boryaa
01-04-2015, 04:40 PM
Its too cold and wet to climb where we are and so we drove to Death Valley to do Rainbow Canyon. Its not the top canyon on our list but we wanted to get out of the house and do some canyoneering!
Mt. Whitney and lone Pine Peak from our hotel in Lone pine.
77420
Approaching the canyon. you follow a dirt road until it drops into a wash.
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The first rappel. There weren't any anchors and so we went around the drop on the left. You can probably set up a natural anchor here if you want.
77422
The first drop from the bottom
77423
Going around the first drop/rappel.
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The second rappel is anchored off of bolts on the left and drops down a 160 foot drop. At the bottom of the rappel is a pothole/sinkhole that is easily climbed out of.
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The last rappel. This one drops 70 feet or so to the bottom. There was an anchor using a boulder but the tails of the webbing were really short. We added our own webbing here to back up the other anchor.
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At the bottom of the technical section.
77430
Looking at where we came from.
77431
The ridge that you ascend to get back up to the rim. It is 4th class at the start, the middle is an easy walk up some loose rocks, and the end is 3rd class. It is really loose here and I almost knocked down a huge boulder by accident so be cautious. You can probably avoid the first 4th class section by going up a loose slope next to it.
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View from the top of the ridge.
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Mt. Whitney and lone Pine Peak from our hotel in Lone pine.
77420
Approaching the canyon. you follow a dirt road until it drops into a wash.
77421
The first rappel. There weren't any anchors and so we went around the drop on the left. You can probably set up a natural anchor here if you want.
77422
The first drop from the bottom
77423
Going around the first drop/rappel.
77424
The second rappel is anchored off of bolts on the left and drops down a 160 foot drop. At the bottom of the rappel is a pothole/sinkhole that is easily climbed out of.
77425
77426
77427
The last rappel. This one drops 70 feet or so to the bottom. There was an anchor using a boulder but the tails of the webbing were really short. We added our own webbing here to back up the other anchor.
77428
77429
At the bottom of the technical section.
77430
Looking at where we came from.
77431
The ridge that you ascend to get back up to the rim. It is 4th class at the start, the middle is an easy walk up some loose rocks, and the end is 3rd class. It is really loose here and I almost knocked down a huge boulder by accident so be cautious. You can probably avoid the first 4th class section by going up a loose slope next to it.
77432
77433
77434
77435
77436
View from the top of the ridge.
77437