Eaton Canyon clean-up and descent

hamik · Post by **hamik** » Mon May 28, 2012 10:45 pm

Eaton Canyon is awesome: there is an incredible little slot canyon tucked away in the mountains behind Pasadena with a year-round stream, natural granite water slides, and critters which you--or at least I--wouldn't expect so close to LA, like neon blue salamanders and frogs. There are waterfalls over forty feet high which you can jump, and there are higher ones which you can rappel. For anyone who's descended this canyon, you know how sweet it is. Unfortunately, you also know how dirty it is, especially towards the bottom.

The Caltech Alpine Club is running a major clean-up project in Eaton Canyon on Saturday, June 23. There will be two groups involved in the clean-up: one which will work at the popular area near the lowest waterfall, and another which will descend the canyon from the usual drop-in point and scrape the entire canyon, from top to bottom, utterly and totally clean. The first group--team A--will have a short, nontechnical hike to the lowest waterfall. The second group--team B--will have a longer hike and a technical canyoneering descent to negotiate while cleaning. We will wrap up with a BBQ at Victory Park, just down the street from the Eaton Canyon entrance, at 7 PM. As with nearly all CAC events, there will be free beer and food! Feel free to RSVP on Facebook.

We will supply trash bags, gloves, and graffiti clean-up supplies and instruction. If you've never rappelled or canyoneered but are otherwise sturdy on your feet, please join us for the top-to-bottom effort; we will teach you how to rappel and will install fixed ropes on all the rappels. Refer to Prof. Chris Brennen's page on Eaton Canyon for details about the descent, but don't be intimidated: we will take care of technical details, and all you need to bring are harness, locking carabiner, and ATC--borrow them if you don't have your own!

Team A:
* Where: meet at Eaton Canyon Nature Center (here is a map)
* When: 1 PM, Saturday, June 23
* Why: Because all we do with our money is throw parties and buy books
* What to bring: normal hiking stuff, including plenty of drinking water

Team B:
* Where: meet at the bouldering cave at Brown Gym (here is a map)
* When: 7 AM, Saturday, June 23
* Why: because you're super psyched to descend Eaton Canyon and make it cleaner
* What to bring: normal hiking stuff, climbing harness, locking biner, ATC, large backpack for holding trash, and a double-sealed plastic bag or dry bag containing warm clothes, headlamp, and other electronics. There isn't an inordinate amount of Poison Oak in the canyon, but if you have severe reactions, bring long pants and long sleeves.

Here's the event page!

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Tue May 29, 2012 6:58 am

Thank you for posting this!! And thanks to those organizing, and anyone who can attend.

I was in Eaton this Sunday. Trash and graffiti are appearing much higher up in the canyon than ever before. The graffiti at the second waterfall is heartbreaking. Also for the first time, we were seeing broken glass instead of just the usual plastic bottles.

I wish the Forest Service would block the access route to the second waterfall. Aside from the danger and expensive rescue/recovery operations, the people going up there are ruining the canyon.

Post by **Taco** » Tue May 29, 2012 10:39 pm

Thanks for posting this, Hamik. I will definitely be going.

bjp · Post by **bjp** » Wed May 30, 2012 7:50 pm

Thanks for posting -- is there any option for Team C who would hike from the bottom to around the second water fall? That would leave me with way more energy for cleaning than doing all of Lower Eaton. If so, how should I coordinate to get the supplies/skills for cleaning graffiti? I'd really like to clean the relatively new neon orange tag from LDC just above the second waterfall.

I'd rather catch the taggers than close off access to a big part of the canyon for the many people who enjoy it responsibly; I have a few ideas about this that I might be able to get worked out by 6/23

hamik · Post by **hamik** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:02 am

It'd be really awesome to see you, Ryan, and others there. I'm amazed and excited to see so much interest in this clean-up: there are over thirty people coming at last count, and it's still almost a month away!

Anyway, there is definitely an option for a team C. I didn't want to publicize it because, presumably, most of the people coming in from the bottom won't be climbers or canyoneers and might get into trouble on the third class. If you want to take a squad of people to the second waterfall from below, please do! I will make the graffiti removal gear available in the morning at 7 am at the campus meetup and at the visitor center at 1 pm. Let me know if you want anything in particular: the American Alpine Club is co-sponsoring and giving us a bunch of money for this event, so we can get real cleaning equipment.

bjp · Post by **bjp** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:12 am

Thanks, that sounds great! I can't commit 100% just yet, but I'm very likely. I've never cleaned up graffiti, so I wouldn't be sure what to request. If I come at 7am or 1pm, will the people there be explaining how to use the supplies?

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Thu May 31, 2012 10:17 am

cougarmagic wrote: ↑ I wish the Forest Service would block the access route to the second waterfall. Aside from the danger and expensive rescue/recovery operations, the people going up there are ruining the canyon.

I think the best way to accomplish this is to destroy the access to the top of the second waterfall....thats not very hard and there is no way to go around that route. Then word spreads that you cant slide or jump down the falls and the motivation to go the place is lost.

bjp · Post by **bjp** » Thu May 31, 2012 11:04 am

AW wrote: ↑ I think the best way to accomplish this is to destroy the access to the top of the second waterfall....thats not very hard and there is no way to go around that route. Then word spreads that you cant slide or jump down the falls and the motivation to go the place is lost.

I don't think this is correct. There are actually many smaller sub-trails around the bottom waterfall and at least some of the rescues are due to people taking the wrong one because the most popular (easiest) trail isn't always obvious. Close one of the sub-trails and people will use other ones, which are more difficult (therefore leading to more rescues).

One clear example of this is that there are two routes to the ridge spine; one via an eroding gully and another via a (relatively) stable but somewhat more exposed climb directly up the end of the ridge. Close the easier (latter) and people will produce more erosion and accidents by shifting to the more difficult (former). Close both of those and people will use the smaller feeder ridge a little farther downstream. People make trails in lots of difficult places; it seems crazy to me to expect that an entire section of wilderness could be effectively sealed off.

And say that one did manage to put an all-encompassing barrier up. Fences tend to keep people out who respect fences. This set of people has little overlap with the set of people who like to spray paint rocks.

But an even broader point is that keeping people away from the second waterfall is not necessarily a desirable goal. We could also keep the bottom waterfall cleaner by prohibiting access to it as well, but that's a ridiculous idea. Why is it less ridiculous to prohibit access to the second waterfall? If the answer is because getting to it is more dangerous then the two arguments (danger and vandalism) are being confused. It's tempting for us to demand that only canyoneers should be allowed to access the second waterfall because we are canyoneers so we would maintain our access. But let's try to remember that there are many more non-canyoneers who also enjoy the second waterfall by coming from the bottom, most without vandalism. They would react to a closure the same way novice canyoneers would react to a requirement dictating that only ghosting techniques may be used in Eaton. Reducing the number of people who can enjoy a part of nature reduces impact. But it also reduces how many people can enjoy it. Let's not forget about that latter cost when we make demands to restrict access to the second waterfall based on the vandalism that occurs there.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Thu May 31, 2012 12:55 pm

bjp wrote: ↑
AW wrote: ↑ I think the best way to accomplish this is to destroy the access to the top of the second waterfall....thats not very hard and there is no way to go around that route. Then word spreads that you cant slide or jump down the falls and the motivation to go the place is lost.
I don't think this is correct. There are actually many smaller sub-trails around the bottom waterfall and at least some of the rescues are due to people taking the wrong one because the most popular (easiest) trail isn't always obvious. Close one of the sub-trails and people will use other ones, which are more difficult (therefore leading to more rescues).

You misread my post as I was talking about the route to gain access to the top of the 2nd waterfall(Slide Falls), not the first waterfall(Eaton Falls). This doesnt stop someone without a rope from sliding down the falls, but they have to go the long way to get there.

Im an advocate for access....but at the same time, the best way to have access is to keep the routes in good health .

bjp · Post by **bjp** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:19 pm

AW wrote: ↑You misread my post as I was talking about the route to gain access to the top of the 2nd waterfall(Slide Falls), not the first waterfall(Eaton Falls). This doesnt stop someone without a rope from sliding down the falls, but they have to go the long way to get there.

Sorry, my mistake; it's true that there is more of a single trail between the bottom and top of the second waterfall. But, that wouldn't necessarily remain true if that single trail were blocked. The rescue I was present for was because someone had tried to blaze a trail around the third waterfall (big log) and had fallen while trying. The same thing would happen at the second waterfall if the easy trail was blocked.

AW wrote: ↑Im an advocate for access....but at the same time, the best way to have access is to keep the routes in good health .

Well, so another way of saying that is that you're an advocate of restricting access for lots of people (but not yourself) when some people vandalize the route. My request is to put ourselves in the place of the large group of people whose access would be denied, yet haven't caused the route degradation, when we consider calling for something to be closed.

bjp · Post by **bjp** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 4:16 pm

During this clean up, a certain individual loudly claimed that getting any Taginator on climbing equipment would reduce its strength by 90% and that you would die if you didn't listen to this admonishment. To examine this claim, I treated 3 lengths of webbing and pulled them to failure with an instrumented hydraulic ram.

To treat the 3 lengths of webbing, I soaked the centers in Taginator, let them sit in the sun for a few days, rinsed them in water (some corrosives only take effect after the cloth has been rinsed -- hydrochloric acid, for instance), and let them sit in the sun for a few weeks more.

With an overhand on a bight on each end of the webbing, all three treated strands failed at the knot (not anywhere that was treated with Taginator) around 2000 pounds -- indistinguishable from the breaking points of untreated lengths.

Obviously it is prudent avoid exposing one's gear to corrosive agents as much as practical, but getting a bit of Taginator on it is unlikely to warrant retiring it.