rappel.

Courtney on rappel. With a big, big pack.

The big technical concern in the canyon is the BIG DROP. Possibly as long as 600 feet. About noon, we arrive at the big drop. Yup, looks big. A small rollover prevents seeing the bottom, or if there are intermediate ledges. We set up a big cairn anchor and the cru selects me to go first. Forty feet down, I step out and can see the drop. Big ledge with blocks about 100 feet down. No problemo.

From the big ledge, it was about 260 feet to the real ground. Here's the second rappel.

Scott Smith on the chossy rock at the bottom of the second part of the rappel.

Death Valley context: big rappel next to a BIG, very loose wall of choss.

We set up two ropes (9mm) on the big rappel, to move the group down faster. The upper 2/3 was good rock, and the rappers rapped side by side. The lower third was loose and chossy, and the rappers rapped one by one.

Ram and Rick (?) simul-rapping.

Lower down, the rock changed to a wonderful pink granite that polished up really well. Here's DB sliding down.

And the Ramster on rope...

Mike Schasch, international man of mystery, on rappel.

The canyon was good. Lots of rappels and downclimbs. Lots of building of cairn anchors with the ever-present blocks of rock. We had great teamwork going, but still, it was getting tedious, moving rocks to make cairns.

Walking downcanyon, I hear Scott and Mark whooping ahead. Huh? Then I round the corner, and see the most perfect anchor, totally natural.