Conditions:Questionable Decision Canyon-20250408053712

Latest:	5 Apr 2025 (13 days ago)

Reported by:	RFontaine (252 reports)
Quality:	Amazing
Waterflow:
Wetsuit:
Water temperature:
Difficulty:
Time:	9 hours

Team: 4 people with experience level Advanced to Intermediate

Trip report URL:

Comments: Really fun beautiful canyon with alot of variety and fun challenges for the experienced canyoneer!

Set shuttle at exit and approached from Rainbow Spring following approach for Old Bill. This was a really chill approach option with a gradual grade that only took us 2.5 hours.

Moving through the descent was fluid. Only one knee deep pool in upper crack that one of us got wet and set a guided rappel for the rest.

No ropes stuck with careful rope management.

On the final sequence, we avoided the crack rappel on the left and went down via the anchor in the cave on the right. Going this way, the biggest drop (final one) was closer to 220 from an obvious mid-way tree on landing.

Descent took us 5.5 hours.

Exit from here is a breeze following social trails on the right that stay out of the wash below. We were back to the truck in 45 minutes.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
5 Apr 2025	Amazing				9 hours	4 people Advanced to Intermediate	RFontaine (252 reports)
Comment: Really fun beautiful canyon with alot of variety and fun challenges for the experienced canyoneer! Set shuttle at exit and approached from Rainbow Spring following approach for Old Bill. This was a really chill approach option with a gradual grade that only took us 2.5 hours. Moving through the descent was fluid. Only one knee deep pool in upper crack that one of us got wet and set a guided rappel for the rest. No ropes stuck with careful rope management. On the final sequence, we avoided the crack rappel on the left and went down via the anchor in the cave on the right. Going this way, the biggest drop (final one) was closer to 220 from an obvious mid-way tree on landing. Descent took us 5.5 hours. Exit from here is a breeze following social trails on the right that stay out of the wash below. We were back to the truck in 45 minutes.
31 Dec 2024	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	8 hours	4 people Intermediate to Advanced	Lukemurray2016LV (11 reports)
Comment: Fun day in QD. Definitely crack/cliffaneering, but beautiful nonetheless. Rainbow springs approach, time is top car to bottom car. Lots of anchors need new webbing in here. Lots of odd anchor rigging choices, I’d imagine from climbers.
26 Oct 2024	Great	Dry	None	Special challenges	10 hours	3 people Advanced to Intermediate	Celes (25 reports)
Comment: The canyon can be done with 200' ropes. All the rappels are under 200'. Some long rappels have intermediate anchor stations for lapar to reset rope in order to avoid rope jam. Since the canyon is so narrow in a lot of places, there are quite a few chock stones which pose rope jam hazards. We did have a rope got stuck at the rappel where you end in pink zebra stripe rocks, and had to climb back up half way to retrieve it. There is a more than waist deep water hole at the end of the longest stem, try to avoid sliding too far down before stemming across water (stay few feet above water) or else it gets slippery. We did have one person fell into the water and got wedged in and another person had to meat anchor to pull him out. We started from the Old Bill approach from Mountain Spring. Exactly 10 hours car to car. This canyon has similar feel as Epi Error in my opinion.
28 May 2023	Amazing		None		13 hours	5 people Beginner to Advanced	RFontaine (252 reports)
Comment: This canyon is ALOT. It is big, technical, lots of variety, lots of beauty, big pay off but lots of potential strife. Do not take it lightly. For the wrong group it can be a challenging nightmare. We approached via summiting Indecision Peak. This is a solid trail that turned into a well cairned 4th class scramble and was around 3500 ft of elevation gain. Approach took us around 4hrs and totally kicked our butts!! Still better than bushwhacking, probably... At the head of the canyon there are a few options for drop in and we chose the small tree DCR of the watercourse. From here the canyon narrows into a crack with lots of very spicy downclimbs, most of which we rigged. The crack rappels/downclimbs do start to wear on you after awhile. There is a sustained high stemming crack section similar to Northwash. Our 2 beginners had a hard time here. There is one shallow pool that was unavoidable so one of us got his feet wet to set up a short guided rappel. All other water avoidable with careful stemming. Once the canyon opens up it gets much prettier and more fun. The rappels are longer and more open. There are some really cool rock features, namely the pink zebra section that is totally unique and unreal!! Never seen rock like that anywhere else! There is also a natural arch on one rap and lots of cool rabbit holes/spy holes through out! We saw the slot that I believe the last group got messed up in. It is detailed on Blue Gnome's write up with pictures and I strongly suggest you read it! Once you get to the final group of drops where you can see the canyon floor ahead of you, you still have to find the best way down. There are many many different anchors scattered across this section of fins and walls. I can see how you could easily get on a rope sticking route. Fortunately we had a team member who had been through before. Even then, we got on a rappel that was roughly 220' and had to traverse way over while on rope to find a spot to get off. Like others have said, you do not want to find yourself on this section after dark. We worked our way over DCR rappelling down the fins to get to the climber trail on the right side. We stayed above the wash out of the brush below and had an easy hike out. All in all, this is an amazing route for a capable group. Though if I could skip the upper section, I would. I wouldnt recommend bringing beginners on this route unless they are very strong capable climbers/hikers.
7 Oct 2022	Ok	Dry	None	Special challenges	11 hours	4 people Beginner to Advanced	Coalemus (160 reports)
Comment: The day was fairly hot but mostly shady in canyon so it wasn't too bad. Our beginner was pretty freaked out about the high stemming so we had to provide alot of meat. Everything went smoothly until we got down to the slab rappels. On our second or third rappel, we got ourselves down a crack-chute that had two 2+' wide hanging chockstones which were spread out horizontally enough so that rope retrieval would be impossible from the bottom. Downclimbing was likely possible for much of the crack (would be mostly stemming) but it was plenty intimidating as the drop was over 100'. Instead, all but one of us rapped all the way down and one of us went down, pulling at each chockstone and slinging it for another rap. We got our ropes out but it took us nearly an hour to travel ~160'. This crack had webbing above it (though old and needing replacement) so people definitely go down there sometimes but there's got to be a better way...
16 Oct 2021	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	11 hours	5 people Intermediate to Expert	Erek (206 reports)
Comment: Great stemming and downclimbing. One knee deep pool that could maybe be avoided by stemming over by a tall person with some skills. Replaced webbing on R2 (first bolts, optional 80' downclimb) and 4th to last rappel (80' over hung crack that drops straight down). Lots of potential for rope pull issues, most especially in lower fins section. Lots of options in fins section, went more LDC off trees. Did route as shuttle following mostly Old Bill approach. Time is car to car.
10 Oct 2020	Great	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	4 people	Morgan (103 reports)
Comment: All anchors in good condition. Lots of questionable decisions to be had.
10 Oct 2020	Great	Dry	None	Special challenges	9 hours	4 people Advanced	Erichransom (20 reports)
Comment: great day downclimbing! With ~600ft above valley floor, you need to traverse further left before continuing, otherwise you go off route.
20 Oct 2018	Great	Dry	None	Advanced	8 hours	4 people Advanced	DMonroy (188 reports)
5 Nov 2014 Trip report	Great	Dry	None	Advanced	11 hours	2 people Expert	Lucach (75 reports)
Comment: All anchors in good shape right now, some bolts looked brand new. Several anchors are single bolts and placed in locations where they will get hammered by a flood, so I would not expect them to last very long.