Glaucoma Canyon
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| | Difficulty:4A III X (v6a1 III) Raps:0, max ↨180ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:None Vehicle:High Clearance | |||
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| Condition Reports: | 8 Apr 2021
"It took us 75 minutes from the handline in to the exit rope. We spent a lot of time building the exit rope anchor, as all of the sandstone rocks avai |
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37.6188, -110.6041
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Introduction[edit]
Glaucoma is the most difficult canyon on Ticaboo Mesa, with high stemming, silo crossings, up-climbs, and a crux down-climb. While the canyon is very short, it packs a lot of action in its short distance, and is great preparation for bigger X-canyons like PINTAC. It is generally considered a step up from Psycho D, the other X-canyon in the area.
Approach[edit]
From your car, walk downhill until progress is blocked by a cliff. Walk east along the top of the cliff until a break in the cliff-band allows for a down-climb. Simply walk down the Glaucoma drainage, encountering a few short sections of slot along the way, that can be bypassed. Once at the head of the X-section, drop unnecessary gear and hike the RDC rim until you reach the wide drainage near the end where you can set your ascent line out of the canyon. There is a spot for a Carin anchor that will require 180ft of rope, or a hoodoo that can be wrapped for an anchor with 200ft of rope. Once your escape line is set, go back the way you came to the head of the canyon.
Descent[edit]
You can rappel into the canyon directly at the head, but it will deposit you into an often deep pothole that you will have to escape. Alternatively, you can set a handline on the LDC about 40 feet from the head and get into the canyon that way. The canyon starts gradually and builds to the first big down-climb, which is the crux of the canyon, and likely the most dangerous part. It is possible to rappel off one member of your group to get down this obstacle, but at least one person will have to down-climb it. At the bottom of the down-climb, it flares out and requires a few precise moves to avoid falling down into darkness by stepping across a gap. After the down-climb frequent silo crossings are encountered, all of which are straightforward and have been navigated people as short as 5 feet. The mouse-trap presents the next major challenge in the canyon as the walls get far apart and it bombays 30 feet to the ground under them. You can directly cross this feature which requires some scary shoulder to toes stemming with a definite ground-fall if botched. However, it is much easier to go back up canyon a bit and downclimb to the ground, do some crawling, then walk under the mouse-trap to where you can climb back up the other side. The final section includes plenty of short and brutal up-climbs, or wide silo crossings if you want to avoid them. This leads to your fixed line or boat if you are exiting out the lake.
Exit[edit]
Red tape[edit]
Beta sites[edit]
BluuGnome.com : Glaucoma Canyon- Climb-Utah.com : Glaucoma - Lake Powell
- Super Amazing Map : Glaucoma
Trip reports and media[edit]
- Ram on Canyon Tales : Glaucoma
