Antelope Canyon RIP

[Iceaxe]

As you all know bolts in canyoneering have always been a hot topic.... I always have a giggle when someone says "can't you just ignore the bolts?"

Well the short answer is "yes".... but the real answer is "no".... to me they are as offensive as the stairs now in Antelope Canyon, which I guess you could just ignore.... but I'm not exactly sure how you would actually do it.... Bolts or stairs.... I see no real differance.... any argument that you can make for bolts holds true for the stairs in Antelope Canyon....

Anyhoo.... here are a few pictures of what Antelope Canyon looks like these days.... When I first descended the slot in the mid 80's there were no stairs, only a few adventurous tourists, and the canyon was truly a special place at that time. Now it is managed more along the lines of a Disneyland....

The Antelope Canyon I knew is dead.... I miss the old Antelope.... RIP...

[peakbagger1971]

I think that it is important that they make some few of the canyons accessable to more people who could not see them otherwise. I agree that I would hate to see stairs in most of the canyons but I don't have a problem with sharing a few of them.

[Jaxx]

that is a bummer. I agree with peakbagger though, I'm willing to share. I never planned on seeing antelope canyon due to it's already "disneyland" like management, mabey now I can take the kids through. Mabey the new game will be doing antelope canyon without touching the stairs!

[canyonguru]

well look and the bright side instead of bolts you not have hand rails to tie your anchors off to. you can rapel down next to all the pansies the need the stairs.

[theking648]

one part of me says... well it's ok to do a few canyons for the public... but the other part says. IT'S AN ADVENTURE... stairs??? srsly get off the sofa learn to rappel and work your fat ass off.

Good luck getting a beautiful shot with STAIRS in the picture.

[Sombeech]

I always thought of Antelope as a major commercial tour anyways.

As long as they put a McDonalds down there, everybody wins.

[uintahiker]

Those pics make me sad. Slot canyons were never meant to have stairs in them. I've seen some beautiful shots of Antelope, but it was never meant to be somewhere that "anyone" could go.

[Don]

The good news is I just ticked something off the to-do list.
'cause I never want to see that, ever.

[snatch]

Think of the liability. Perhaps a group o' tourist will be on the last set of stairs when a flash flood rolls in and wipes them all out. Who will be responsible? Surely the tour group will sign waivers but come on, the ranger led them up canyon, the group relied on the ranger's expertise, clearly it's a controlled environment given the modifications, clearly the tour would not have been there without the stairs, it's not as if the tour group assumes any risk climbing up a set of stairs. Wishful thinking or Darwinism? Perhaps natural selection will prevail and the canyon will return to its original state.

[snatch]

P.S. Where's the Sierra Club when they're really needed? They ran like Antelope was Glen Canyon. Pussies. (!)

[bruce from bryce]

Hey give the Navajos a break. For 30 years the 'white man' had the exclusive contract for guiding people through 'upper' antelope canyon. The lower canyon was open to anyone, consider yourself lucky Ice.

Then came the disastrous flash flood that killed all those French people. So they took back was rightfully theirs and constructed the stairs so that those less able to climb and rappel could experience the canyon on their own.

I visited the upper canyon in 2008 and was glad that I did. Was it crowded, noisy and very much unlike what we do on any weekend of canyoneering? Yes, but you could still see the beauty within that very short slot.

However, I did disagree with the guide who said it was the most beautiful slot canyon he had ever seen, and he said that he had been in over 100 canyons as both a guide and a youngster growing up in that area. I mentioned a couple of our canyons and he had no idea what I was talking about.

So give our Indian friends a little clap of the hands for helping themselves to a piece of the tourist pie.

[ratagonia]

However, I did disagree with the guide who said it was the most beautiful slot canyon he had ever seen, and he said that he had been in over 100 canyons as both a guide and a youngster growing up in that area.

Surely, Bruce al Bryce, you could concede that the Navajo guide would have expertise on his OPINION of the best canyon HE had seen...

[snatch]

Hey give the Navajos a break. For 30 years the 'white man' had the exclusive contract for guiding people through 'upper' antelope canyon.

Don't bring race into this. Antelope is pink, just like the Sierra club. Why don't we throw a bingo hall and a firecracker stand into Antelope as well? After that we'll raise a toll booth on every road that crosses the Trail of Tears and pay royalties on cornucopias until the end of time. Oh yea, I forgot I said we shouldn't bring race into this. Give me a break.

We cannot use race or the follies of the past to justify the degradation of the present. Leave nature natural and keep the toll roads out of the back country.

[RedMan]

Hey its their canyon, if they want snow cone stands so be it.

[snatch]

Hey its their canyon, if they want snow cone stands so be it.

...just like pimping your 12 year old daughter is kosher.

[canyonguru]

Now a Snow Cone stand that could make some money. Best idea i have heard all thread.

[Don]

Actually a snow cone does sound good...

[sarahlizzy]

So that's like a 1AI, then?

[trackrunner]

Actually a snow cone does sound good...

Got my snow cone fix at the RSL game last night. Half Tiger's blood, half Pina Colada.

Snow cones ends the bolt war and brings canyoneers together

So that's like a 1AI, then?

It's a class 3 canyon with modifiacations so it's like a class 1 hike.

[sarahlizzy]

Thinking about this - I grew up near the Peak District National Park in the UK. There are extensive cave systems there. A lot of them are popular with cavers, some have been modified so that they're accessible as show caves, which the general public can go into. In some cases, this includes concrete steps, etc., so perhaps similar in kind, if not in scale, to the route up to Angels' Landing. There's also electric lighting and so on.

Perhaps having a few of these caves accessible to the general public using non-specialist equipment is no bad thing - it gives people in general the ability to appreciate that kind of environment, at least to an extent. Of course, some of these caves go on for miles and it's only the first few hundred yards which have been "touristified" - the cavers start from the end of the tourist bit and then continue on with their equipment and technical skills.

Perhaps this sort of modification is serving a similar need. It makes a small amount of stuff accessible to the general public, and might be OK as long as it doesn't start a trend?

Or, to think of it in terms of climbing, perhaps this sort of thing is like the Angels Landing trail - a route up a mountain that the general public wouldn't otherwise be able to ascend. The bolted canyons in Zion that everyone knows would then be like sports climbing, and the all-natural canyons would be the "trad" routes.

This is probably just me rambling though.