Snow Creek
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| | Raps:9-13, max ↨220ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:Optional 70 min Vehicle:Passenger Rock type:Granite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 22 Jun 2024
"We hiked up from the valley floor on the snow creek trail. A the junction, my partner went to check the flow in Snow Creek, while I got water and got |
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| Best season: | Jul-Oct (avg for this region)
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37.7706, -119.5389
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Introduction[edit]
A beautiful, rarely seen canyon in Yosemite. The only real place one can get a view into it without actually running it is from the hike up to Half Dome. Wetsuits not mandatory. Rain shell with hood highly recommended. If the route was bolted such that all of the rappels could be done in the cascades, it would surely rate as a 4-star canyon. As it is, with the existing natural anchors, few of the rappels position the rappeller in the cascades. All of the swimming holes can easily be avoided even in moderate-high water.
Approach[edit]
Park the exit vehicle at the Stables by Upper Pine Campground next to Curry Village, or at the Happy Isles trailhead. If doing the hiking approach, hike up the mirror lake trailhead to Snow Creek trail. One could bring bikes to save an hour spent walking the bike path on the entry+exit.
If shuttling, drive out of the valley and up to Tuolomne Meadows via route 120. Park at the Porcupine Creek trailhead (37.8066, -119.5454) and follow the North Dome/Yosemite Falls Trail . At the junction around 37.7869, -119.5587 take a hard left continuing toward Snow Creek. After about 4 miles of more or less downhill hiking you will see a wooden footbridge crossing Snow Creek. You can drop-in at any point here. We continuing along the trail a little longer paralleling the RDC of the creek and dropped in at 37.77185 -119.53931.
Descent[edit]
Rappel 1: 80-130ft anchored center canyon. Multistage rappel. First portion, 80 ft at which point you can get off rope if desired and down-climb a log LDC. Or just continue on the full 130ft. This puts you right at the top of the second rappel.
Rappel 2: 70ft from a bush LDC. An interesting rappel through a hole (low water only) in the rocks in the water course and then continues on down the open face of the waterfall. All but the last person can do this through the hole. The rope would be nearly impossible to retrieve this way so the last person must pull the rope out and rappel over the top, not going through the hole.
Rappel 3: 80ft from a pinch point center canyon.
Rappel 4: Approx. 220ft. Anchored center canyon. A beautiful cascading waterfall and the last rappel of the upper section. You could probably break this rappel up into more than one rappel if you just have a 200ft rope by going either RDC or LDC of the watercourse.
The canyon makes a hard right here. This is the start of a long section of boulder hopping and down-climbing. In medium to high flow this section will be more challenging and might require rappels. Average time of this boulder hopping section is ~1 hour. You may find anchors for some short (<30 ft) rappels off big fallen logs.
BE WARY OF ACTIVE ROCK FALL IN THE BOULDER HOPPING SECTION. There is one ~1000ft section with visible white scars everywhere from rock fall located about halfway down the boulder hopping. Do not stop for a break there!
Eventually the canyon starts to drop more steeply and there are about 5 more rappels pretty much one right after the other eventually dropping you into Tenaya Canyon.
Rappel 5: 60ft? anchored off a tree RDC. There will likely be a short swim at the bottom of this rappel. Or if you've got the time and skill you can set up a guided rappel off the tree across the pool so all but the first person can avoid the water.
Rappel 6: 75ft? from a tree center canyon down a nice slab.
Rappel 7: 200' from a large tree LDC. Long slab rappel puts you right at the tree anchor for rappel 8. With a 300ft rope one could combine 7 and 8, which would be more fun and keep you in the watercourse for longer.
Rappel 8: 110' off tree LDC. There is only a small area here for about 3 people to stand comfortably. A wet disconnect and short swim are required here. Unless you are super crafty and work hard to climb around and stem over the water.
After the short swim (40 feet or so) climb up out of the water LDC and down into a crack.
Rappel 9: 50'? off 2 climbing nuts, LDC.
Downclimb over some boulders and make your way across the canyon to the RDC side.
Rappel 10: Penultimate rappel, 150' from a tree RDC down a slab. In low flow you can avoid the water at the end of the rappel.
Rappel 11: 110'? From a pinch point RDC. In low water it is a short wade/swim
Exit[edit]
A short scramble after the last rappel and you've arrived in Tenaya Canyon. Head down canyon (Right) and after 10 minutes or so you will run into a wide maintained trail crossing the canyon. Follow this trail (heading RDC) about 2 miles until you reach the paved road. From here it's another .4 miles to the Mirror Lake shuttle stop. Follow the paved road to the shuttle stop. The visitor center parking in Yosemite Village is shuttle stop #1.
Red tape[edit]
Beta sites[edit]
Trip reports and media[edit]
July 19, 2018 replaced 8 out of 12 anchors. The next group through will have to replace the webbing on the 10th rappel (the one before the two nut chocks) which is two long strands of white webbing around a tree LDC and also the webbing on the last rappel (pinch RDC with very damaged red webbing) which is hard to see but down low. Also bring at least 5 Rapides. We re-routed the upper section to be in the watercourse. The first anchor is RDC off a tree. The 5th rappel is the long one in the cascades and is optional as it can be down-climbed canyon left. If including this rappel, the total is 13 rappels.
Video of a trip in late summer 2022
Initial view of Snow Creek from the trail to Half Dome (Spring 2014)