This is done in 2 stages, the first drop of 30-50ft and the main event of 580ft
Due to work commitments we where not able to leave for Death Valley until Saturday but we stopped at Trona Pinnacles on the way and arrived at to assigned meeting place at Hole in the Wall about 4pm on 2/21
Our fellow canyoneers arrived after completing a first descent of a canyon near Smith Mtn about 10:30pm.
We where awakened about 11:30pm by a youth group from the Marin Academy consisting of about 40 individuals, they where as quite as such a large group could be but it was a din for sure.
Scott has done this canyon before so I'd deferred to him on the route, I'd planned on hiking XC from Inyo Mine, but he said the Red Amphitheater route was the way to go.
I was not aware you could not drive past the Quarry shown on the TOPO map at the old national monument boundary, had I know this a day or 2 before I'd have pushed for the Inyo Mine route as this is about ½ the distance of the red Amphitheater route and the roads are in better condition.
The road from Hole in the Wall is barely passable to my 2wd Toyota Tacoma, some might say it is not but I drove it.
We left the trailhead later than we wished but that's the way of these things... We go moving just after 8am.
The road shown on the map does not exist. In places there where "hints" of this road but in essence it doesn't exist. "Amphitheater Wash" is wide and gravely making for good hiking so we made good time to our side canyon to where we'd intersect with Undertaker Cyn wash, some how I wound up in the lead despite leaving the trailhead well behind Bernd. (1hr 30min 2.7 miles)
There is an outcrop in the middle of the wash here sticking about 10ft out of the wash, this is a good landmark as to where to turn.
As we hiked up the the wash is hits a narrow section with multiple washes converging in a bowl like area. The wash we want twists and turns here and the rock blends into the background making it difficult to see, waypoint 0346 marks the entrance to these narrows
The "highlight" of this part of the hike in are these narrows, at least the views of the surrounding mountains are interesting.
We arrived at the ridge separating this canyon and Undertaker Canyon at 11:00am 5.63 miles 4453ft ( 3hrs) from the trailhead, and started down canyon.
As has been the case all day Undertaker Cyn is a wide gravel filled wash.
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About 15 min down canyon from the above photo the canyon makes a series of S turns until you arrive at a short drop of 10-15 ft. The top map shows this to be straight... It is not.
The canyon has high walls and a narrow slot here. We geared up here and went down to the first drop, It seems higher than the advertised 30 ft, closer to 40-45 but I didn't measure it. Any way the anchor is canyon left and is two nuts in a crack, very bomber.
We dropped down to the next flat area where the main event is. The anchor is a bomber deadman the main component of which is a 4-5 cubic foot granite boulder with several more large boulders on top and to the front, This is slung low and there are two rappel rings to ease the pull.
The main issue with this drop is the rope tends to get damaged on the last 250-300ft free-hanging section.
We dealt with this in 3 ways
* We changed the friction point for each canyoneer
* we taped clear plastic hardwood floor/carpet protector to the abrasion point
* Our rope is a special design where the core and sheath are held together with a third component that eliminates sheath slippage (Core Shot)
Also being aware this is a problem our experienced group made every effort to keep our rappel smooth, swing, and bounce free as possible
Scott went first and since he was using an unfamiliar rope and was placing the rope protector he wanted essentially a top rope belay, using our pull rope. But he didn't want to mess around with locking off , I'd just hold him in position while the task was performed.
Bernd went next, then me and finally Aysel
Aysel had a bit of a scare and dropped quickly about 10-20ft when she first started descending. We can only guess the knot was not against the rap rings but rather was down below the lip... She had lots to keep track of and probably didn't insure it was in place
plenty scary but it all worked out in the end. It proves the anchor is bomber
Scott scrambled up the canyon walls and got some interesting angles of me and Aysel coming down. I hope to see those photos and videos soon
Congrats all around and then the never ending chore of stuffing the rope.
The canyon below is much the same as the upper canyon until you approach the end. It slots up very nicely, though there are no rappels there are a couple downclimbs.
The end of the canyon is a jumble of house sized boulders preventing most people from getting into the canyon. We used a handline/rappel in a couple places and spotted others
After successfully negotiating this final obstacle a short hike to the Hole in the Wall. We arrived here at 6:22pm for a total time of 10hrs 22min, with retrieving the vehicle from the Red Amphitheater trailhead still to do.
My truck barely makes it up here, you really should have more ground clearance. A 2wd Jeep or full sized pickup would do better
Anyway a great day thanks to Bernd, Scott, & Aysel for being great canyoneering parrtners, I hope to have many more adventures soon
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