Wonderland of Rock by Moonlight Aug 25-26

My dream for a full "Floor is Lava" traverse of Joshua Tree's Wonderland of Rocks remains a unobtained goal. Being quite hot this time of year, the thought occurred to me to try an evening traverse under a full moon. With a date set I recruited Jimmy who I thought would be up for it, and he recruited two more graduate students to join us. My thinking was we could start at 7pm and be done around 11pm, which in hindsight was a little unrealistic despite one of the group not being completely up to the challenge. Jimmy and I set our shuttle at Indian Cove and then drove into Barker Dam where we met Stephen and Haley at 6:30pm. I was a little worried when I realized they had no idea what they would be in for, and more still when we started off across the rocks and I recognized their pace. They were in good cheer though and so we kept on despite the early signs. Pretty early on someone's pants turned into posteriorless chaps, an amusing throwback for me to my first Wonderland traverse.

We had a couple deadends at the start which slowed progress but eventually reached a nice slickrock area where we could make good progress, enjoy the setting sun, and simultaneously, the rising sun. I was in my element with some of the more scrambly sections and probably could have made 2.5 times the progress of the rest of the group. The first few wash crossings were straightforward and manageable at the locations I suspected. At the junctions of two major washes we had to make six separate crossings which slowed us down considerably. The worst of them required me jumping in the middle of a bush and then jumping across the rock. Legality is debatable I suppose but the landscape was not altered and my foot did not touch the wash. It seemed the desert recently had a solid down pour: footprintless washes, fresh fluvial features, moist sand, patches of water, and the worst sign of all, mosquitoes in abundance.

Through the major wash junction, I decided to take a chance on an alternate saddle, which ended up being very tricky and ending at a blind slot. This seemed like the obvious place (and time) to abandon the floor is lava mentality. In 2.5 hours we made it about 1.5 miles! From here on we took the path of least resistance, following washes and intrusive contacts in a race for Indian Cove. We crossed over to the easternmost major wash and followed it north. Intervals were wide and sandy allowing us to turn off headlamps and travel by moonlight. We bypassed the first scrambly breakdown section, then had two more to navigate for distances of about 500 ft. The further down the wash we went the more standing pools of water we saw, and the more happy frogs. It was quite late by the time we reached The Helmet rock formation, I made sense of the junction of washes, and we set on down the steep and mysterious gut for Rattlesnake Canyon. Progress continued very slowly, giving me time to explore ahead and find three nice sections of talus cave we could drop into.

After what seemed like ages we dropped into Rattlesnake Canyon and then had the comparatively easy task of hiking down it to the trailhead. Despite the ridiculous hour, Jimmy and I had a solid run back to the car to spare the other two the last bit of effort. 2:30am we finished! We drove out, went desperately in search of a 24hr convenience store to stock up on cold Gatorade, then drove back to Barker Dam to close the loop. We drove through the entirety of the Hidden Valley campground- completely full! Jimmy and I parted with Stephen and Haley and drove all the way back to Indian Cove. It was 5am by the time I got to sleep in my car (to avoid the brutal mosquitoes), and 7:45am when the heat of the sun cruelly made me wake up and abandon the car! Jimmy and I climbed three  adjacent routes rather quickly (nice for me as I can't remember the last time I've been climbing outside) before the sun's heat chased us into our cars' AC, and back home for a nap in a bed. The Floor Is Lava Traverse remains an enticing possibility. I've only cracked the first 1.5 miles of six and am left wondering how big of a project this is. Perhaps it would be best if I attempted sections of the traverse before stringing the whole thing together to eliminate time wasted on deadends. What is clear is that it would make and incredible journey and a remarkable full body marathon. Thanks to the others for joining.

Mākaha Canyon May 23

Near the start of the year when I was trying to plan some adventure to give me something to look forward to I started looking into Kauai. If I did it right it could be easy, cheap ($3 per night camping), and have some great opportunities for adventures. As I started to piece together the ideas of a packraft/hiking Nā Pali trip and a Waimea packraft trip I started to realize the potential for great canyon trips. If the weather was very rainy we would packraft, if the weather was somewhat dry we would go canyoning! Whatever it threw at us we'd be ready to respond with the best adventure possible. The more I researched online the more helicopter tourist photos turned up great looking canyons but I was surprised at the relative lack of canyon descents I could find described. For the wettest and oldest of the main Hawaiian island there seemed to be little exploration and lots of untouched potential. Imagery in Google Earth was typically of poor quality and often obscured by clouds or shadows.

I then had the thought to see if there was any high resolution topographic data available. Lucky for me there was reasonable coverage of high resolution airborne lidar data over some of the canyon areas I was interested in. Lidar is a laser ranging technique that collects hundreds of thousands of accurate data points per second, and importantly, can image the ground in deep canyons and beneath vegetation. Instantly I had an inside view into some of the deepest and narrowest canyons in Kauai, and knew the exact number, location, and height of each waterfall to 10cm accuracy! Academic canyoning! It felt like cheating and certainly took some of the mystery out of the canyons, but it also allowed me to be prepared and confident to take some of them on. I had grand plans to tackle some of the moderate wet canyons in the Waimea area but this was not to be between the weather, being sick, and limited in the number of days we had. Several canyons needed on-the-ground scouting to be sure that appropriate escape routes could be found, the difference between one or two day canyon descents. So after completing our Nā Pali adventure the lowest risk canyon route I was interested in seemed to be Mākaha on the west side of the island. It would likely be a dry canyon (it was) but should have some excellent rappels and some of the best narrows on the island. The all important escape route seemed to have previously been done by a keen hiker accessing nearby Miloli'i and I was able to give this route a quick scout while on the Nā Pali a few days earlier.

Top: Example of aerial imagery available, leaving canyon features a mystery.

Bottom: Lidar derived imagery revealing the exact height and location of every feature. 

I awoke from a good night's sleep in the cool 3500ft air and rallied to get gear organized despite the nasty cold I had developed at the end of the Nā Pali trip and subsequently feeling under the weather. Sara dropped Jeff and I off along the Mākaha Ridge Road and we plowed on through the foliage. The terrain was steep and loose but the forest was forgiving initially. At a few points we had to veer around or carefully through some thorny plants, and at another we had to do a grass clinging bypass around a bramble-coated waterfall. All in all the approach was forgiving and it took less than 30 minutes to hit the bottom of Mākaha and another 15 minutes or so to reach our first series of downclimbs and our first view of the Pacific Ocean far below.

        At the lip of the first downclimb

Below the downclimbs the canyon narrowed to where we could nearly touch both walls at the same time. Although the creek was dry, ferns coated the vibrant green walls. Shortly we reached the first rappel of about 13m. There were a few ok anchor options but after a few minutes of digging we revealed the perfect boulder choke pinch- bomber and with an easy pull.

        At the start of the first narrows

The narrows maintained their width but grew deeper with each step down the canyon. Although a nice flowing creek would have greatly improved the canyon, the narrows were quite spectacular anyway. A short downclimb brought us to the monster two-stage rappel, right on cue. A 17m drop to a filled hanging pothole, then another 69m drop to an enormous cavernous chamber. Here good anchor options were less obvious so we spent nearly twenty minutes digging out an excellent pinch between two boulders. This was a fantastic drop, especially the second stage into the dry plunge room below. As I waited for Jeff to descend, graceful white-tailed tropicbirds circled above the chamber, their calls casting slight echoes.

Once down the large rappel the canyon changed: wider but now considerably deeper. The narrows continued unabated nearly a half mile to the final 18m rappel of the canyon. Each twist and turn revealed a new corridor of narrows, each one seemingly better than the last. We were deep in this canyon and I was comforted the lidar data constrained what unknowns we might encounter. Jeff went nuts with his GoPro and I with my camera. We saw two different owls hiding in the shadows of boulders in this canyon. We constructed a deadman anchor for the final rapppel.

More wonderful narrows! This would certainly be a major tourist attraction for the island if it was more accessible. We continued boulder hopping our way down, eventually picking up whiffs of the approaching sea air. Beneath the Pacific Missile Range Facility we uncovered someone's dirty little secret. We saw over fifty golf balls spread all around the wash immediately below. Clearly some bored employee thought it a great thing to drive balls into what he must have imagined was a bottomless and unvisited place.

In the last thousand feet of the canyon before the ocean the canyon changed style yet again. A series of bedrock downclimbs were the last obstacles to discourage upstream visitors. I suggested Jeff should climb a rock spire at the center of the canyon (with dry waterfalls either side) and then immediately regretted it as I stressfully watched him climb the exposed choss. It made for a great photo at least.

Once at the shore our adventure was far from over. We had a one mile boulder hopping walk along the beach to reach Miloli'i where we could hopefully make our planned escape. A wonderful surprise was five sea turtles sunning themselves and napping on a small section of sandy beach. They were so unexpected Jeff walked right past the first turtle within a couple feet before he recognized the rocks in front of him were alive! They looked like they were living the life and were completely unbothered by us walking past.

Once at the mouth of Miloli'i we followed the stream up a short quarter-mile to the base of our escape route. After scouting from the north side of the creek (the route looked very tricky but we wanted to believe there was a route through it!), we recovered at the stream. Without the lidar data and photos/descriptions from a keen hiker that had done the route I probably would not have considered it a comfortable possibility. We snacked, replenished water, and soaked our feet before starting up the steep scree slope that would lead to our chossy route.

        Our escape route. A route runs through it, but where?

My cold was starting to catch up to me and I struggled to keep up with Jeff who was having a great time picking a route through. It really was an excellent route overall- fantastic views and wonderful Grand Canyon style cliff band route finding. I did manage to let loose two large boulders, one near the bottom and the other right near the top of the climb. The middle section of the route was definitely the best, with some fun, slightly exposed, climbing. As I anticipated, the top tropically weathered 30m or so of the cliff were by far the lousiest, chossiest rock. I was also at my lousiest at this stage, but powered through and was thrilled to drop my pack, drink some water, take in the sights, and enjoy the sea breeze.  Jeff and I both found the route very satisfying and it gave us ideas that there must be some other exciting scrambling routes in the Nā Pali/Waimea area.

        Looking up Miloli'i

All that was left was the simple matter of walking the 4WD road up until we ran into Sara, or at least it would have been simple if I wasn't totally trashed from sickness and heat. I even had to stop and sit down for a while as going on seemed like too much. Slowly, eventually, I walked the two miles and 800 vertical feet to our parked car. We returned to Camp Sloggett where I had a well-deserved shower beer and crashed. Although this would end up being the only canyon we would have the time to fit in and I wished I got more use out of the 600ft of rope I brought, it was still a pleasant and worthwhile first descent that wetted my appetite for a future Kauai canyon trip. Thanks to Sara for providing the drop off and pickup.

Fiery Furnace Nov 25

This was the post-Cataract Canyon trip I was hoping we would get to do. Fiery Furnace is a fin maze of Entrada Sandstone only 1500ft by 3000ft in Arches National Park, yet we would manage to spend 8hrs traversing only 3mi, with large portions of our day being only a few hundred feet from locations we had been hours before. The only way to realistically navigate it is with an extremely high resolution aerial photo and a keen sense of direction. Endemic species, pocket gardens,  grottos, arches, slots, ancient Juniper, cryptobiotic soil, and no cairns- this place had them all in the right concentration.

Due to the large amount of rescues and incredibly fragile ecosystem (frankly the park should probably close the area altogether), only fifty people are allowed into the Fiery Furnace each day. Only a very small percentage of those (only us on our day), venture far enough to require climbing and ropes. Our goal was to find the "secret" Lomatium/Krill canyoneering route (if beta becomes publicly available the Park has threatened to close it). My research paid off. We found it and it is a great one.

While we were sure to get into the park before the gates were manned at 8am  (avoiding the lines), we did not actually depart the Fiery Furnace trailhead until about 9:30am. The morning started frigid which was a convenient excuse to take our time carefully packing at the trailhead. We (I) managed to pack everything we needed into one bag, with Sara occasionally carrying a rope bag as a fanny pack.

        An interesting detour

We found Surprise Arch (frontispiece) not too deep into the Furnace and then stumbled our way through slots and around corners. Within a half an hour we left the people and voices behind us and the entire rest of the day we had the tricky nooks and crannies to ourselves. The navigation was easy. The climbing and occasional exposure was spicier than I guessed, slowing us considerably as I belayed/handlined Sara up and across the many obstacles. Two prominent climbs led us to top out onto one of the more prominent fins, with incredible views of the intricate maze below. For being only 1500ft away from our car we felt a long way away from everything!

        Looking down the last climb before the fin summit

        Fiery Furnace overview: more intricate than it looks

Once on top we had to find a route down. Appearances were deceiving and we had to spiral our way down a slab, traverse over a too tight slot and then through a gateway to the head of a slickrock bowl at the top of Lomatium Canyon. After a break in the sun we suited up for the first rappel into the shadows. A second short rappel followed, then a convenient log to cross a shallow pool.

        Approaching the start of Lomatium Canyon

        A convenient log

A couple corners and a sandy walk for a change brought us to a pouroff into darkness. Nearby we found Cassidy Arch perched on the edge. Sara went down this rappel, the tallest at 130ft, first. Thankfully we could just barely avoid the pool of water at the base, though the rope got annoyingly dirty once we pulled it.

        Cassidy Arch, photo by Sara

        The 130ft rappel

More sandy, scenic slot and yet another corner brought us to the final rappel in Lomatium, obvious from the plethora of footprints below. Though a short rappel it was a quite scenic one with a grotto and pool below and greenery nearby.

       In the middle of Lomatium, wonderfully devoid of footprints

        Above and below: rappelling back to the realm of footprints

A brief moment of skipping along a slickrock floor, and a couple turns later we again had a mighty rockpile to surmount for the second half of the journey, the Krill Route. Sara seemed to lose all confidence partway up making the task even more heinous. Once on top we had to traverse across a narrow (but quite deep!) slot, climb some slickrock, cross a saddle, and traverse more tight slots. Progress was painfully slow and the rope came out of the bag many times.

       

        Above and below: the perilous pile on the Krill route

A easy downclimb down a corner led to a bird perch and some of the few bolts seen in the Fiery Furnace. This was a spectacular rappel into a narrow slot that belled out into a freehanging rappel into a streaked chamber, a definite highlight. More slots, rappels and downclimbs, an abrupt u-turn and one more rappel put us back into footprints.

        "The Krill Chamber"

The day was nearly gone and we had just completed what was considered to be the standard route but I had a feeling we could still squeeze a bit more out by going down another slot passage. Extra credit! Straightforward slots brought us to slabby downclimbs into a sandy-floored, vertical-walled walking passage. More corners and one final rappel for good measure, this one through a small arch into a mini-grotto (and more tourist footprints). From here the way out was obvious- follow the well-trampled washes and then the larger trail back to the car. We caught the last of the light over the Furnace, joined the evening park exodus, and then joined our friends back at camp on the Island in the Sky. I felt very fortunate to explore such a unique and intricate place.

        "Extra Credit Arch"