Pearson Canyon. Willard, Utah

A few weeks I was asking around and no one seemed to have any info on this canyon, so I Google-earthed it and pulled the trigger this morning. We got a later start than I had wanted but we ended up having enough daylight. This was a LONG day. 5,000' of vertical and a total of 6 raps, 4 wet and 2 dry. It's a lot of work but you are rewarded with a view of a place that few have ever been. This canyon is impassable with no rope. We had a single 200' rope and it was not enough. I ended up using every spare foot of webbing and cordage we had to fashion an ultra ghetto pull-cord that still came up short on the 2 longest raps. Once the fun is over, the bottom 1/4 of the canyon is a messy bushwhack fraught with poison ivy and slicker-than-snot wet rock. There is not a flat spot in this whole canyon on which to plant your feet. My bum knee started acting up in the first hour and I limped down most of the canyon. I will post a link to the online album and will post pictures in this thread when I'm not deliriously tired. Yes, in our haste we forgot our helmets for you safety violation fault-finders.:nono: enjoy

https://picasaweb.google.com/1005652...eat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/1005652.../PearsonCanyon lets try this one

Nice! :2thumbs: Not your typical canyon, but still pretty cool. Those wet rappels look like they were slippery!

You're right, I'm not aware of many canyons that involve 5'000 of vert! And yes, the wet rocks were coated in what has got to be the slipperiest substance un-known to science!

looks like you are ready to hit up the grand canyon or death valley with that 5k of vert... great stuff. nice work!

Sounds fun - but 200' of rope doesn't sound like very much when going into an unknown canyon with so much vertical. Turns out, yeah. Good job using what you had to get through, though! Cool pics, too. :thumb:

These are the types of trips I love. Get your friends together and go explore. Even better that it was your own backyard.

:2thumbs:

wonder what July snow melt flow would be like in this canyon

Willard Spires are amazing! I love this area and I'm glad to hear of other people exploring and suffering in it like I have. There truly are no level spots from the time you set foot in any of these canyons. If you're interested in another one, try the south fork of Cook canyon. It's very steep and very narrow. Much more like a true slot canyon. However, the rappels are much shorter. It's a little tricky to enter from the top so let me know if you want some better directions.

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I had a few requests for info on the south fork of Cook canyon. I guess if you need a canyoneering fix and can't get down to the desert it's the next best thing. You'll feel like you're mountaineering as much as canyoneering. Cook is two canyons south of Willard Canyon (right above 400 S in Willard). I think the best way to do it is as a loop up Holmes Canyon and down Cook. You could also drop in from the top, but that's a huge car shuttle from the Willard Peak road. For the loop, park at an old gravel pit (41

Awesome, good effort. What did you find for anchors?

Thank you for being embarrassed that you forgot your helmets. :facepalm1:

T :moses:

Tom, we started joking that someone from autoliv must have placed the anchor slings because they were pieces of 2" wide nylon seatbelt webbing with one sewn end. They were mostly just slung around boulders near the top of each drop. At each rap we'd start saying "Alright autoliv, where'd you put this one". Most were in good shape but I had to add a few quick links as necessary.

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Originally Posted by Bootboy

Tom, we started joking that someone from autoliv must have placed the anchor slings because they were pieces of 2" wide nylon seatbelt webbing with one sewn end. They were mostly just slung around boulders near the top of each drop. At each rap we'd start saying "Alright autoliv, where'd you put this one". Most were in good shape but I had to add a few quick links as necessary.

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Curiouser and curiouser!

T

It looks like my secret is out. This is a great canyoneering route, close for those of us in northern Utah. Bootboy, you are correct - that is excess seat belt webbing. I put the webbing in on a late fall trip in 2009. On a July 2010 trip it all looked fine except the anchor above the longest rappel, which sees a lot of water during run-off. The way I rigged it, that one needs to be replaced regularly. There was no webbing or evidence of people going down the middle part of the canyon when we first started doing it.

Next spring/summer I plan to do it in spring run-off if anyone is interested in joining. I'd like to squeeze a trip in this fall too before the road gets impassable. Access for the spring trip will be from the bottom via Copper Canyon and will miss the top part of Pearsons canyon and its one optional rappel. By the way, there are some other great routes on the Willard Mountain I've selfishly been keeping to myself.

Below is a more thorough description of the canyon that I wrote a while back. It seems like I did more accurate measurements on the rappel distances on another trip. If I find those and they differ much, I can edit this post. Enjoy!


Description of Pearsons CanyonTrip

The hike begins west of Inspiration Point, which can be driven to from mid-summer through the fall. The hike from the top to the bottom is only a few miles, but most of it is steep grade. You drop 5000' in a few miles. Canyoneers need to know that although the hike is all downhill, it is not easy hiking. There is no trail. You are rock hopping on unstable terrain most of the way down. Hiking sticks or trekking poles are useful. Very few people hike Pearsons Canyon because of its ruggedness. Emergency access is limited in parts of the canyon due to its narrowness and deepness.

There are four or five rappels in the middle section of the canyon, depending on how you go down. I estimate the rappels are about 120', 50', 130', 160', and 240'. The long one is the least steep and can be mostly down-climbed if the rock is dry. The first one can be down-climbed or worked around. The second and third are mostly vertical. The 160' rappel is a cascading waterfall with some vertical and some intermittent flat spots. In addition to these, depending on how you go down, there are a few 10-20' down-climbs also required.

The last third of the canyon has a lot of thorns and brush in the bottom. Pants rather than shorts are strongly recommended. Poison ivy is prevalent in this section. The lower canyon is tight with multiple downed trees and lots of debris.

[COLOR=black][FONT=Helv][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]Water can be found intermittently through the canyon during part of the summer. Water becomes scarcer in the late summer and fall. At least 1-1

I hiked up to 240' waterfall from the bottom yesterday. I was surprised at how little water was in this canyon for this time of year.

Did this canyon last week after Bootboy told me about it. Just wanted to add a few details. It took 1:15 to get from the parking spot in Willard up to the top. From the top you just walk straight west and find the best route down. It took the 4 of us 5:45 from top to bottom moving at a decent pace with a 15 minute lunch. It took about an hour to the first rappel and another hour or so to the second. The rest of the rappels are much closer in succession. We didn't exactly measure all the rappels, but to update the 5 rappel lengths- 40', 50', 120', 175', and 240' is probably a little more accurate. We did have to replace the seatbelt webbing on the first rappel as it was worn down to less than 1/2" in one section. Describing the waterflow as a trickle would be quite generous this year. Saw a few sections of poison ivy on the home stretch but not much. It took a few days to feel like I could walk normally again after going down such a steep canyon- make sure you have a few days recovery time after this one.

To answer the question everyone has- we saw 20 or so mountain goats but no, we did not see goatman. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google it.

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Originally Posted by Jolly Green

Did this canyon last week after Bootboy told me about it. Just wanted to add a few details. It took 1:15 to get from the parking spot in Willard up to the top. From the top you just walk straight west and find the best route down. It took the 4 of us 5:45 from top to bottom moving at a decent pace with a 15 minute lunch. It took about an hour to the first rappel and another hour or so to the second. The rest of the rappels are much closer in succession. We didn't exactly measure all the rappels, but to update the 5 rappel lengths- 40', 50', 120', 175', and 240' is probably a little more accurate. We did have to replace the seatbelt webbing on the first rappel as it was worn down to less than 1/2" in one section. Describing the waterflow as a trickle would be quite generous this year. Saw a few sections of poison ivy on the home stretch but not much. It took a few days to feel like I could walk normally again after going down such a steep canyon- make sure you have a few days recovery time after this one.

To answer the question everyone has- we saw 20 or so mountain goats but no, we did not see goatman. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google it.

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It's not a surprise that the first anchor required replacing. We skipped it when we did it this spring. The others were checked and replaced as needed. It was fun doing it in spring run-off, although the mossy rock gets rather slick. The best route we've found in the spring, when the road is still snowed over, is to hike to the top of Copper Canyon and jump over into Pearsons Canyon from there. You miss the first optional rappel, but hit the others, and get a beautiful peek into Eldorado Canyon as a bonus.

A thoughtful local hiked up this spring and sprayed the poison ivy after someone had a serious exposure. You can thank him for its absence.

Thanks for the Trip Report. I have a son that lives in North Ogden....right in his backyard. He will love this!! Gracias.