Dave's Not Dead Canyon
Last Candition: May 19, 2012
Water levels were maybe one third of capacity. We put in all new webbing as the old stuff was really bad. I suspect we were the first group through this year. We did not use wetsuits and don't think they are needed in this canyon except for extremely cold and wet conditions.
We did not get wet at all. The "walk down" into the canyon was sooner than we expected and we went past it at first, then back to it, but it really is there and is easy. On the route out, had a more serious navigation error and walked past the ridge between limbo and Paradiso and instead went up the next ridge East (East of Paradiso). Eventually decided that it wouldn't go and backtracked to the correct ridge. The real ridge had actual slab climbing/scrambling to get on top of and the wrong ridge was just a hike.
Road needed on wash to be tooled for a Subaru Tribeca to pass but other than that, the road was very good.
Not nearly as much water as expected. No wet suits and only occasional calf-deep water.
Walked out to the left, final quarter mile out we followed one large straight line up the landscape that too us back to within 200 yards of the car.
All water easily avoidable. All anchors in good shape.
A great canyon for a cool day (35 degrees in the morning).
Beautiful canyon. Anchors in good shape, we added redundancy to wear on a multi-stage drop. Water ankle deep, and all avoidable.
AKA Purgatory.
Our group went through, and nobody took wetsuits and they weren't needed. (Don't remember if it had any water at all, but any water was not significant.) Fun canyon, and no bugs on bottom, exit or top.