Cascade Cyrique
| Rating: | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||||||||||
| | Raps:1, max ↨115ft
Red Tape: Shuttle:None Rock type:Basalt | |||||||||||||||
| Location: | ||||||||||||||||
| Condition Reports: | 22 Dec 2022
"Bolts look very rusted. I am not an expert on how saltwater mist affects bolts, but it appears to oxidize significantly. Some bolts good, some not goo |
|||||||||||||||
| Best season: | ||||||||||||||||
| Regions: | ||||||||||||||||
15.3593, -61.2519
Search nearby locations
Weather forecast
Waterflow
Introduction
In a country of spectacular waterfalls, Cascade Cyrique is a standout. It freefalls 100 feet onto a stunning black sand beach.
While this is not exactly a canyoneering route - it's just a single rappel - it's completely worth doing.
Approach
Park where the pavement ends. There's not much room for parking. Follow the only track downhill. Make a left at the house (heading north). After a few minutes, you'll come to an intersection. Head left (right goes down to where the steps used to be).
Follow this slope down as it gets steeper and steeper. In rain, it will be quite slippery.
In only 10 minutes, you'll be at the stream.
Descent
The approach trail ends at the creek. Turn right and head downstream.
In less than a minute, you'l arrive at the first bolt. This bolt is to set a line out the the rebelay, which is found just around the corner of the waterfall. The quality of the bolt is questionable at best. It's recommended to backup your rappel on a tree about 15 meters upstream. This whole route can be rigged with a single 60m rope.
From this bolt, rappel down the stream to the edge of the waterfall. Around the corner is another anchor, where the bolts look better, but still oxidized. These may have been placed in 2021, but it's currently unknown. Rigging to these bolts requires an awkward reach around move, and getting on them is a little tricky. The exposure is significantly, and on a typically breezy day you'll be hit with lots of mist. There are lots of sharp basaltic edges, but, if you rig right, your rope won't touch anything.
Once rigged, pass the rebelay and rappel. It's around 28m, completely free hang, to the sand. It's best to ascend back up the rope, derig, and exit on the approach trail. See why in the 'Exit' section below.
Exit
The exit used to be stairs, but they were destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Currently, Nicodemus has installed a rope-ladder route. It should be noted that the rope ladder is EXTREMELY sketchy, requiring a 30-foot climb up an overhang on unevenly spaced steps filled with vegetation. A fall off the ladder would likely be fatal.
Nicodemus will assure you the ladder is safe, but, ironically, he actually fell off it, and landed in the vegetation and miraculously survived. Stranded down below, his phone had no balance, and he waited until the next day when local French canyoneer Nathalie came to save him in the only known instance of rope rescue in Dominica.
You should absolutely check the ladder with your own eyes before you decide to commit to a pull-through trip on this route. The ladder is strongly discouraged. Anybody who's ever had any rope training will agree that this rope-ladder needs to instead be a fixed ascent, harness mandatory.
Red tape
No red tape. A local man named Nicodemus lives at the trailhead, and is friendly. He can offer advice, and won't ask for money.
Beta sites
Descente-Canyon.com : Cascade cyrique- An Kanion La-madinina : Cascade Cyrique
- An Kanion La-madinina : Cascade Cyrique [D-21]
Trip reports and media
https://www.lukaseddy.com/dominica
Background
First descended perhaps in the 1990's or early 2000's, likely by French canyoneers.
There used to be steps down to the beach for tourists. Hurricane Maria in 2017 destroyed these steps. There are plans by the government to replace the steps, but, as of December 2022, nothing has been done.