EISPIRATEN

Just went down Eaton Canyon two days in a row. The first day was to check out conditions so we could guide a group down the next day. This report is an assessment of the canyon from the combination of both trips:

The water flow is still very strong. The first few pools are safe now to slide down. The silt is clearing out. The long slide between the first two waterfall rappels is "safer" to slide. It's not as shallow as it was last year, but you will touch ground, so keep that in mind. The second waterfall still shallow (but it seems to be clearing). Jumps are a bit safer, but we still had to rappel two smaller waterfalls that we normally jump due to the strength of the current and the shallowness of the pools below. The Slide of Faith is not safe to jump or slide yet (the pool below is about six feet deep now). And because of the strength of the flow I would discourage rappeling it as well. Indeed we tried to rappel the slide (first time ever, since we normally jump it). But since the current was so strong, and since the rappel is so direct in the flow of the falls, it wanted to suck us right in, and it was difficult to get out of once you hit the churning down below. I recommend the walk-off. Finally, the last waterfall is strong, but do-able with a good fireman's belay down below. Also, we ran into a group of canyoneers early in the canyon (at the first waterfall rappel) with two experienced men and about four unexperienced women. They were going really slow and our group was feeling a bit worried for this group. They weren't carrying headlamps, so we gave them some of ours, since we had a feeling that they would not make it out with daylight. Our group called SAR a few hours after we exited the canyon yesterday. Indeed SAR was already plucking all six of them from the canyon when we made the call.

Stay safe out there, and remember to do depth checks, even after reading the latest conditions.

Just making it clear that we called SAR to notify them of the group behind us. They were either in the process of rescuing them when we called.

Thanks leo - this is great info. Glad you had a good trip and it was great planning to check it out for yourself ahead of time. Eaton should be fantastic later this summer when it calms down a bit!

Wow. Thanks for the good data!

What made me comment was the interesting situation you found yourself in...

I'm sure most of us can spot a bunch of n00bs who look like they're going to kill themselves. But I'm curious about a few specific things:

• Are you familiar or have a relationship with the S&R crew you called?

• Other than lights and general unpreparedness/experience was there something specific that made you decide to take action?

• Did the "two experienced men" seem like they were in control of the situation?

I've seen my fair share of broken trail logic and probably should have called someone about it a few times. I never really considered it an option because nobody was bleeding or hanging in a waterfall.

Thanks guys.
I also forgot to mention the slot portion after the second waterfall. It looks like someone earlier this year made a natural anchor out of a huge river rock on the bedding of the second fall to rappel the slot. It's a good idea to use it with the current flow. The force of the current funneled in here is really strong. Probably a good idea to toss your pack before you enter the slot as well (since it becomes an extra item to push you down in the heavy current in the slot).

@davantalus
-No familiarity with the SAR we called.
-There were a lot of red flags that made us doubt the experience of the crew. First off they had shiny new gear. Secondly, the women in the group looked terrified on the first rappel. We tried cracking a few jokes to ease their nerves. Also, the woman who was in the process of rappeling when we got there spent about 30 minutes on the rappel. We assumed she had never done any rappeling before.
-The men did have somewhat of an "appearance" of control. One guy was at the top setting everything up and checking the setup of the belay devices and instructing the rest of the group how to rappel properly. The other was down below. But it's important to note that we instructed the one down below about fireman's belays. Apparently he did not know what a fireman's belays was.

This is what my buddy Dave had to say about the canyon:


Just a quick update for people looking to bomb down Eaton Canyon in Southern California:

Went down Eaton on Saturday, after doing it the day before to set things up for our trip. On friday, we trimmed the yuccas back, cut out as much of the poison oak as we had time to, and set up a few retired climbing ropes as fixed handlines for the sketchy scree descent for the final few hundred feet before meeting the water, and then proceeded through the canyon. On Saturday, we went back as a group of ten, almost all of whom had gone through extensive canyoneering training but were largely inexperienced, with two experienced canyoneers (myself and Leo) leading the trip. I have done Eaton at least 20-25 times the past five years, and I still hold that it is hands down the best canyoneering route in SoCal, but conditions there currently are very different from how they were a year ago, and which were themselves very different from the year before that. Instead of giving you a play-by-play, here are a few key points for anyone else who is thinking of hitting it up in the near future:

-The deposited sand is slowly migrating down the canyon. The fires that we had a couple years ago loosened the soil around the canyon, and then the subsequent rains filled in almost all of the upper drops to the point that they were generally about six inches deep as of last may. Since then, they have been slowly emptying back out from the top down, which means that most of the small jumps and slides that were dangerously shallow before can now be comfortably done with the canyoneer only lightly hitting bottom before continuing on. This is good for most of the intermediate slides, but all of the big jumps are no longer even remotely safe, as I will mention later.

-More novices are learning about Eaton and getting in over their heads. As a party of ten, you generally are the people in the canyon that people groan when they run into and have to pass by. On Saturday, our group of ten passed two other parties. I am not saying this to brag about how we were going abnormally fast, because we weren't; it took us a little more than nine hours to get from car to car. Basically, word is spreading about how awesome this canyon is, and people are then telling their friends, and people are forgetting about the fact that this canyon is a physically demanding and potentially dangerous adventure if those that go down it are not properly prepared and in good shape. The first party that we passed were nice people, but half the group had never rappelled before and were terrified of both the height and amount of water on even the first real rap, and had not brought any headlamps for the five of them, which made it obvious at even 1pm in the afternoon that there was no chance that they were going to make it out by nightfall. We gave them one of our headlamps, and then called search and rescue at around nine to give them a heads up that the slow group might still be in the canyon, only to find out that they had already called in to get rescued and S&R was in the process of helping them even before we called. The guy I talked to said that they were all fine, just scared and stuck with almost no light in the dark, but I am not sure what actually happened to them. To put it another way, this canyon rocks, but taking random people with no training and no endurance is negligent, dangerous, and ultimately expensive when you include the chopper ride out.

-The water level is very, very high. I have never seen anywhere near this much water in the canyon this late in the year, and this makes everything both more dangerous and more amazing to do. While a full wetsuit is still necessary (or at least preferable), the water is definitely starting to warm back up, and all of the raps are still doable, but you want to be sure to rig them right. For the first big rap, rap off of the bolt instead of the tree, to miss most of the water. For the second rap, stay left to stay out of the heaviest waterflow. For the last rap, be prepared to get drenched no matter what. THE SECOND-TO-LAST WATERFALL IS NOT ONLY NOT DEEP ENOUGH TO JUMP, BUT IT IS ALSO 100% POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS TO RAPPEL. In the past, we would always jump this one, so I had never actually rapped it before. The shape of the chute, however, funnels the water without breaking the stream, which causes it to accelerate rapidly in a thick, steady stream even before going into freefall. This means that if you step into the stream 20ft into the rappel, the water will be going at least 30mph, sweep your feet out from under you, and send your body directly into the waterflow, where you will get pummeled as you try to get your feet back onto the dry terrain on either side of the chute. If you rap this fall, stem above the fall on either side, and then eventually move to your right (looking uphill) to avoid getting nailed by the water. I rapped this and stayed dry, the second guy in our group slipped once, fell into the stream and was hit so hard that he was unable to regain his feet at all, and described the experience as getting "pounded in the head with 100 pound blocks of ice". I then hiked back up, set up a redirect to get the rope a little more to the side, rapped, stuck my foot in the water to see how bad it was just in case one of the other kids did it, and subsequently ate it into the waterfall and got my butt kicked by nature for a solid thirty seconds before getting my feet back and stepping out of the waterflow, rapping down, and then announcing to the rest of the group that we were going to walk around. The waterfall looks way tamer than all of the other rappels, but don't be fooled- even with a fireman's belay, this rap is sketchy. Fun, maybe even awesome, but definitely not something that you would want to put anyone but an extremely competent canyoneer on without taking an unnecessary risk. Fortunately, the second guy in our group (who was also named Dave) is a badass and was completely unfazed by this, so we continued on.

-BOTH OF THE BIG JUMPS ARE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING DEEP ENOUGH TO JUMP OFF OF, AT ALL. A few years ago, my friend Rory and I went for a speed run of eaton with two forty foot handlines to leave on the first and last rap and didn't even bring harnesses and ran through the canyon, jumping everything, and making it car to car in just under three and a half hours. Now, if you try to jump either of the big falls (the second rap, or the second to last rap), you would be lucky to just come away with a couple of broken bones. The second rappel, which is a bolted boulder in an alcove immediately after the 15-20ft slide following the first big waterfall, is now over about four feet of water, instead of the 20ft of water that you could aim for two years ago. This is an improvement over the six inches of depth in the same spot last year, so if this trend continues it hopefully it could be as little as another year or two before this one is jumpable again (as a side note, this jump is waaaay sketchier and more dangerous than the second to last one even in optimal conditions, but now it is simply not an option). The infamous waterslide at the second-to-last waterfall now terminates in just over six feet of water, which is especially bad when you consider that the waterfall is breaking the surface tension. This means that anyone who goes off of the slide, or any of the three cliff jumps above it is going to leave in an airborne stretcher unless conditions change drastically. The sad news here, is that unlike the second rap higher up, this rappel was actually about ten feet deeper last year, and was totally jumpable, which means that the sediment from higher up in the canyon is slowly being carried down, which means that in all likelihood this fall will probably not be jumpable for at least a few years if not longer. I hope I am wrong in this, but all of the sand higher in the canyon just doesn't have anywhere else to go. There are two other short raps towards the end that used to be jumpable that are not anymore, but you will be able to spot them pretty easily by the webbing.

Anyway, although doing the canyon twice beat the crap out of my knees, the conditions currently are pretty unique for Eaton in May, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who possesses all of the necessary ingredients to do it without almost killing themselves or their friends. Rock on, be safe.

-Dave

Wow. Two great writeups now.

Tell Dave to drop by and join us. ;D

Myself and some other folks did Middle Muir to Eaton last week or so. Nice flow, some good swims.