Hidden Canyon - A Day of Downclimbing Feb 9, 2003 - Page 2

A bit of snow on the north-facing side.

Zion was remarkably dry, with only a bit of snow clinging to the north sides of things. The trail heads up a northfacing buttress near the top of Echo Canyon, and a little snow on the trail allowed us to see the tracks of a bobcat that had recently gone our way.

Looking in the top.

The long hike across the top of the mesa leads, finally, to the top of Hidden. It's BIG - much more dramatic than I expected. Luckily, the right flank of the canyon is relatively snow-free, and we make our way down to a tree to rap into the canyon.

A bit alpine at the top, with plenty of snow and ice...

A couple short rappels and some downclimbing, and we are in the canyon and past most of the snow.

Our third rappel in Hidden, probably an easy downclimb in summer.

Working our way down, we found lots of interesting terrain. Jumbles of boulders mixed with narrow slots lead to a bunch of downclimbing, and a couple short rappels. Ram says he's done it with only 2 raps, and that seems excessively bold. Given the season, Hank and I take a more conservative tack...

Interesting rock-jams are characteristic of the canyon.