Death Valley Days

Got back early yesterday morning from three days in Death Valley with Merritt and others. The wildflowers were in full bloom, which is unusual and short-lived in this desolate area.

Day One was an exploration into Forge Canyon, where we were the first party to ever descend it. (Canyoneers call this a "First Descent" and as you might expect, it's rather rare.) It was a lot of fun, as we never knew what to expect and had to construct a natural anchor at each of the 12 rappels. I really enjoyed the challenges of deciding how to anchor each rap, then moving rocks around when necessary. My favorite part of canyoneering is solving problems with anchors, rappels, route-finding or downclimbing. With a first descent there is also a sense of mystery and discovery, and of course we had to pack plenty of extra rope and emergency equipment to prepare for unknown contingencies. I was very grateful we had this opportunity to join the group, led by Rick Kent, who has done first descents on many of the Death Valley canyons.

Day Two was another exploration of sorts into Scottie's Canyon, much of which had been hiked from the bottom but with no descents that we were aware of. Seven of us hiked up a mountain, stopping to explore the remains of an old mining operation, including a few standing buildings. As we approached the summit of our hike before dropping in the canyon the wind started picking up, almost knocking me over while we climbed the faint trail. Once we dropped in, the wind reached hurricane levels as it stormed up the canyon, gaining incredible force. One gust literally pushed three of us uncontrollably about 15 feet, knocking over two women. I'm not experienced in these matters, but I'm guessing 70 mph or more. Walking over to the first rap I looked down and it was like a wind tunnel blasting up at me--really quite frightening. After about an hour of waiting, debating and soul-searching we reluctantly headed back, realizing that we didn't know what was ahead of us and the winds would make rappeling and downclimbing on the descent potentially dangerous. The rest of the group headed home and Merritt and I hiked up Scottie's from the bottom, taking on a few sporty climbs that were exposed enough to make me uncomfortable, although Merritt handled them quite well.

On the third day Merritt and I descended Coffin Canyon. I had done this canyon a year ago, but from the top, which involves a car shuttle and at least five miles of slogging through sand and gravel. This time we planned on approaching from the bottom. In the past this has been done through the Copper Canyon entrance, but unfortunately that was closed due to a recent fossil find. The Park Service recommended an alternate route which their people had scouted out and left cairns. We decided to take it, especially since getting caught in Copper Canyon would result in a $5000 fine.

Unfortunately, the new approach was very difficult and involved a lot of clamboring on all fours up steep slopes with loose scree and gravel or crumbly hand-holds. Many times I felt dangerously close to a long and uncontrolled slide back down with unsavory implications. To make it worse, we discovered that the cairns were set in unusual places, not necessarily marking a trail but rather at high points in the general vicinity of the trail. (We discovered this when we precariously scrambled to one of them only to find a lone peak with no exit except the way we had just come. That was my least favorite moment of the trip!)

Finally we dropped into Coffin and enjoyed this lovely canyon, which includes a 185-foot rappel that seems like about 400'--definitely a sobering drop. Also there's one rap that goes from above to below sea level, which is kind of interesting. Afterwards I dropped Merritt off at the Las Vegas airport and drove home. I hit the wall about 11 p.m. and had to pull over and sleep a few hours, then woke up and arrived home about 3 a.m.

It was a fun trip in a big, desolate and generally unfriendly country. It once again makes me appreciate the incredible diversity in our natural world.

Photos from Luke