Conditions:Big Falls (Southern California)-20181104162933
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...additional reports
Latest: |
28 Oct 2018 (6 yrs, 8 mos ago) |
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| Reported by: | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Good |
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| Waterflow: | Low |
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| Wetsuit: | Thin wetsuit |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Normal |
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| Time: |  3 hours
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Team: 9 people
Trip report URL:
Comments: Water flow has picked up a bit from last trip, and the water is definitely cooling down.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazing | Moderate
| | |  0 hours
| 4 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
| Amazing | High 
| Thick wetsuit 
| Special challenges | 4 hours
| 4 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
Comment: The water flow was high enough that going into the main flow was just too powerful. We skirted DCR side on both rappels. Water temp was super cold, even though it's now summer! Winter 2019 changed the mid canyon area, removing about 10 feet of dirt and rock. The first rappel is now longer, because touchdown is the pool level, not high up on the dirt bank like in 2018.
Also the huge boulder for the R2 anchor is gone, as all the other large rocks in that area. We built a new anchor DCR around a buried rock that is approximately where the boulder anchor was located, but vertically lower. This anchor has a courtesy rappel point (red webbing) and an extended rappel point (tan webbing). The courtesy rappel point is easy and safe for people to get onto rappel, but the rope pull (even with no block or knot) is so bad that you cannot retrieve your rope. So the last person needs to use the extended rappel point, which requires rappelling to that point, then changing the rope anchor point. There is a reasonable ledge for standing at the extended point, but it's dangerous to stand there without being connected to the extended anchor with a safety tether. | |||||||
| Good | Moderate Low
| Full wetsuit
| Special challenges |  2 hours
| 3 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
Comment: Waterflow is definitely up from a month ago, and plenty cold too! We had the pull side on the 2nd drop get tangled up and our last person down did not have a wetsuit, so he got to cold trying to untangle the mess mid rappel in the waterflow. He gave up quickly, rappelled all the way down, and another member with full body wetsuit with hood ascended and tied on another rope to the pull side tangled mess. Problem was solved in short order, but lesson learned about making sure the pull side gets to the bottom before going into the water!
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| Good | Low
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | 3 hours
| 9 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
| Good | Low
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | 2 hours
| 3 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
| Good | Moderate Low
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | 1 hour
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
| Great | Moderate
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | 2 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
Comment: Flow is up a bit from Jan 6th. I also did the bonus 40 foot rappel off a rock horn just downstream from the base of rap 2 (peanut gallery). This bonus rappel can be done without any anchor material as a double strand, just be careful not to lift the loop off the rock horn getting onto rappel.
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| Good | Moderate
| Full wetsuit
| Special challenges | 2 hours
| 7 people Intermediate to Expert | Freddy (51 reports),Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
Comment: All anchors are in good condition. Water temperature was cold. Photos at URL.
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| Great | Moderate
| Rain jacket
| Normal | 3 hours
| 5 people Intermediate to Expert | Danielson (93 reports) | |
Comment: Everything looked good to me. Anchors were fine. Would be easy to build anchors if they weren't there. I was comfortable in just a upper and lower rain-shell, but make sure your hood is up. It was 70F. Rest of the group had wetsuits. Do not try to stay out of the flow; you will risk cutting your rope.
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| Great | Moderate
| Full wetsuit
| Special challenges | 4 hours
| 10 people Intermediate to Advanced | Freddy (51 reports) | |
Comment: All anchors are good. Last rappel is now placed on a exposed and precarious ledge from a pinch point around a BFR. Take special caution when getting on rappel and use safety tethers. The water temps on the final rap were freezing, so much so that many people experienced severe brain freezing and pain. A neoprene hood or rainshell with hood should be worn.
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| Great | Moderate
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | 2 hours
| 2 people Intermediate | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
| Great | Moderate
| Rain jacket
| Normal | 2 hours
| 3 people Intermediate to Advanced | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
Comment: My partners in rain gear tried a much as possible to stay out of the cold water! In my 5/4/3/2 Tri full body wetsuit, I went into the full brunt on both falls and even with my sun hat as a head and neck hood, I still got "brain freeze" mainly from an exposed neck. Good fun though! :) We rebuilt R1 anchor on the big tree RDC as it was before the 2 year closure (see pic in main page). R1 rope pull is now easy, but the rope length needed is longer at 160 feet, compared with old beta at 140 feet! R2 anchor now has 2 loops of new 1" black webbing so it's good to go. A party the previous day had to explain to the ranger that the closure had expired, but we saw no ranger on Sunday.
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| Great | Moderate
| Thin wetsuit
| Special challenges | 3 hours
| 2 people Intermediate to Advanced | Willie92708 (1003 reports) | |
Comment: Water proved to be quite chilly even in wetsuits as we both got "brain freeze" from exposed necks. The full force of the waterfalls is not to be taken lightly! We installed a new anchor for rap 1 off the big tree centered in water course, but even as far as we extended it, the rope pull was excessively hard. We might have had twisting, but I doubt it since I rapped with a 2 slot device keeping the 2 ropes separated. Then the rope caught on a horn about 50 feet up, but we pulled so hard the rock horn broke and crashed into the pool. Rap 2 went smoothly, using the old webbing anchor. Note: R2 webbing was replace the next day and R1 anchor was changed 2 day after. Overall fantastic fun for such a short canyon!
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| Great | Shallow wading
| Rain jacket
| Special challenges | 2 hours
| 3 people Intermediate | Mark9fiji (29 reports) | |
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| Amazing | Significant
| Thick wetsuit
| Special challenges | 2 hours
| 4 people Intermediate to Expert | Lucach (75 reports) | |
Comment: Did this after Monkeyface. Snow covered the surrounding landscape, which made it very pretty but made a little bit more tricky the approach. Icy cold water but great fun. Getting stuck on a wet rappel for more than 10 minutes would be very dangerous.
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