Death Valley National Park (Panamint Range West), CA
I knew Death Valley was home to many technical canyons but I had no idea just how many were unexplored. Earlier this year, I had the amazing opportunity to join Scott Swaney (a first descent legend) and a couple good friends on a trip to Death Valley National Park to explore the undocumented Panamint Range West. It was so unreal to think that the new areas we explored had never been set foot upon by a human being. It still amazes me that there are places on Earth that have yet to be explored. Scott has been an inspiration of mine for many reasons. Every time I log into my social media, I see Scott with a new trip report ticking climbs and canyons that have been on my bucket list for years. Scott is a good reminder that the hardest part of any climb is leaving your front door. There is still so much to do.
Joyride Canyon has one of the most brutal approaches I have ever done. (If I wrote this same note on another canyon, this one takes the cake!) It covers a gain of about 2,000 ft. in less than 2 miles on sharp, loose choss ranging from 2nd to 3th class. While there is a more direct approach to the climber's left of the canyon, we weren't sure if there was any safe entry into the start of the canyon. We ended up following a long game trail and traversed the Panamint range with one very sketchy section that we had to rope up on. In the end, it was so worth it. Eight beautiful rappels with the longest rappel at ~150 ft. There are no bolted anchors due to national park restrictions so the majority of our anchors were rock piles. Our rope wiki report can be found here.
Blah pretty sure I'm missing pictures of two of the rappels.
Distance of the approach: ~2 miles (elevation gain: ~2,000 ft.)
Directions to the Trailhead: Use the following coordinates in Google Maps to route your directions to the campsites. This area is just outside of Death Valley National Park and is conveniently right in front of the start of the approach. Get an early start!
36.100917, -117.201528
Topo of the drive in, approach, and canyon (Credit - Scott Swaney):
Start of the dirt road.
Up and early for the approach.
This stuff was sharp!
Some nice exposure.
Continuing on...
Made it to the first drop of the canyon! First rock pile anchor of the day. Everything is backed up by a meat belay (Thank you, David!)
Scott always heads down first. Here he is pull testing the anchor.
2nd rappel. Scott's famous rope bag toss.
3rd rappel.
My friend Britt beasting down a rappel.
My goodness it is beautiful here. Downclimbing some sharp, easy choss.
4th rappel (150 footer over sharp rock).
More amazing slots and some downclimbing.
5th rappel.
6th rappel? Sorry guys!
#29 - Dedicated to my dearest friend, Joy.
Chris's Difficulty Scale (Approach Only) - 7/10
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