Death Valley National Park (Panamint Range West), CA
This was day two of my awesome Death Valley canyoneering experience. See #29 (Joyride Canyon) for my introduction to Death Valley. Angry Face Canyon was named after a rock formation that well... had an angry face. After some pondering and revisiting of the pictures, I really felt we should have named the route Groot Canyon; it just sounds cooler! That aside, the canyon is a perfect half day canyon with straight forward natural anchors and some surprisingly awesome slot features. Angry Face canyon has a total of 9 rappels (one optional) with the longest rappel at 100 ft. Our rope wiki report can be found here.
Distance of the Approach: ~ 2.5 miles (elevation gain: ~1,100 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.
36.100917, -117.201528
Topo of the drive in, approach, and canyon (Credit - Scott Swaney):
Start of the approach. Head straight up the middle hill and cut right.
Start of the canyon.
David giving it his all to test the natural rock pile anchor!
First rappel.
Continuing on..
Second (longest) rappel.
Looking up the second rappel.
Continuing down a little and you'll see the Angry (Groot) Face on the top right of the canyon!
Third rappel.
Love it.
Fourth rappel. Scott's famous rope toss!
Continuing on. Man this stuff is sharp! Easy down climb here (optional rappel).
Fifth rappel. Cool cave at the bottom.
Sixth rappel with a fiddlestick. Still warming up to this but it ultimately leaves no trace.
Skies opened up a little.
Seventh rappel (short).
It might look like we slung a dinky bush but there's a rock that we wrapped right behind it. Another fiddlestick used here.
Found some sheep(?) bones.
Final rappel.
#30.
Looking back at the end of the canyon.
Chris's Difficulty Scale (Approach Only) - 2/10
No comments:
Post a Comment