Grand Canyon, in Winter?

2007-03-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

In December I posted a plea to join a Grand Canyon river trip on the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association (GCPBA) web site, and said that we could go on short notice. I was thinking that sometime well into the year I might get lucky enough to get a call. Much was my shock when Mike B. of Bremerton invited Daryl and I to go on a 30 day trip in winter, leaving in the first half of February.

We started furiously researching to see what kind of snow shoes paddlers use on winter Grand Canyon trips. What a relief to discover that the average temperature on the river for those weeks is 45 degrees low, and 66 high. We had 5 people (Mike, Ron S. of Steamboat Springs, Sheryl U. also of SS, Daryl and Karen) and 3 boats for the first 10 days up to Phantom Ranch when Sheryl hiked out, leaving 4 of us for the rest of the trip. Mike, the trip leader has done many Grand Canyon trips, and liked best very small parties, but wanted a third boat along for safety. By doing a winter trip we were allowed 25 days to get to Diamond Creek. We planned another 5 days to get to the South Cove take-out, but made fast time and ended up taking out a day early. You are allowed to gather driftwood to burn, so we had lovely fires most nights.

The focus of this particular trip was more on the canyon, less on the river. Hence, we often did long days on the river to maximize the number of layover days for hiking. I opted not to bring my kayak, as I would have been the only non-raft, and I also wanted to focus on the canyon instead of the rapids. The hiking was awesome, we were hot on some of the walks, and for me those would have been miserable in warmer weather. It was not too hot to cross open areas of desert and go to the top of hills and rises in the canyon. It was to cold to swim in the shady pools of slot canyons, such as Elves’ Chasm.

29 days is too much for me to do a full trip-report on, each day could be a story in itself! So I will just pick out a few notes. Anyone who wants to know more is welcome to brave meeting us for a beer and risk having your ear talked off.

Levels ranged from 8,000 to 13,000 CFS during our trip. Ron got washed out of his boat on Hance Rapid, and Sheryl was able to recover the oars and rescue him in short order. No other flips, swims, or river incidents. Daryl did precision maneuvering of every rapid rated 5 and above, aided by the keen water reading from Karen (although he credits my role as dynamic ballast to be my key contribution). It took Karen most of the trip doing all the 4-or-below rated rapids to really accept that the 16 foot raft was never going to respond like my kayak.

Many of the walks made me feel like I was in a Road Runner cartoon, with balancing blocks of rock teetering over huge cliffs. We even saw a Road Runner bird while on the trip! Hikes I particularly enjoyed include one up to The Tabernacle out of either Rattlesnake camps. You walk up a ridge and summit on a hill inside the canyon from which you can see up to North and South rims, as well as a huge amount of the canyon upstream or downstream. We did the amazing walk up Shinumo Creek in an unusual fashion as a loop, doing a 5-2 rock climb up the East side of the creek, then returning via the more used West side trail. The ledges that you traverse along for a mile on this trip are steep drop-offs and it helps if you don't look down in many of the places.

We were able to hike a few times to the North Rim after passing spots described as merely “very difficult”. Quite a view from up there. Both canyon rims had snow the whole time, but down on the river we had no snow (although it is possible to happen that time of year). We did get 2 hours of hail the day we hiked up to where Thunder River pours out of tunnels in the cliffs. The temperature was 40+, and it was comfortable in clothes about like you would do cross-country skiing in. Tougher was having to strip to the top of your thighs to wade across the stream 4 times during the hike, but even that was more memorable than miserable. (see the storm and hailstones in the photo)

We did a night float our third evening below Diamond Creek. After a short day on the river, we pulled over for dinner. Once it was dark we got out our sleeping gear, tied the rafts together, and pushed out into the current. We made a solid 3 MPH while sleeping, star-gazing, or just savoring the ambiance of floating through the desert on a warm still night. We bumped into rocks only about 3 times, and got eddied out another 3 times which was quickly remedied by a few oar strokes. The current brought us to the Pierce Ferry riffle (a class 2 rapid on any other river) about 1 in the morning while it was still pitch dark, instead of at dawn like planned. Even a sliver of moon lights up the canyon so you can see your shadow, but we were within days of a new moon and starlight was all there was. Very exciting! The night float was one of the most fun things on the trip, and it saved hundreds of dollars because we did not have to pay the Indians the startling high Diamond Creek fees. Next trip we might do the Diamond Creek to South Cove section without stopping to camp, in about 36 hours.

After 29 days on the river, I will try to do another winter trip on the Grand Canyon sometime. On my next trip I plan to be more river-oriented, and bring my kayak and allow lots of time for scouting many more rapids and picking up swimmers. In my kayak it is easy to keep cool, and I won't mind less hiking so it will be fine if that is a summer trip, but a Feb-March trip seems like the best to me.

Tips, things that really worked, and things I would do different next time include:

I brought a small thermos and had hot tea all day, a wonderful luxury that generated some pointedly envious looks.
Layers were the key to being comfortable. By the end of the trip we were sitting in shirt-sleeves after dark comfortably. But there were some evenings sitting around camp where I was only comfortable because I had on 4 layers, including a huge down coat.
Bring a sleeping-bag liner so that you can layer in your tent as well. I fully zipped up my big down sleeping bag only two nights, and was really glad I could use just the liner many other nights.
I had too many duplicates of clothes, there was plenty of opportunity to wash and dry clothes. Here is a tip for the ladies: check out the number of clothes your partner brings. Our idea of how many days socks will last may be different from your partner’s.
We had cooler ice for 25 days, even though we did not take all that much care with the coolers. I wish I had brought much more fresh stuff.

Seattle or Oz?

Grand Canyon, in Winter?