Conditions:Blarney Canyon (Left Fork)-20250415003022

Latest:	10 Apr 2025 (8 days ago)

Reported by:	Ark357 (3 reports)
Quality:	Amazing
Waterflow:	Very Low
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	6 hours

Team: 14 people with experience level Brand new to Expert

Trip report URL:

Comments: Great canyon, it might have been a bit much for a few members of our group who had never been canyoneering. We worked through the down climbs and stemming. There was some shallow pools. a few of us worked the group over them.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
10 Apr 2025	Amazing	Very Low	None	Normal	6 hours	14 people Brand new to Expert	Ark357 (3 reports)
Comment: Great canyon, it might have been a bit much for a few members of our group who had never been canyoneering. We worked through the down climbs and stemming. There was some shallow pools. a few of us worked the group over them.
14 Mar 2025	Good	Dry	None	Normal	2 hours	3 people Beginner to Advanced	Tcarlisle (73 reports)
Comment: Did both forks of Blarney (4 hours total). This report covers the portion of the West Fork only. We only rappelled the first anchor and downclimbed the rest. Most anchors in good condition. The anchor mid-canyon for R2 which leads to the dark section is in bad shape. After hiking up the standard approach and descending and reversing the East Fork of Blarney, we made our way to the top of the West Fork. We rappelled the first anchor and at the second drop (R1.5) downclimbed the rabbit hole. As we made our way down canyon we arrived at R2 (the dark downclimb) where we found a couple on their very first canyoneering trip struggling at the anchor. The couple had deployed their rope but hadn’t connected to it yet. The rope was over the edge but the quicklink had jammed between the chockstone and the canyon wall and they couldn't pull it back to connect to it. I chimneyed out and got the rope unstuck so they could get on rappel. I then downclimbed so I could provide them a fireman belay while others in our group helped them get on anchor. After the couple finished the rappel instead of pulling the rope my group dropped it and downclimbed the drop. I didn’t do a full inspection of the anchor but in my cursory observation I noticed that it was originally built as a courtesy anchor but had been mangled and shorted by parties lacking understanding. My observation/assumption is that even though the quicklink extended over the edge, the shorting of the webbing put it in a position to still not be extended far enough to clear obstructions so it got stuck between the wall and chockstone. Now I could be wrong on this--like I said I didn't do a full inspection. It might have been long enough but just pulled upwards and jammed. I was 1) preoccupied with helping the two individuals and 2) my group was not planning to rappel there anyway so we didn't feel the urgency to sort out the anchor. Yes, I probably should have done some custodianeering but I wasn’t keen on climbing back up at that point. After this drop the couple ended up finishing the canyon with us and we showed them how to downclimb successive drops. We also invited them to join us on other canyons over the weekend and also held some skills practices at camp.
20 Apr 2024	Good	Dry	None	Normal	2 hours	12 people Beginner to Advanced	Korey (61 reports)
Comment: Descent part of an Epic Blarney. Canyon was dry, and had some fun rappels and down-climbs.
18 Mar 2023	Good	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	7 people Brand new to Advanced	Tcarlisle (73 reports)
Comment: Group of 7, Brand New to Advanced. 4 hours 37 minutes car to car. No water in the canyon. Anchors--that are present--are in good shape. We opted to do the extra rappel before the down climb to rap 1 to give people in our group some extra experience. We down climbed the rabbit hole, which is also where rap 2 typically is located. At the time of our descent there wasn't a sling/anchor in place here, and we didn't want to build one when we could just down climb. This also gave our beginners a chance to downclimb too. The final rap in the narrows--traditionally rap 3--has a long piece of webbing off a chock stone that stretches about 15 feet down to a lower chock stone that you rap over. Sometimes this lower chock stone has a sling and making the rap a had start, but currently there isn't even a sling on it. We did tie in a piece of webbing to lengthen the anchor so that it extends over the edge for a cleaner pull. This anchor is also set up as a courtesy anchor.
5 Mar 2023	Good	Dry	None		3 hours		Thegazelle (52 reports)
Comment: Epic Blarney counter clockwise. Did it clockwise a few months ago and that was so much more difficult.
18 Nov 2022	Good	Dry		Special challenges	4 hours	5 people Beginner to Advanced	RFontaine (252 reports)
Comment: We did the loop, up climbing Left Fork (East) and down climbing Right Fork (West). This was definitely the most worthwhile option rather than doing one or the other. There are a few class 5 climbs on the East Fork, the crux being a 40' off-width crack one must stem up then shimmy and worm up the rest of the way. I was able to lead without protection and setup a top rope belay with my micro-traxion from a stemming position above. Good news is, if you get to this point and it looks too hard, you can always back track, neither of these canyons are very long or committing. We did one 50' rappel to get down into West Fork and from there was all easy downclimbing. I think East was more interesting than West but both were good for a half day run. 4.5hrs total for loop at leisurely pace with beginners. The loop can be run in either direction but I believe East-West is the most worthwhile/challenging. Zero water in either canyon. Some pretty sculpting and a few neat rooms, a good first day to get ready to be blown away by the other canyons in the area.
27 Dec 2019	Good	Dry	None	Easy	2 hours	13 people Brand new to Expert	DMonroy (188 reports)
Comment: We went up the canyon and came down the other fork : (Epic Blarney). The people in the back had it harder because the snow got compacted and more slick.
15 Apr 2019	Great	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	3 people Intermediate to Expert	AmandaC (40 reports)
Comment: Nice little canyon, we ran it at sundown/night. I believe we dropped into the canyon via the left side/alternate approach because for some reason it wasn't obvious to us where the main left fork started that wasn't a substantial drop, idk. The side approach involves a short, mildly exposed? downclimb that my less experienced partners felt slightly intimidated to initiate because there's a short slippery section of rock, but its not that big of a deal. Then there's a 40'(?) rappel that places you into Left Fork proper. From the top this drop looks bigger and we questioned whether we had enough material with my 60' rope and webbing for pull, but it was fine. Totally dry, fun evening canyon.
28 Oct 2017	Ok	Dry	None	Normal		2 people	CC (93 reports)
Comment: drop in down climb is sketchy with partner assist that some may want to build an anchor, partner assist & lots of down climbs
25 Mar 2017 Trip report							Candition.com (287 reports)
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at Candition.com
6 Oct 2011 Trip report	Amazing						HikeArizona.com (271 reports)
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at HikeArizona.com, see Trip Report for full details.