Conditions:Coffin Canyon-20250208044854

Latest:	6 Feb 2025 (1 month ago)

Reported by:	AZ Advocate (47 reports)
Quality:	Good
Waterflow:	Dry
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	6 hours

Team: 2 people

Trip report URL:

Comments: As the description says, a very fun canyon with a short narrows section which is a very fun scrambling descent. We rappelled the first 2 downclimbs (as listed in the GPX) to get some rope time before the larger 190' rappel. All anchors were well built and webbing was in good condition. Any groups running this should bring ~70' of webbing, which should be enough to cover replacement at each anchor, including the 2 "downclimbs".

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
14 Mar 2025	Great	Dry		Normal	6 hours	2 people Intermediate	Stber321 (34 reports)
Comment: This was a great intro to death valley for us (what a shame we had to leave unexpectedly the next morning). Wind on the approach was pushy but manageable. The very start looks spicy from the bottom, but once you get going it's not bad. If you follow the bluugnome instructions to stay left towards the bottom then route finding is not too hard. The big partner assist downclimb looks a little scary since there aren't any high hand holds, we just rapped it. I think it's wise to use the cairn for R4 rather than the rock chock in the big lower crack, since it torques the walls in a weird way due to shape of the rock and takes all the weight with no frictionon on the rope/webbing.
6 Feb 2025	Good	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	2 people	AZ Advocate (47 reports)
Comment: As the description says, a very fun canyon with a short narrows section which is a very fun scrambling descent. We rappelled the first 2 downclimbs (as listed in the GPX) to get some rope time before the larger 190' rappel. All anchors were well built and webbing was in good condition. Any groups running this should bring ~70' of webbing, which should be enough to cover replacement at each anchor, including the 2 "downclimbs".
1 Feb 2025	Great	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	6 people Intermediate	Mastyle2000 (5 reports)
Comment: It was a fun scramble to get to the top of the ridge, which is somewhat steep mostly. However, the rocks are stable. There are very short sections of scree. We took our time taking breaks going up. Did build a handful of cairns as well. All anchors were in great shape. Unable to upload pictures even though they are less than the size limit. Link to my FB page album is here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1798967304006615&type=3
21 Dec 2024	Great	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	7 people Intermediate to Expert	Rapbear (74 reports)
Comment: Coffin canyon is great with very scenic views and a wonderful 190ft rappel. The approach can be a bit scrambly, steep, and nerve racking but the payoff is worth it. All the rock cairns and webbing look good but please check before you rappel. Some nice down climbs to add too!
28 Dec 2023	Great	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	2 people Intermediate	JasenPlus (16 reports)
Comment: What a gorgeous canyon! Definitely one of those Death Valley straight up the ridge style approaches. I found the worst parts were the first few hundred feet and then just a lot of elevation gain after that. The approach does have constant breathtaking views and that slowed us down again and again as we caught our breath from the climb and just took moments to enjoy the valley and the topography looking towards Copper. We rappelled one of the down climbs before the big drop and one extra one somewhere after that as well. Didn't notice any issues with anchors on our trip.
8 Dec 2023	Great	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	1 people	Willie92708 (991 reports)
Comment: Solo run before our trip down Hades on Saturday; all the anchors are fresh, and it's easy travel in the canyon.
8 Dec 2023	Amazing	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	1 people	Willie92708 (991 reports)
Comment: Running solo, I was not slowed down on the approach. It took 10 minutes to hike to the ridge, one hour to climb to the 1st main summit and another 50 minutes to descend into the canyon and hike to my first rappel. The canyon run and hike back was an easy 2 hours more. Note that there were 2 shorter rappels before the "main event" 200' off the 2 bolts (beta R1) which I measured at around 175'. There are 2 more rappels and a few downclimbs before the next 2 bolt anchor (beta R3). Then 3 more making a total of 9 rappels compared with the beta's 5. Thanks to a team running it this season all the webbing was fresh. I will note that one of the rock cairn anchors is rather shifty and should be rebuilt.
12 Nov 2023	Great	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	6 people Beginner to Advanced	Kmiller (5 reports)
Comment: This was the first run of Coffin for this season. Plus Hurricane Hilary and the flooding made for a lot of anchor rebuilding and some rock farming. Had a CA Dept Of Fish and Wildlife employee tag along with us to retrieve the collars from a dead bighorn ewe. That added some time to the canyon in addition to needing to rerig/rebuild all of the anchors. Excellent approach with amazing views as usual. Weather was great!
12 Nov 2023	Great	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	6 people Intermediate to Advanced	AZ Advocate (47 reports)
Comment: The approach was almost as much fun as the descent of the canyon. The views into Copper and of Badwater are amazing. As noted by KMiller, first run of the canyon since Hilary swept through the park. All anchors were rebuilt and/or left with fresh webbing. Super fun canyon with a short but sweet narrow section and a very picturesque 190' rap.
2 Mar 2023	Good	Dry				2 people	Cheveran (88 reports)
Comment: Fun canyon. We got a little off route initially on the approach, which got us into loose terrain. Course corrected (indeed head straight up onto the ridge via class 3 terrain, don't be tempted further south) and had a much better time. The canyon has several pretty rappels. All anchors in good shape.
6 Jan 2023	Amazing	Dry					Abby Wines (47 reports)
Comment: I love the view from the top of the approach of the yellow-color Copper Canyon drainage and red-colored Coffin Canyon. A fun, scenic canyon.
23 Dec 2022	Amazing	Dry	None	Normal	7 hours	3 people Beginner to Advanced	Mfeingol (51 reports)
Comment: Really beautiful canyon with intense geology. The 190 foot rappel is great fun. Then approach trail is reasonably easy to follow, but is quite exposed in places and rather relentless on the whole. The hardest part of the approach was actually route-finding on the descent side, locating the right vector to drop into Coffin Wash. Anchors were in good shape, and we only had to update the webbing on one of them.
22 Nov 2021	Great	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	2 people Intermediate	Sri (30 reports)
Comment: Awesome canyon. All anchors and most webbing were in good shape, replaced webbing in just one of the anchors.
13 Mar 2021	Amazing	Dry		Normal	6 hours	10 people Beginner to Advanced	Toddk (15 reports)
Comment: Great short canyon with beautiful views. All webbing was in good shape.
12 Feb 2021	Good	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	8 people	Morgan (103 reports)
Comment: We didn’t have any out-of-shape daughters along, but this is a pretty good canyon.

...additional reports