Death Trap

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Death Trap Canyoneering Canyoning Caving
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Difficulty:3A (v3a1)
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Red Tape:No permit required
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Introduction

This is the real Death Trap Canyon. First published by Sydney Uni Dave Noble in 2002, named by Andrew Valja and Karen McLaughlin when they nearly fell through ferns into the slot.

In the 5th edition of the Rick Jamieson guidebook, the name Death Trap is incorrectly given to Sheep Dip canyon. If you're looking for the Death Trap canyon from the guidebook, it's here: https://ropewiki.com/Sheep_Dip_Canyon

The incorrect name is one of many well-known errors in the Rick Jamieson guidebook. And just to absolutely confuse the world, the name Sheep Dip was given to Twister canyon, so now, everyone is confused about the naming. The whole story is told further down.

Approach

Descent

Exit

Red tape

Beta sites

Trip reports and media

  • YouTube.com : Richard Pattison, Death Trap Canyon movie

Background

Death Trap was first published by Sydney Uni Dave Noble in 2002. Alex Allchin says "the real death trap was named by Andrew Valja and Karen McLaughlin when they nearly fell through ferns into the slot".

Craig Flynn describes the naming confusion very well:

  • OK so first up let’s try to address the naming confusion of this Canyon.
  • Around the mid 70s a party consisting of SUBW and UNSWBWC members, which included David Noble, did an exploratory trip following Rocky creek from it’s source. They came across a small canyon reasonably high up in the creek. It had a lot of little slides and jumps into deep pools and they so they named this canyon section Sheep Dip (This is the canyon shown here). Later in the day, a few kilometers down stream they came to the larger section of canyon now known as Rocky Creek canyon
  • All good so far, no confusion.
  • Then in the 80s(?) a party including another Dave Noble, having heard a basic description on Sheep Dip descended a tributary near the Rocky Creek Canyon car park and found a canyon they thought matched the description. This is understandable, both are more shallow, open style canyons. Both have lots of slides and jumps into pools. Both have a larger water fall at the end and both creeks drop down into tunnels below boulders near the exit… So they thought they had done Sheep Dip but they called it Twister among their own group.
  • When Rick Jamison published the first edition of the Canyons Near Sydney guide book in the early 90s he repeated the mistake and he wrote the description and directions to Twister under the heading “Sheep Dip Canyon” with a comment along the lines of the second party preferring the name Twister. All the guide companies that have sprung up since have repeated this mistake offering trips down Sheep Dip and Rocky Crk which actually do Twister and Rocky Crk.
  • It’s wasn’t until the early 2000s when the 2 Davids were talking that the younger Dave realised his mistake and Twister had in fact been a new canyon.
  • The Fifth edition of the Canyons Near Sydney corrects this mistake and now has the description of Twister under the heading “Twister (sometimes known as Sheep Dip)”
  • But it then adds to the confusion by adding a description of Sheep Dip canyon under the heading “Death Trap Canyon (AKA Sheep Dip or Upper Rocky Creek canyon)”.
  • There was already a canyon named Death Trap but it is not in the Rocky creek system. It was first explored by another party (Including the first David Noble) in the early to mid 2000s.
  • Now in the Gardens of Stone guide books the Bush Explorers repeat this second mistake and compound it by naming a some of the nicer features near Sheep Dip after Death Trap. eg The water fall they have labeled “Death Trap Falls” flows into Rocky creek near where Sheep Dip canyon opens up…. No where near Death trap canyon
  • So Twister is the one near the Rocky Creek canyon car park. It is in a small tributary that runs into the creek you walk down to access Rocky Creek canyon.
  • Sheep Dip is in Rocky Creek itself, a few kilometers up stream.
  • DeathTrap is another small canyon altogether.
  • No doubt this confusion will continue into the future but I hope that clears some of it up.

Credits

Information provided by automated processes. Main photo by (unknown). Authors are listed in chronological order.

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