Conditions:Purgamal-20260218180126
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...additional reports
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Latest: |
14 Feb 2026 (7 days ago) |
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All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
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| Great | Low 
| None 
| Special challenges  |  4 hours
| 4 people Beginner to Advanced | Alohagurl721 (1 reports) | |
Comment: All anchors in good condition. Bolts are solid. Webbing good.
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| Good | Very Low
| | Easy | 3 hours
| 2 people Intermediate | Rpatt-kstew (17 reports) | |
Comment: Fun quick canyon. Approach gets very steep and then traverses the bluff for a ways. The entry into the waterway could be made sooner. R1: 200ft rope just reaches the bottom of the third tier when doubled. R2: the pinch point was super sketchy and I really didn't want to trust my 230lbs to it. I decided to move it to a MUCH BETTER anchor, but it doesn't set up the rappel as well, as the rope goes over some vegetation and drops you into a spot that you have to navigate around a crack in the rock. The webbing is protected from the sun and the anchor will not possibly fail. You decide if you like it there or not. R3: webbing is becoming sunbleached but still seemed supple and strong. Overall, it was a fun quick canyon before we had to head home from a long weekend.
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| Great | Dry
| None
| Normal |  9 hours
| 3 people Intermediate to Advanced | Celes (39 reports),1LordPheonix1 (14 reports) | |
Comment: We started from Secret canyon, packrafted down past Black Jack exit, hiked up to the canyon, and once down, packrafted back up to Lone Palm where we hiked out (wind was S-N so was pushing us upriver). Approach was much shorter than we expected, but all rappels were scenic, nice, and have good webbing. Watch for a chockstone rappel for possible pull issues, and avoid the velcro plants near the end of the canyon.
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| Amazing | | | | 9 hours
| 3 people Advanced | RFontaine (345 reports) | |
Comment: Fantastic canyon compared to others in DeathValley. Features a ton of interesting colorful rock the whole way down, notable features and fun rappels. Anything but bland! Approach bottom up took us 3hrs. First drainage you cross at the top will put you into Typhon but continuing to the next one over (as KML shows) is worthwhile to see more colorful interesting rock formations. The swirling colorful smooth sculpted marble throughout is a feast for the eyes, very unique and similar to nearby Erebus (also an awesome route). Most of the drops are down sculpted chutes and sheer walls, very nice! Lots of knot chock anchors, I even added one at the meat anchor partner assist down climb. Webbing in good shape thoughout. Very beautiful and unique canyon for the area, especially when compared to many of the bland brown crumbly canyons DV is known for. Total time 8hr 45min at a leisurely pace.
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| Good | Very Low
| None
| Normal | | 2 people Intermediate | Hannaryder (1 reports) | |
Comment: Grey 60m rope left at 150ft rappel! After all these years I finally pulled a rope with a knot still in... If found please contact me @ 928-848-9196 I'll throw you some cash for bringing it out! Won't be a bit until I can go retrieve it. Webbing has been replaced, bolts look good.
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| | | | 9 hours
| 3 people Advanced | Dyln cole (100 reports) | ||
Comment: Very slotty canyon for the area, very cool. Very underrated currently on ropewiki, afraid some will miss out on this one because of that.
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| Poor | Dry
| None
| Easy | | Alexmotyka (39 reports) | ||
Comment: Used the optional abseil rather than descending the steep gully.
A section of a dry, high-walled canyon is nice, but its value is quickly undone by the 600 to 700 metres of shitty creek walking and bush bashing that follows to reach the start of the lower section of Pipeline Canyon.
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| Ok | Very Low
| None
| Easy | | 7 people Beginner to Expert | Alexmotyka (39 reports) | |
Comment: I know some people rate this highly for quality but I really think this depends on your canyoning background and preferences. As an aquatic canyoner I was unimpressed. Glad I've done it. Not keen to return.
We did the upper "Drainpipe" entrance. While an impressive dry slot it's value was overshadowed by the 600 to 700 metres of shitty creek walking and bush bashing that followed. Would never repeat upper entrance.
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| Good | Dry
| None
| Normal | 4 hours
| 4 people Advanced to Expert | Xenonrocket (111 reports) | |
Comment: Spent some time doing knot passing practice. Combined R3 and R4 with a new 220', plenty of rope on the ground
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| Good | Dry
| None
| Normal | 12 hours
| 6 people Intermediate to Expert | Cavemaiden (1 reports) | |
Comment: We did a bottom up approach, I do not recommend. It took about 6 hours to get to then a bit slow moving on the alluvial fan after we were done. Otherwise, it was a beautiful canyon with gorgeous folding in the rock. Just be aware of canyon velcro between a few drops and that pool of stagnate water at the bottom is still there. Some portions are a little difficult to navigate your way down too but very manageable to downclimb. Our group downclimbed a decent portion of this canyon. Not bad for a third canyon in my personal case.
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| Great | Very Low
| None
| Normal |  7 hours
| 1 people Intermediate | 1LordPheonix1 (14 reports) | |
Comment: 1 hour approach, 2 hours to last rappel, 1.5 hours to rappel and packraft out, half hour of rest, and 2.5 hours to exit out Bighorn back to car. There is webbing on the intermediate ledge for the 110' rappel as of this report, so only used 2 ropes for the 150' rappel. Lots of growth on the traverse to the last rappel and when starting the Bighorn exit, and lots of velcro/cat's claw plants ready to grab you. No beach at the bottom of the last rappel, so I inflated the packraft at the anchors, but the packraft was short, scenic, and quiet!
For Bighorn, I followed the map and took the middle fork when greeted with 3 choices, and that one left me to the spicy 5.8 climb. You can traverse the right side of it pretty easily. I didn't notice any other spicy upclimb, but there were a lot of scrambling to get through the narrow sections.
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| Good | Dry
| | | 8 hours
| 5 people Intermediate to Expert | Xenonrocket (111 reports) | |
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| Good | Dry
| | Normal | 3 hours
| 2 people Intermediate | Rpatt-kstew (17 reports) | |
Comment: Did this as an add-on after doing chopper drop. It was as fun as it always is. All of the anchors looked good. We had a group descending right ahead of us.
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| | None
| | 9 hours
| 5 people Beginner to Advanced | Dyln cole (100 reports) | ||
Comment: To say that this is one of the lesser Death Valley canyons would be a shame, a shying from effort, or a complete lack of timing for weather and spring flow. This is a winter canyon with water, absolutely gorgeous granite, a lower rated canyon in other regions possibly but still a standout and will likely remain my favorite Death Valley canyon, as for the rest of the team.
We did the bottom up to the easy (green) approach. My recommendation: Bottom-up approach, do the first shortcut and avoid the last of the climb. You don't miss much and really avoid all of the willow bushwacking. Blue Gnome beta is somehow wrong on the rappels when describing a few bolt locations. If you like updating beta, consider taking notes and reporting them to ropewiki. For example, the last rappel is in fact LDC 100ft off of bolts.
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