Conditions:Heaps Canyon-20241014015426

Latest:	13 Oct 2024 (8 mos ago)

Reported by:	Coops (125 reports), Kirbside (98 reports), AdamOtter (55 reports)
Quality:	Amazing
Waterflow:	Deep pools
Wetsuit:	Full wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Special challenges
Time:	13 hours

Team: 5 people with experience level Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: Amazing day in Heaps! Heaps is in hard mode. Most potholes can be solved via partner assist. We only pulled out the hook on one of the potholes early in the canyon.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
24 May 2025	Amazing	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit	Normal	16 hours	6 people Advanced to Expert	Johnbcaves (161 reports)
Comment: What a beautiful day in Heaps! 3am on trail from Grotto had us at the standard drop in around 6:30am, with a stop for food and marveling at the bright Venus and moon before the sunrise. We let a group of two (poachers?) play thru at the first raps, which we finished around 8:30am. We started the first narrows around 10am, and let another group of 5 play thru in the first narrows. Finished second narrows around 12:30 and enjoyed some lunch. Two among the group were very cold once wet. One in drysuit (me) and 3 in thicker (5-7mm) wetsuits + rain shells were happy all day. Did standard 1st rap blocked middle, bent into second rope and pulled, bent 1+2 to third as pull cord. A little slow double-checking and re-sorting who went down in what order based on (mostly thermal) comfort. Off the final wall by 7pm and back to camp in daylight. Beautiful day!
23 May 2025	Amazing		Drysuit		13 hours	6 people Beginner to Advanced	RFontaine (281 reports)
Comment: Super smooth fun run through incredible Heaps! This time we hiked bottom up from Grotto starting at 3:30am. This shaved off over an hour from my usual time hiking from Lava Point. Approach took us 3 hours to the top on the dot where we cut over to “The Bowl” encountering some brush that thinned out quickly giving way to the cliff’s edge. Descending The Bowl took us 2.5hrs after leaving West Rim Trail. This drop in is spectacular, I highly recommend it, I dont feel that it adds much in the way of time for an efficient group but does add a ton of enjoyment. From the end of The Bowl’s slot it took us 50mins to reach the head of Heaps where we spent roughly 30mins getting changed. I wore my dry suit with 2 wool base layers top/bottom under it and was warm at first but by the end of the last narrows was feeling a tad chilly but manageable, perhaps add another midweight layer next time. One of us wore a 4/3 and was ultimately very cold. Those in a 5/4 were fine. The first 2 narrows are short and took us about 1 hour to negotiate through at a moderate pace to the final narrows where we had lunch. I always forget how short these sections are!! The 3rd narrows took us 2.5hrs to move through at a moderate pace. All pools tippy top full and super easy to negotiate! After a 30min change and reset, we climbed up to start the final sequence. We used a 125’ and blocked it midway to pull over the crack. The final 2 rappels we rigged separate fiddle stick/pull cords. Pulling the toggle from the birdperch and letting both ropes fall to the ground for those who already got down to bag proved efficient rather than bagging at bird perch. Final sequence took us 2hrs to get down and pack up. A 30 minute hike back to the Grotto and we were done! Total time 13.5 hours. What a great day!!
13 Oct 2024	Amazing	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	13 hours	5 people Advanced	Coops (125 reports),Kirbside (98 reports),AdamOtter (55 reports)
Comment: Amazing day in Heaps! Heaps is in hard mode. Most potholes can be solved via partner assist. We only pulled out the hook on one of the potholes early in the canyon.
14 Sep 2024						6 people	Cheveran (92 reports)
Comment: Wow! Amazing amazing canyon. Water level is dropping, some escapes needed. All managed with partner work and backpacks.
6 Sep 2024	Amazing	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit	Normal	13 hours	6 people Intermediate to Advanced	Sqshemet (78 reports),Kirbside (98 reports),Epeairs (73 reports)
Comment: Amazing day in Heaps. Heaps is no longer flowing and the water levels are starting to go down slowly. No keepers yet except the optional keeper you can stem over near the beginning. One member wore a drysuit and was fine. The rest of the group was mostly in the 7-10mm range for wetsuit on the core. Time is bottom up from the Grotto. We had a dumb mistake at the 210ft on the ridge approach (fiddle cord wasn't tied correctly) and had to ascend ~160' to re-attach the pull strand. Additionally on the pull the rope caught in the bush and we had to upclimb to free it. It seems like you could possibly rappel DCR from the same anchor to avoid some of these issues. Overall amazing. This was the entire team's first time down the bird perch (I had only done the watercourse previously) but we had no real issues on the day overall.
30 Jun 2024	Amazing	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	12 hours	4 people Advanced to Expert	Canyon.406 (40 reports)
Comment: Came back again. Tried to kill me again, it failed yet again. Will do again.
11 Jun 2024	Amazing	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	14 hours	4 people Advanced	Canyon.406 (40 reports)
Comment: Came back, didn't try to kill me as much. Will do again.
26 May 2024	Amazing		Drysuit		15 hours	3 people Beginner to Advanced	RFontaine (281 reports)
Comment: Starting from Lava Point at 4am, we hiked up West Rim trail. I wanted to explore an alternate route down to Phantom Valley by descending a huge bowl in lieu of the classic "Knife's Edge Ridge". "The Bowl", sits directly East of The Knife's Edge. I had coordinates for a large horizontal pillar that my friend had used years ago to start the sequence of rappels to get down. I had vague estimates of rope length for each drop so we went for it. I can confirm a sequence of 190', 325', downclimb slab then 110' into slot, and 60' at the end of the slot. This side expedition was very enjoyable and worthwhile but probably added 1-2 hours to our day. The rappels were all clean and of high quality. The bowl is huge and beautiful and the slot is short but also very nice and puts you right out into Phantom Valley. Beta will be updated with this information! Heaps was full and beautiful. An absolutely top class stunning canyon. The sculpting and colors, especially in the final narrows is incredible! 2 of my team in 7mm, I was in a drysuit. We were all comfortable. The dead deer is near the end of the final narrows and has been reduced to a large floating ball of flesh that you have to wade past, careful not to pop it! The smell doesnt hit you until you turn a corner and it is 20ft away, still by far not the worst smell Ive had in canyon. We did the Bird Perch sequence down to Emerald. Fiddle sticking the final 2 drops with the same pullcord cascading down works very well, just be sure to bag the pull cord before resetting for the final drop. Mad dash to the bus! Car to bus 15 hrs.
24 May 2024	Amazing	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit	Advanced	13 hours	6 people Intermediate to Expert	Desertnights (37 reports)
Comment: Is Heaps colder than it was at this time last year? Seems like it. Wet suit choices range from 4mm to 10mm. It's full of water and is holding a dead deer in narrows #3. Enjoy heaps in full mode while it lasts.
17 Sep 2023	Amazing	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Advanced	13 hours	4 people Intermediate to Advanced	Caverfirst (2 reports)
Comment: Started at Lava Point at 4am, made it to the first rappel just after sunrise. The second rappel was a bit further down the ridge than we were expecting, about 500ft from the bottom of rap 1, and took us awhile to locate. I wore a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm vest on top and was comfortable all day. The canyon had some flow, and no pothole escapes were required. We carried (2) 100ft ropes and a 320ft rope, and stashed a 230ft rope at the Emerald Pool. The 320 was adequate on its own for both the "200ft" second rappel and the penultimate rap to the bird perch. The 4 of us fit on the bird perch with no issues allowing us to pull the 320 and rig the final rap. 5 people might fit very snugly, but 6 probably won't, so if your group is 4 people or less this rope combination was ideal.
4 Sep 2023	Amazing	Low	Full wetsuit		15 hours	4 people Advanced to Intermediate	RFontaine (281 reports)
Comment: Very full! Super fun! All potholes overflowing! Incredibly gorgeous in these conditions! I wore a 5/4 wetsuit and was warm. All anchors have new webbing on the final sequence down to the bird perch. My favorite Heaps run yet!! We started at 4am from Lava Point with 5 of us. Once we got to the ridge, one of us turned back due to twisting an ankle on the hike in. We split up gear and kept moving. We decided to check out the “bowl rappel” option someone had mentioned to us but the terrain was loose, moist, and the sandstone anchor was saturated so we bailed on that idea, back up to the original ridge drop in. On the ridge we got off track as we found an an anchor with 1/2” red webbing on a tree, shortly after the initial 60’ drop. Thinking this was the next drop, we went down and found ourselves 200’ down some precarious terrain. We ended up having to wrestle with a stuck rope for some time before finally freeing it. More sketchy downclimbing eventually got us to another tree we were able to fiddle with my 300’ rope to get us down. Was bushy and not ideal, ate up a bunch of time, do not go this way!! After a rough start, we moved quick to get to the canyon. Luckily, the rest of the day went silky smooth and we all had a blast!!
9 Jul 2023	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Easy	23 hours	3 people Intermediate to Advanced	Canyon.406 (40 reports)
Comment: Almost killed me. Will do again.
27 Jun 2023	Amazing	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit	Advanced	12 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Braxtagonia (6 reports)
Comment: Was that the best canyon ever?!?! Heaps in easy mode, swam over all the potholes. Beautiful views around every single corner. Started from Lava Point at 4AM, last man touched down at emerald pools at 4:30PM. Used walkie-talkies for the bird perch rappel sequence. Everything went smoothly. Loved it!!!
27 May 2023 Trip report	Amazing	Low	Thick wetsuit	Easy	17 hours	5 people	Brdn.gonzales (44 reports)
Comment: Heaps was amazing and in "easy" mode! Water levels in the canyon made for a light flow throughout and all the potholes were full, no aiders or potshots required. A log shifted towards the end of the canyon, causing strong flow for an already awkward down climb. We added some webbing and a quick link to assist with this, but the next party probably won't encounter any difficulty as the flow started to die down as we finished. Everything else looked great and the canyon was stunning. We all wore a minimum of 7mm neoprene and that got us through comfortably, but I wouldn't go any less unless you run REALLY hot or enjoy shivering for 10+ hours.
8 Oct 2022	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	11 hours	4 people	Jcsjcs (121 reports),Kristoffer (12 reports)
Comment: 4 am start saw everyone a bit tired walking up the West Rim trail. The long uphill near Behunin felt like it would never end. Approach took 3:25 and we did the first two rappels just as the sun was coming out. The first two narrows were amazing; potholes were totally full due to a recent storm and water sloshed out making small waterfalls whenever we jumped in. Easy walking other than the narrows. Drop in to crossroads took 3:40. There was much more swimming and super fun obstacles like logs to walk over potholes in the third narrows. We jumped or slid to bypass many rappels and probably did about 17-18 rappels in the whole canyon. 3.5 hours from the crossroads through the final rappel sequence.

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