Lower Eaton Canyon - 3BIV - 6.30.2014

[Eric Holden]

Lower Eaton Canyon - 3BIV

Lower Eaton Canyon is the crown jewel of the San Gabriel canyons. Its a fun water park with some beautiful rappels. On 7.1.14 the US Forestry Department had planned on closing the lower part of the canyon, essentially banning canyoneering. On 6.30.14 we decided to run it one last legal time before the possible closure went into effect.

Eaton has about 20 slides and jumps along with about 8 rappels. Trip went great, we had a small injury to a chin from a slip and fall but nothing a little rappelling couldn't fix. Great times. As you descend the final rappel it is always into a group of people that hike up from the bottom. As each one of us hit the bottom we were met with a round of applause. As I was pulling the rope from the final rap, with 40 onlookers.... it got stuck. Took about 2 minutes to free the rope but eventually got it down. We made it car to car in 6.5 hours on the nose.

Video of our descent


Pete and myself gearing up


First Falls


Frank on rappel in the gully


Pete on the second to last falls


Final falls, or first depending on which way you go, with crowd.

[Eric Holden]

Also, looks like the canyon will not be closed till at least August 1st. Still time for another round!