Conditions:Wife 5-20250519030218

Latest:	18 May 2025 (2 days ago)

Reported by:	RFontaine (270 reports)
Quality:	Amazing
Waterflow:	Dry
Wetsuit:
Water temperature:
Difficulty:
Time:	4 hours

Team: 5 people with experience level Intermediate to Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: Incredible dissolution pockets, arches, and neat rock features throughout! Huge bang for the buck route! Especially when combined with Wife 3!

Time is for Wife 5 & 3.

Approached the standard way for 5. Can confirm the large drop is 80’ as our 75’ rope was accidentally rigged here and reached with a 5’ stemming downclimb.

Canyon is quick and took 2 hrs to get back to trail where we easily up-climbed the 1st fin directly DCL of the slot to get back up to Wife 3.

Most of the anchors in these canyons area off natural arches and use a ton of webbing, very ugly and non sustainable. These routes should be bolted in my opinion…

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
18 May 2025	Amazing	Dry			4 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	RFontaine (270 reports)
Comment: Incredible dissolution pockets, arches, and neat rock features throughout! Huge bang for the buck route! Especially when combined with Wife 3! Time is for Wife 5 & 3. Approached the standard way for 5. Can confirm the large drop is 80’ as our 75’ rope was accidentally rigged here and reached with a 5’ stemming downclimb. Canyon is quick and took 2 hrs to get back to trail where we easily up-climbed the 1st fin directly DCL of the slot to get back up to Wife 3. Most of the anchors in these canyons area off natural arches and use a ton of webbing, very ugly and non sustainable. These routes should be bolted in my opinion…
8 Mar 2025	Great	Dry		Easy	2 hours	2 people Beginner to Intermediate	Nolimitfez (9 reports)
Comment: Another quick quarter-day run on the wives. Saw some Desert Bighorn Sheep about 100 yards off the drop in of rap 1. All anchors in good shape. Rappel all the way down off rap 4 as downclimb is spicy.
8 Feb 2025	Great	Dry	None	Normal	3 hours	4 people Intermediate to Advanced	Mchlprk11100 (7 reports)
Comment: Did the canyon after completing Cassidy. It was completely dry and a fun canyon for the afternoon. Deadman anchor and webbing at the last rap is still in good condition.
14 Sep 2024	Good	Dry	None	Normal	File:TimeX.png hour File:BarX.png	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Tcarlisle (73 reports)
Comment: After exiting Fire Canyon a select number of our team dropped into Wife 5 for a quickie. From the first anchor to the last took us 1 hour and 15 minutes (not counting approach and exit times.) We did a little reworking of some anchors but all were in decent shape. Much of the webbing appears to be what I had placed in the canyon a few months ago but it is still looking good. We un-buried, checked, and rebuilt the last deadman/cairn anchor. The spots that usually hold some water are either dry, muddy, or very low.
23 Jun 2024	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	4 hours	4 people Brand new to Advanced	Tcarlisle (73 reports)
Comment: Group of four people. Three climbers new to canyonering. Did a morning run before the afternoon rain was forecasted to arrive and were out before the clouds started building. One knee deep pool in the canyon that can be bridged over by the tall or skilled. The anchor for the 100 foot rappel needed to be reworked. It would have been best to rebuild it but after a few days of canyoneering we were running low on webbing and decided to conserve what we had. Re-worked the anchor to incorporate a courtesy system. The webbing around the bush is starting to look a little sun backed in places the webbing around the arch looks good. Would recommend bringing enough webbing to rebuild this anchor in the near future. Rebuild the cairn anchor for the last rappel and extended the webbing over the edge for a clean pull (I have stuck a rope there in the past in the "V" slot). The webbing around the main rock was looking good still but the tail was short. Used a intermediate quicklink to attach a loner tail and to provide a place to clip in for a courtesy anchor. The quick link on the tail is on the large side (one that was recycled from another anchor) and I would recommend swapping it out or at least being careful to ensure your carabiner won't go through if biner blocking. Other, releasable, rigging types should be fine on the quick link, however.
2 Sep 2023	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	7 hours	12 people Brand new to Advanced	Tcarlisle (73 reports)
Comment: Wife 5. Group of 12. One teenager who was on their first rappelling activity ever (After a lot of prep work and some practice.) Mixed ability group but majority were beginners and novices. The absolute beginner did great, but was scared and went slow. Moving a big group took more time than anticipated. Lower in the canyon there is some waist-deep water. It can be stemmed over, but most beginners will have difficulty doing this for the last pool. We rebuilt a few anchors which took some time. Great experience. Finished before the rain moved in later in the evening.
26 Nov 2021	Great	Dry		Normal	4 hours	5 people Beginner to Advanced	Tcarlisle (73 reports)
Comment: Descended Wife 5 and Wife 3. 5 people, 4hrs 45mins car to car. No water, snow, or ice present in the canyons or on approach/exits. Anchors and webbing in the canyons are in good condition and in proper order. Clear, sunny sky and decent temps for November. Jackets were needed in the canyon at times. Not even a small pocket of water was present in either canyon. No unusual rigging or hazards to report.