Death Canyon, North Wash, UT
Something a little milder, please. Like Death?
Death sits on the map just north of Turkey Knob, and looks like it might be interesting. But not too interesting, as it turned out.
But first, careful evaluation of tattered gear from the day afore.
The inevitable involved gear packing. How can 3 canyoneers fit in one car? A mystery to me!
Ramrass enjoying a casual start to a casual canyon
Mike, Ram and John enjoy the mild early spring sun.
Why is it called death canyon? There were a bunch of cow bones out at the mouth. Perhaps the small puddle of water draws the queens of the desert there, even the ones who are going to die. (Though not very good, that's my best guess).
A little snow remained in a few spots. After lunch in a cozy, sunny alcove, the canyon got deeper and more adult. We turned around at a dryfall and found our way up to the rim.
We bypass the dryfall in Death Canyon by walking the rim above. Unlike yesterday’s adventure, this one REALLY doesn’t look too bad.
Above the dryfall, the canyon becomes a wide trough in the Navajo. We poke around, looking for a place to climb down in, but mostly enjoying the scenic slickrock country.
Some interesting bowls were found in the upper part of the drainage. A good place to film Mountain Bike ads.
John and Alicia enjoying some interesting rock placements. Hmmm, how did this happen?
Now the challenge is to find a way into the middle of the canyon.
We follow a slot, but it ends in a 40 foot drop, not quite downclimbable. Since we're having such a good time poking around, we decide to look further, eventually sweeping all the way around the head of the drainage and finding a rib that permitted downclimbing into the canyon's middle section, not too far upstream from the dryfall.
Not this one. (Death Canyon)
Yeah, this one looks good. A corner in the buttress allowed easy access to the middle-canyon bottom. (Death Canyon)
We get down in, follow it a way, then it slots up nicely. A bit of downclimbing leads to the last drop. (Death Canyon)
Alicia sets a sling around a chockstone, usable for the final short drop.(Death Canyon)
We messed around with setting a guided rappel, just for fun, though the geometry was not advantageous. The key point here, though, is that the Emperor, going last, did not even get his feet wet. (And they wonder why I run the show...) Zip back out to the car and call it a day. Alicia heads home (sorry hon) while the rest of us head for the Escalante-Dominguez-Grand-Staircase National Monument, for a little early season slot action.
