Thanksgiving ramblings

[Daymoth]

I'm sorry to hear about your frustrations with Slit Canyon. I've got a (long overdue!) trip coming up in January and was hoping to hike up Slit and camp near Inyo mine. Is this the place where you had to turn around? Just trying to get a sense of where we might run into trouble, too.

I solved the parking problem by booking the site at the gap in the Wall.  That'll allow us to get an early start the day of the hike, as well as a good place to crash if we have to bail. 

Thanks for sharing your trip!

huh, it does look like it but from a fish eye lense. It also looks like the second fall at the very start. Im not sure. You might be totally fine, if I was few inches taller I would probably had downclimbed it fine.

[Daymoth]

@Daymoth is the dry-fall you had difficulty with in Slit the one at the very end of the slit going up-canyon? I recall (and given how long it's been since I've been up that canyon I could be completely wrong, sorry!) that you can bypass the entire slit area including that dry-fall on the right side (going up-canyon) by extending the workaround for the initial grotto area. Or maybe not but I do think we found that we were able to bypass the slit somehow on the hike back. Is the rock nettle bush still growing in the middle of that dry-fall? I remember that made it an even bigger challenge to climb.

I dont think there was a nettle, it was just slippery marble. Interesting if there is a workaround.

[jkpaulsen]

@jkpaulsen do you have any other pics from the folks who did the hike other than the one you shared? I'm pretty sure that's not the one Daymoth is referring to; that's not the fall at the end of the slit. I *think* the one in the pic you shared might be the initial grotto dry-fall section that's bypassed on the right side going up-canyon, and is before the slit.

Yes, here is the page with the rest of that user's photos. If the locations are accurate, maybe this one matches Daymoth's/Diggonet's/your description a bit better. I also found this video that might show the spot.

Bah. One of my hiking partners correctly says I shouldn't stress about it. "Let's just go and try it."

[John Morrow]

Bah. One of my hiking partners correctly says I shouldn't stress about it. "Let's just go and try it."

I'd take that advice.  Here's a photo progression from TH to Rockfall Peak showing all the obstructions.  If you feel good on solid Class 3 my memory is you'll do great.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23557848@N...240218756/
I've contemplated looping it with Steve Hall's Rockfall Canyon but am not confident it goes non-technical.
My TR: unfortunately not very detailed.
https://dv.netllama.us/dv/thread-25891.html

[Daymoth]

@jkpaulsen do you have any other pics from the folks who did the hike other than the one you shared? I'm pretty sure that's not the one Daymoth is referring to; that's not the fall at the end of the slit. I *think* the one in the pic you shared might be the initial grotto dry-fall section that's bypassed on the right side going up-canyon, and is before the slit.

Yes, here is the page with the rest of that user's photos. If the locations are accurate, maybe this one matches Daymoth's/Diggonet's/your description a bit better. I also found this video that might show the spot.

Bah. One of my hiking partners correctly says I shouldn't stress about it. "Let's just go and try it."

its literally at the very beginning where he says "downclimbing is going to be the hard part". Yup!

[jkpaulsen]

its literally at the very beginning where he says "downclimbing is going to be the hard part". Yup!

I'm sad he didn't show the downclimb. Maybe it was not as graceful. Looking forward to your next post.

@John Morrow - Thanks for sharing your trip report. Hope we can follow you all the way up!

[Brice]

If you really are going back to climb something, here's my assessment of the peaks around Echo.


Rockfall peak, east ridgeline.  Interesting rock formations to look at, nice views of Echo canyon and surrounding area.  Class 1 or maybe class 2 in areas.   5 miles RT, 1500 feet of gain.

Schwaub peak.  Class 2, maybe easy class 3 in spots (I can't remember for sure).  The best views in the area will be found from this summit.  7.5 miles RT, 2300 feet of gain.

Thankyou!!

Are any of these super crumbly shitty class 2? ill take solid class 3 over super crumbly slippery shitty class 2 anytime

Definitely Rockfall peak had good footing the whole way.  It's not steep enough to be a problem.  There was one section with a lot of cacti and I ended up having to pull a needle out of the heel of my shoe with pliers, but that was the worst of it.

I don't have a great memory of Schwaub, but if it was terrible, I would remember.  Most of the rock around Schwaub is grippy limestone/dolomite (like a lot of death valley) so it should hold together pretty well.

[Daymoth]

Alright I come with more. So I had two areas I wanted to explore more, one was around Keane and one was in the grapevines. I had a couple canyons in mind I wanted to check out.
"Wait, you actually dont know what canyon you are taking us to?" asks husband as he looks at my map with a pointer called "Disco?".
"Well we have two options for today, exploring of the unknown or exploring of the unknown".
Exploring of the unknown it is.

We leave the car and follow a miners trail wich ends up turning up a big canyon. "Huh, I believe king midas mine is somewhere around here, we should check it out on the way back". Small faint trails continue through a beautiful landscape with salt and travertine remnants. 



At some point we hit solid bedrock. Its beautiful breccia that looks like a mosaic. And its dotted with the most shinny glittery sand puddles. Well this is looking good, its probably indeed Disco canyon.







Now, this canyon doesn't photograph well. The camera cant capture the glam of it all. Its glitter and cool rocks everywhere. 



As we keep walking up canyon there is more glittery sand and shiny rocks.




More shiny rocks



The first dryfall has a bypass we easily figure out and then a lot of fun little obstacles as we ascend fairly quickly.

Weird mud popcorny formations



We make it to a dryfall next to the tentacle.  I dont know if the canyon keeps going but we coudnt see an obvious bypass so we turned around here.


More weird rocks


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The views from the canyon are fantastic, it picks up elevation pretty quick and its open enough you can see all the way to the stovepipe dunes and the cottonwoods.



We start making it back to the big canyon we saw where the miner trails turned, on the way we see miner cairns and yellow badlands.

[Brice]

We make it to a dryfall next to the tentacle.  I dont know if the canyon keeps going but we coudnt see an obvious bypass so we turned around here.

Once you get into the canyon it goes for about 1 mile up to 2300 ft. before you hit a dryfall that can't be reasonably bypassed.  The gorgeous rocks continue all the way up to the end.  It's critical to do this one on a sunny day, as I'm sure you now know!

[Daymoth]

We make it to a dryfall next to the tentacle.  I dont know if the canyon keeps going but we coudnt see an obvious bypass so we turned around here.

Once you get into the canyon it goes for about 1 mile up to 2300 ft. before you hit a dryfall that can't be reasonably bypassed.  The gorgeous rocks continue all the way up to the end.  It's critical to do this one on a sunny day, as I'm sure you now know!

We just bypassed the first fall. The rest was fun easy scrambling. I assume the tentacle is bypasseable because I dont think I recognize some of Beardy's photos, but I didnt see an obvious way.