Conditions:Seven Teacups-20221003021233

Latest:	1 Oct 2022 (2 yrs, 7 mos ago)

Reported by:	Rbowru (54 reports), Ameister (43 reports), Hillbelfi (31 reports), Feroz (34 reports), Boof (31 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:	Moderate Low
Wetsuit:	Full wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	8 hours

Team: 8 people with experience level Brand new to Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: Great conditions for a beginner trip down 7TC! Did the Brennan approach with a car shuttle for an extremely leisurely trip in 8h. Quite murky water though, no visibility further than 6" down, probably from recent fires/flash floods.

Comfortable air conditions made for chilly water conditions - keep your wetsuits on.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
15 Oct 2024	Great	Moderate High	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	7 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Ameister (43 reports),Dirk (8 reports)
Comment: Great day in the teacups! I took the class 3 scramble approach for the first time, and I recommend the Brannan approach to those with a car shuttle. I was surprised to find the water still pushy this late in the season (arch covered by a few inches). I had not previously had any trouble swimming out of the toilet bowl, but could not today and ascended back out to send us around off the tree anchor.
22 Sep 2024	Great	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	2 people Beginner to Advanced	Ryan.k (7 reports)
Comment: We had a blast today. We started at 0830 and did the river swim (easy). The water level is just at the top of the inside arch, The silt level is very high in the pools so all jumps are not jumpable, and slides are also ill-advised. I posted a picture of the Knot chalk anchor, and the knot is looking less than perfect. Also, maybe I'm just extra skeptical, but the nut placement does not seem very good and could probably benefit from at least a larger nut or better yet, some bolts. Still a lot of fun, even with the high silt.
7 Sep 2024	Great	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges		5 people	Desertnights (37 reports)
Comment: We did upper canyon only due to a team member pulling a muscle. Water levels are at the arch. Arch was clear to swim under. Canyon is very silted up unsurprisingly. We did the Kern River trail and swimming the river at the usual spot was very easy and no one struggled with it.
17 Aug 2024	Great	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	6 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Mikeatran (84 reports),BWylie (22 reports)
Comment: Great day! 6.5 hours with a leisurely break in the middle. Very slippery algae in most of the creek entrance, maybe this is invasive? I don't recall it. Moderate high flow still, seemed down from two weeks ago when members of the group ran it before. The arch is completely underwater and doesn't seem useful for estimating. Some technical/swimming/staging challenges at this flow made it fun, despite the general lack of jumps and slides. Enjoy the first jump before the rappels, that seems to be it. Stayed on rope to R2. Zipped/tossed packs on R2, R3, toilet bowl. Had a throw rope ready for R2->R3 swim. The silt makes some sections easier--it is possible to stand above the corkscrew and at the bottom (3-4ft?). Saw a few hikers up by the washing machine, along with the grill and cooler full of stuff. Washing machine has a slippery climb out. Some members went through the toilet bowl, sent a strong swimmer first who swam toward the waterfall, and had to give the next person a hand out. Didn't bother sending packs through there and took them down the dry route. River crossing was fine at the normal spot, set a guide line which made it a float. 4/3 was fine, you'd be chilly in a 3/2. Just labeling it special challenges because you'll be sad if you aren't familiar with pack management and Class C anchor stuff at this flow, nothing is abnormal from the previous reports. Also, we spent some time figuring out you can pothole escape out the right at the bottom of the corkscrew with enough flopping about and people to add friction (don't recommend).
10 Aug 2024	Great	Moderate High	Thin wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	4 people Beginner to Advanced	David (16 reports)
Comment: Fun day in the Teacups! We had originally planned to take the 4wd Forest Service road to the end of the Brennan approach but we found the USFS gate locked. So we opted for the usual Brennan car-shuttle. All the Teacups, except the toilet bowl, are very full of silt. We rapped all the drops, no jumps or slides on this trip. The toilet bowl was pretty hard to swim out of and we had to do some creative pack management so that everyone could get out of there. I recommend sending a strong swimmer down first without a pack and let them swim out to the final teacup. The final teacup is so full of silt that you can zip line everyone's packs down to that first person. Then everyone else can rap down to the toilet bowl and swim out without a pack on. At the top of the rappel that drops into the washing machine we found a large plastic cooler filled with trash, a small bbq grill, and one of the 3 small trees next to the anchor bolts had been cut down. The wood from the cut tree was kind of piled up near the grill. We didn't have any way to carry out the cooler without the contents spillout out everywhere. So we had to leave it there. The inside of the cooler was pretty gross. If you run the teacups with the intention of cleaning up this mess, consider taking some trash bags and gloves. Crossing the Kern wasn't too tough. But some people may have a harder time trying to cross with packs on.
3 Aug 2024	Good	High	Thin wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	2 people Brand new	Mikeatran (84 reports)
Comment: Sporty day in the cups. 5 hours car to car utilizing brennan approach (non-shuttle). Weather was really hot so it was doable in a 2mm wetsuit but the water took your breath away when dipping in. Arch is fully submerged, although I believe the silt has adjusted the baseline and might make it difficult to assess flow going forward. R1 is not jumpable, R3 corkscrew is not slidable. Opted to hike DCL after exiting TC6? in lieu of the small hop off the wide fall to approach the washing machine rappel. Washing machine rappel stays out of flow but the SLIPPERY algae made for an annoying beached whale sequence for me to get out. Did not attempt the rappel DCR nor the next one DCL into the toilet bowl as the water looked pretty aerated. Took the higher tree DCR into the pool, then the normal DCR bolts using the redirect right to avoid the final narrow section. Crossing was doable with packs on. HOT. Staircase on the bridge has a closed sign FYI.
14 Jul 2024	Amazing	High	Full wetsuit	Advanced	8 hours	7 people Advanced	Freddy (51 reports)
Comment: All pools were filled with waist high silt, including the Corkscrew. Difficulty exiting the washing machine (Tall Rappel) the waterfall had a thick and heavy curtain creating a explosive chest high landing with poor visibility due to lots of water splashing off the left wall. If trapped remove and throw your pack into the wedge of the rock and pull yourself over. The toilet bowl we found to be too high with a massive hydraulic for the usual higher flowing exit technique and opted to build a new anchor DCR off a tree, straight down the watercourse into the pool.
24 Sep 2023	Great	High	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	6 hours	2 people Beginner to Advanced	Brdn.gonzales (44 reports)
Comment: Per the usual, Seven Teacups never disappoint! Did the bottom up approach for the first time, it's alright, but the shuttle is waaaay better. Water level is about 1" above the arch, with Moderate-High/High flow. For R2, I put some new webbing and a link on the nut. Wasn't able to cut apart the old rats nest of webbing that's there, but it works for the time being to safety yourself in. Getting from R2 to R3 is still a bit of a challenge even if you're a good swimmer. Best way to go about it is to rappel directly off the bolts from R1 to R3 since the flow is tame enough. Shorted the rope and slid the corkscrew, barely grazed some silt. Unfortunately, everywhere else in the pool is FILLED with silt, so that jump you can typically do by climbing up the slab is not currently feasible. Washing Machine is in PERFECT shape! Chaotic but not at all dangerous, like it was last month, it's a TON of fun. Everything else is pretty standard. The toilet bowl is still swirling fairly strong and we were feeling tired at this point. Rather trying to swim out of it, we opted for the slide DCR, rigged from a tree. I only had those shitty aluminum rings with me (sorry) so I rigged it with that. If somebody doesn't change it out by the next trip, I'll swap it out. For the exit, despite it being 650cfs, it was flowing strong enough for us to recognize we shouldn't swim with our packs on. We attached our bags to a throw rope and pulled our bags across after the swim. Fun day! FILE-20230926041547.jpg
3 Sep 2023	Great	Very High	Thin wetsuit	Advanced	8 hours	8 people Expert to Beginner	Cesar (21 reports)
Comment: Flow continues to be high to very high. We avoided the second rappel leading to the corkscrew staging area and decided to use the bolts from the first rappel station to rappel DCR to avoid the current pushing agains the landing of the second rappel. If you decide to take the same solution, be aware as you go down this waterfall it is very slippery. Most of our crew slipped, unintentionally, into the pothole when the right move was to slowly enter it. Most of the potholes that used to be jumps are filled with sediment and un-jumpable. Make sure to do proper depth checks before attempting any jumps. The water was about 2 inches above the arch. The flow is high and pushy. We had two desert canyoneers with us that were out of their comfort zone but did very well thanks to the leadership of the more experience team members. They were taken back by the force of the water. We decided to by pass the toilet bowl but be aware that the circulating current with in makes for a hard exit. The river crossing to the hike out was easy. Over all great day. We Happy!!
12 Aug 2023	Amazing	Very High	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	6 hours	4 people Intermediate to Expert	Willie92708 (997 reports),Aquamoo (91 reports)
Comment: Awesome flow in the teacups. The teacups themselves were surprisingly silted up, in the middle of the 4th teacup pool there was enough sand that my knees were at the water level. The webbing for the first rappel (the one right before the corkscrew) needs to be replaced, it’s like 5 pieces of really beat up stuff. The toilet bowl is still a good jump, three members of our group jumped it. One person in the group in front of us almost drowned so be careful. There was a dead deer in the 5th or 6th teacup but we managed to take it out to the kern. Washing machine is pounding but was pretty easy to escape without a pack on. Felt very comfortable in my 4/3. I crossed the Kern right at the exit of 7tc and it was pretty chill for me, the rest of my group went further up canyon to cross. All in all a great run. Willie: All the bolted anchors are OK, and we replaced all the webbing except on old knot chock and climbing nut TC2 rappel (before the corkscrew as mentioned above) and TC1 since it has quick links and it's jumpable. The 3 bolts for TC3 (corkscrew rappel) are beat up but structurally fine for rappelling. All the other bolts did not get bent up from the spring runoff. Even with frog feet, I was not able to swim on the water surface of the toilet bowl to reach the exit current. Jumping from the top, swimming deep, or having a pull line was needed to escape the toilet bowl. Whereas, with frog feet, swimming the Kern at 1840 CFS was trivial to reach the other side. Thus have an escape plan ready for the toilet bowl at this level of flow.
12 Aug 2023 Trip report	Amazing	Very High	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	6 hours	4 people Intermediate to Expert	Brdn.gonzales (44 reports)
Comment: Our start time was 9:45AM and we opted for the Brennan Approach. Half the team suited up at the start of the creek and the other half continued hiking to the Teacups and suited up there. The creek walking was fantastic, a lot of fun pushy slides, but a lot of silt in some areas that are typically deep. Make sure to depth check EVERYTHING as this was a consistent trait throughout the whole canyon. Teacup 1: The water line was about 5" above the arch indicating Very High water. Teacup 2: Jumped from the bolted anchors and just barely grazed some silt. First man down utilized a rope as a hand line to avoid being swept over the edge when getting to the Teacup 3 anchor. After fixing the rope to the anchor, the other members used it as an assist. The rock in this area is INCREDIBLY slippery, please be cautious. Teacup 3: The webbing is SUPER ratty, when conditions are calmer this will need some work. First man down rappelled and swam to the rock "island" just before the corkscrew. Throwing the pull side to him, he tensioned the line with this body weight and we zipped all the packs down. The line was also useful for subsequent members to help with the swim across. Consideration: If you are unable to make the swim and were to be pulled into the corkscrew, commit to the slide! Teacup 4: Bolts are smashed pretty bad, work needs to be done. Shorted the rope and rappelled as normal, could've also been slid. There are a few spots where we could stand in this Teacup, so please depth check before blindly jumping. Teacups 5-7: Because of the silt levels, we didn't jump these, but we didn't depth check either so they could be deep enough to send. There was a dead deer in Teacup 6 and we were able to dislodge it and push it all the way to the Kern! Tall Rappel (Washing Machine): Webbing replaced. First person down did not take a pack and this would be my recommendation; a lot of turbulence and difficulty getting up and over the boulder. Subsequent members were given an assist to get out of the washing machine. Nuisance rappel: Bolts were fine. Left turn: Webbing replaced, rappel is fine. Toilet Bowl: Chains are good. First man down depth checked and ascended back out. It's deep but be sure to depth check again before jumping. Jumping the toilet bowl is the easiest option and will put you under the strong current where it's calm. Swim underwater where the lip is and swim up and out. One member of our team rappelled into the toilet bowl and was unable to escape on his own. First man down, who jumped and exited with ease, used a throw rope to help pull the member stuck in the toilet bowl out. Last Rappel: Anchors good. Exit: A storm rolled in and brought the Kern from 1600cfs to 1850cfs. One member swam the normal exit, the others opted to cross upstream. The first member across tensioned a line and pulled the packs over before the subsequent members swam across. Heavy cloud cover and a light drizzle made for a wonderful exit, finishing at the bridge at 4:15PM. Other Notes: Ran into two different teams who opted out of most of the features/obstacles. Upon arriving at the Toilet Bowl it appears a member from one of those groups had been stuck for some time. It's unclear why, but he was connected to a thin tag line, tensioned to the chains above the Toilet Bowl, and a second line being pulled on by the other members who had already made it past the obstacle. Because he was being tensioned on both sides, he was not able to progress or retreat and appeared to be drowning. One member from our team recognized the danger and cut the line on their rope, up top, which allowed that member to escape. Not sure what would've happened had we not been there, but I couldn't imagine it would've ended well. All in all, an amazing day of technical challenges, but far from beginner friendly. Only experienced swift water canyoneers should be attempting this right now.
9 Oct 2022	Great	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	3 people Advanced to Beginner	Speedo (3 reports)
Comment: Nice conditions for our group. We did the "Full loop" approach, the road walk was no big deal at all. The air temperature was in the low 80s, and it was mostly cloudy the entire day. Made for a rather chilly day in the water. We did get our rope stuck at the corkscrew and were forced to cut it. We couldn't quite see, but it looked like the rope had become knotted, or somehow twisted as it went into the quicklink at the anchor. Luckily we only lost about 20' of rope.
1 Oct 2022	Great	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	8 people Brand new to Advanced	Rbowru (54 reports),Ameister (43 reports),Hillbelfi (31 reports),Feroz (34 reports),Boof (31 reports)
Comment: Great conditions for a beginner trip down 7TC! Did the Brennan approach with a car shuttle for an extremely leisurely trip in 8h. Quite murky water though, no visibility further than 6" down, probably from recent fires/flash floods. Comfortable air conditions made for chilly water conditions - keep your wetsuits on.
3 Sep 2022	Great	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	9 hours	10 people Beginner to Advanced	Klass7 (5 reports)
Comment: The 7TC had experienced a flash flood in recent weeks. In areas where grass grows, we observed it to be matted and sediment piled on top of it from the flash flood. The water had picked up lots of residue from the fires in the watershed and was murky and turbid. In some places we saw some algae. Surprisingly, for this time of the year the flow was significant, moderate-low. The bolts at the arch, Corkscrew, at the 5th jump bypass, the Washing Machine, Nuisance drops, Toilet Bowl and the final diagonal rappel were in good shape. At the 1st rappel, at the Arch we replaced the webbing and added two quick links. Now there are 3 quick links there. The webbing on the Washing Machine (1st long rappel) is weathered and should be replaced. We added a backup cord. The webbing on the single bolt in the shallow pocket LDC on the second Nuisance drop is quite weathered and should be replaced. We added on leg of webbing to this anchor. We discovered a discarded rope below the last drop that was stuck underwater with a blue figure 8 attached. We cut the rope and removed as much as possible. The air temp in the region was about 104 F. Nevertheless, a lightweight wetsuit was still needed. A shorty 3mm was the minimum that our team felt comfortable with. The 5th and 7th teacup were jumped. The 7th teacup seemed much deeper than in recent years. It was interesting that on Labor day weekend, we had just one other team behind us and nobody in front of us in the canyon. Most of our group swam across the Kern in the pool at the confluence of Dry Meadow Creek and the Kern. However, several of our team crossed upstream at a rocky area and only had to get knee deep. At this location it required putting ones leg in some very swift water for one move. Once we were on the trail, we were soon alerted that the team in the canyon behind us had an accident. I had previously spoken with the leader of this team. He seemed to be a very experienced rock climber, mountaineer and had been down the 7TC several times previous. He was leading a middle age man and his young son down the canyon for their first canyoneering experience. At the end of the swim after the last rappel the leader was walking along the sloping cliff, sometimes used as a waterslide. He lost his balance and fell. In spite of wearing a helmet, he landed on his head and sustained a deep, profusely bleeding head wound and most likely a concussion. It was understood that the victim was unconscious. His helmet was broken on impact. Our group had two InReach emergency beacons and we sent a message to the emergency responders. 7 of our group remained with the victim while the other 3 raced down to Johnsondale Bridge and presumably to Kernville for help. Several of the people assisting had some of medical training and along with the victim, decided it was best to effect a self-rescue and try to hike out. The wound was dressed and the bleeding stopped. The victim was assisted across the river and members of our group surrounded him to prevent him from falling while hiking out. The three of us who were going for help reached the bridge as fast as possible. As we were getting into our car for the drive to Kernville a Sheriff vehicle approached and I waived him down. He had received the emergency call and was responding. Soon, 4 other members of a search team arrived. My team related what was known to us about the incident and told how to reach the victim, who might have still been at the mouth of Dry Meadow Creek. Three of the emergency responders were sent up the riverside trail to the incident location while I took one responder with me up the trail to the mine on RDC side of the Kern. We hoped to spot the group with the victim as they hiked down the trail. Soon the seven people from my group, the two from the other group and the victim were spotted not far from the bridge and the search portion of the rescue was ended. Upon arriving at Johnsondale Bridge, the victim's friends drove him to the hospital for attention. As an aside, the Sheriff told me that had it been required they could have used a helicopter that would need to be dispatched from Fresno, "if it was available." That is a distance of about 80 air miles.
3 Sep 2022	Ok	Very High	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	8 hours	6 people Intermediate to Advanced	Klass7 (5 reports)
Comment: We visited the 7TC on September 1 and determined the water was too high for our comfort level. The water level was well above the top of the arch. On September 3, we returned. It was quite unusual to see no canyoneers in the 7TC on Labor Day weekend. We had a late start, so perhaps the other group had already passed through. The rangers who were parked at Johnsondale Bridge all weekend said they saw nobody with gear that suggested they had done the 7TC. After watching the water rushing very close to the bolts at the Corkscrew, we decided that the risk of getting swept over was higher than we preferred. As such, we decided to rappel from the ledge above the 4th Teacup into the pool (Just below the corkscrew.) It took the first person about 15 minutes to be able to get out of the water and onto the normal rest area below the corkscrew due to the velocity of the water. It was difficult to not get swept over the drop into the 5th Teacup. We eventually jumped the 5th, 6th and some people decided to rappel into the 7th. At that point, the air temperature was very chilly along with that, there was a strong wind. We decided to exit at the 7th TC, descend to the river, swim the Kern and hike out the trail. We did observe the Washing Machine drop and saw that there was a tremendous amount of water crashing into the rock below. Everyone got a very profound respect for the strength of the water in Dry Meadow Creek. Since the August 12 group went down the 7TC, we have been watching the Kern River flow drop by half, from over 2000 cfs to 1000 cfs. The flow of Dry Meadow Creek seemingly hasn't dropped much since the August 12 group descended the canyon. Even this late in the season, the 7TC is not suitable for people without good swiftwater skills.

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