Rainbow Canyon - Death Valley

[boryaa]

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.


Approaching the canyon. you follow a dirt road until it drops into a wash.


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.


The first drop from the bottom


Going around the first drop/rappel.


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.








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.





At the bottom of the technical section.


Looking at where we came from.


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.














View from the top of the ridge.

[ratagonia]

Good on ya...

"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."

Please, don't do that. If you don't like the webbing that is there, for any reason, REMOVE IT, and replace with your own. The old piece you left behind is just trash, and should be packed out.

Tom

[Mountaineer]

Nice job. Short canyon but pretty. Agree with you, the return is a bit sketchy.

[boryaa]

Good point. We'll keep that in mind next time.

[ratagonia]

Good point. We'll keep that in mind next time.

Thank you.