Bridal Veil Falls, Provo Canyon, Utah

[jman]

Many people have been wanting to do this for quite awhile, including myself for about 8 years, but doing my research online for any rappel pictures or trip reports brought up nothing. Yes, there was ice climbing pictures and route descriptions available - but nothing for a Class C. In fact, in regards to Upper Bridal Veil Falls, I have only seen about 5 public pictures of it.

So I called my friends last year to see if any would want to attempt it with me. They all obliged. Unfortunately, we got busy with school and as always, canyoneering gets the backburner.

Up until March, we were planning on doing it in late May. But a accident happened and I broke my ankle down in Moab. About 3 weeks ago, I finally got my cast off and go to PT 2x/week for an hour each session, and then after work, I have been going to the Ogden Athletic Club 5x/week and swimming for exercise and stretching for a hour to two hour session. Finally, this week, my left foot and ankle have been feeling "normal" except when I stretch it in both places to the extreme. Only then will it be tender.

So, I called up my buddies on Wednesday and told them that I was ready to go on Saturday. We did some last minute research and finished our plans.

We parked at the trailhead at about 9:20am. We waited for another 30min for our friend to show up from Provo. During this time we used our binoculars and scouted out the climb.

Finally, about 10am we were headed up the path above the falls. The path was quite easy, and there was a little bit of scrambling but not much. We reached the top of the 2nd tier about 20minutes later. From there we saw the Upper Falls and the route to the top.

We pulled out our climbing equipment and was ready to climb up the published "5.4 route" but it closer to a 5.6. We decided at this time that it would take a long time to climp up the chute and setup the anchor on top and rap down and pull it, and next continuing to the 2nd tier waterfall - would of taken tooo long. So we decided to cancel the upper falls rappel and do it another time with less people.

We walked down the moss-encased rocks down to the lower falls. A person has to be careful as there are lots of places to twist ankle and many slippery logs to slip on.

About 15 feet from the edge, a previous group left their webbing around a bunch of bushes and a giant rock right in the river. There was only 1 strand of webbing with a rapide. We made a contigency anchor and proceeded down the falls.

The actual height of the lower falls ranges from 185-198 feet. It depends on where you want your landing zone to be. On the far right side of the falls, it will be 185. On the left it will be 198.

When you are at the top looking down on the falls, there are two paths to choose. Left, LDC, is the less flow approach, but more vertical. The right path, LDC, is a lot more flow, but not so vertical as it is steps and a ramp down to the bottom. Both are extremely fun choices.

NOTE *This is not a route for beginners. The cold water will freeze your brain, if you are scared, the heights will scare ya, and you will probably get dizzy with the wind and horizontal rain falling at ya.

MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: You NEED TO have someone at the bottom of the falls to yell at people to move out of the way (even 40 feet past the bottom of the falls). When we watched our 3rd friend come down, he was kicking up feet-long carpet strips of moss and they were flying down everywhere (if people were climbing up they would have been definitely hit, which in our case they were not). We planned for this. But not just the moss flying down but the handfuls of hand-size rocks a few feet above your anchors...and if someone was to knock even one down. It would definitely be lethal to the crowds below.

When it finally came time to pull our ropes (rapped down twice, btw) we had a problem. The pull cord was dragging the moss at the falls and when we pulled it, it would snag up the moss and jam it in the rapide making it impossible to pull it through. So our 3rd time up there, our friend just unhooked the ropes. Our suggestion would be to extend the anchor so the webbing and rapide is over the lip of the falls. This will eliminate the problem of moss being carried up when it comes time to pulling our ropes.

Enjoy the pics!

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I wrote this TR pretty quickly and left out a LOT of details. I have even have GPS coordinates that I will post later.

[Scott Card]

Great shots. One day...... I will do this.

[xxnitsuaxx]

I'm curious about where you pulled out the climbing gear. I've climbed to the restaurant a couple of times and I've always wondered where (if at all) gear would do any good. Was it that little slot to the right after you get to the top of the lower falls?

[jman]

I'm curious about where you pulled out the climbing gear. I've climbed to the restaurant a couple of times and I've always wondered where (if at all) gear would do any good. Was it that little slot to the right after you get to the top of the lower falls?

Yup you guessed it. We didn't do much searching for a alternate route to the top due to time, but we found some leftover cables in the "slot" and decided that would be the easiest.

[jman]

Great shots. One day...... I will do this.

It's a good one! Better than rocky mouth and battle creek as in adventure. Rocky mouth has a nice chute that is fun. Battle creek is a very easy loop and approach. But bridal veil has been the funnest by far, and currently it now beats my favorite waterfalls in Kolob.

The loop back from the falls to the top of the lower falls takes 15-20minutes. So it's not horribly long, but just enough to do it twice.

And the path to the top is actually quite easy. It's well defined and it's switchbacked to the top with very little scrambling.

Also, I'll post the GPS coords when I get home from work.

[ratagonia]

Awesome!!!!!

Tom

[jman]

Awesome!!!!!

Tom

Thanks Tom! finally, a compliment from ya. hehe



Anyways, here is the GPS coords (Scott Card and Jumar), now that I got access to my PC:

1 (Trailhead with easy path. Everyone uses the scree slopes to climb up, but this path is much easier. Just follow the hiker made path to GPS Coord 2). 40.340944, -111.602061

2 (Base of Lower falls. Continue on the path to your left LUC (little scrambling involved). N40 20.362 W111 36.130

3 (This is a natural rock ramp that leads to a well-defined hiker path at the base of the cliffs (about 4-5ft wide) which takes you to the middle section). N40 20.383 W111 36.073

4 (Path to Upper Falls - climbing gear might be needed depending on skill level. My climber friend rated it as a 5.6) N40 20.331 W111 36.136

[oldno7]

Those are some great pictures.

[stefan]

the light on the water is amazing

[DiscGo]

AWESOME!!! Man, that is so sweet!

[UtahAdventureGuide]

Did it for myself today. Good fun. From the base of the lower falls did you go left or right to get to the top? We went right and it sucked.

[Don]

Cool. Might have to add this to the list...

[jman]

Did it for myself today. Good fun. From the base of the lower falls did you go left or right to get to the top? We went right and it sucked.

Hmm...it wasn't bad at all. Plug in my gps coords and see, but basically we started from the northeast side of the footbridge (by the covered picnic table) and took the very well defined hiker path to the base of the falls. Then we followed the path with very little scrambling. Easy. Hopefully you guys didn't scramble up the scree....

Btw as I'm a confused, didn't u break a leg down in the subway recently or was that someone else in your group?

Btw part 2, just saw your message in the other thread. Yes we did remove it. Why waste 30ft of webbing when it's easy to pick it up...

How long did u guys extend your webbing? We had to do it over the lip otherwise it would drag the moss into the rapide and jam it.

[bshwakr]

It's a good one! Better than rocky mouth and battle creek as in adventure. Rocky mouth has a nice chute that is fun. Battle creek is a very easy loop and approach. But bridal veil has been the funnest by far, and currently it now beats my favorite waterfalls in Kolob.

The loop back from the falls to the top of the lower falls takes 15-20minutes. So it's not horribly long, but just enough to do it twice.

And the path to the top is actually quite easy. It's well defined and it's switchbacked to the top with very little scrambling.

Also, I'll post the GPS coords when I get home from work.

I tromped around those parts in the early 90's and I actually think that the canyon above Stewart Falls is better. There is a faint trail to the right of the falls that enters the valley above. As I recall, there are 7+ good-sized raps including the 300 footer at the end.

Don't let the guidebooks relating to the height of Stewart Falls fool you; it is not 200 feet! To the first shelf it is around 300 feet and probably close to another 100 feet to the ground. I scanned these old pictures to give you an idea.

K

[DaneDane]

So wait--you did end up using climbing gear or did not end up using climbing gear to get to the restaurant area?

[EvergreenDean]

There is also a Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride. Makes me wonder if anyone has ever rapped it. 300+ feet and tons of water.

[blueeyes]

Nice report Brett. I love Bridal Veil falls but I haven't been by there in ages.

[jman]

Nice report Brett. I love Bridal Veil falls but I haven't been by there in ages.

Thanks chere!
It was the funnest waterfall to rappel.


And to answer the question above, no we didn't use rock climbing equipment. We would of ran out of daylight if we did. Next time though

[asdf]

And to answer the question above, no we didn't use rock climbing equipment. We would of ran out of daylight if we did. Next time though

but you never went up to the restaurant just the lower tier right?

[jman]

I tromped around those parts in the early 90's and I actually think that the canyon above Stewart Falls is better. There is a faint trail to the right of the falls that enters the valley above. As I recall, there are 7+ good-sized raps including the 300 footer at the end.

Don't let the guidebooks relating to the height of Stewart Falls fool you; it is not 200 feet! To the first shelf it is around 300 feet and probably close to another 100 feet to the ground. I scanned these old pictures to give you an idea.

K

I'll have to check this out sometime thanks. Although bridal has a shorter hike than Stewart...