West Canyon 2017 - Approach Flight + Sabertooth Canyon

Over the past few years we've put together some pretty fun canyoneering adventures.  Most of them were good.  Some of them were great.

This adventure topped them all.

Looking back, this trip was so sublime, so far-fetched, so laugh-out-loud good, so impossibly complex, that it seems like it couldn't have happened.  Was it a dream?  It sure feels like it.

The trip started off on an appropriate note.  On April 1st, 2017, Tony Long, Sam Goodhue, Tom Collins, Deanpaul Russell, Erik Bernhoft, Sam Lee, Steph, and I flew to West Canyon.

That's right.  We flew!

PHOTOS BY ERIK BERNHOFT AND DEANPAUL RUSSELL
CLICK TO VIEW IN HIGH RESOLUTION

I live for days that I'll never forget.  Right from the start, it was obvious that this day would fall into that category.

The helicopter was not big enough to hold the entire group, so it had to shuttle four of us at a time.  Erik, Sam Lee, Steph, and I were assigned to the first flight.

 

   

The view from the helicopter was breathtaking!  The short journey was so mind-boggling it almost made us forget about our destination.  As we flew past the top of West we realized that our pilot, Chelsea, did not know exactly where we needed to land.  We flew about a mile past our landing zone, then swung wide over the top of West, which gave us a great look into all the slots below.  She swung around again, in a tighter circle, just to make sure the landing zone was safe.  She could have stayed in the air forever as far as we were concerned.

Chelsea dropped us off, the went back to pick up rest of the team.  We stood there in silence at that very isolated spot.  It seemed like magic to suddenly be at the top of West, rested and hydrated.  We battled like hell to get to the same place a year prior.  It felt strange to not run the gauntlet.

Soon the rest of the fellas arrived.  We took photos of the pilot with her aircraft.  She was almost as excited as us to be surrounded by such beautiful terrain.

Reluctantly, she flew away in her aircraft.  We were now alone with West.  We hiked down the ramp, then set up camp.

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We filtered water and set up our tents.  Then we went back up the ramp and picked up a stash of our canyoneering gear.

We were all a bit on edge because we suspected that Sabertooth might be an X-rated canyon.  We also had to fine-tune our method for exploring unknown canyons.  A few of us were new to each other.  There were bugs to work out.

Tom went high and scouted from above while Tony and I headed down the canyon.  Right away it got tight and we were forced to go high.  Not good.  A bit scary.  We pushed forward.

We wanted to make sure that we did not get trapped in the canyon, so we spread the group waaaay out and had an escape option at all times.  Since we were so spread out, communication was challenging.  Signaling to each other took some practice.  What did he say?  What is the best word to yell back up the canyon?

We fine tuned our communication while we pushed ahead.

"SKINNY?"

"SKINNY AND HIGH!"

"IS IT X??"

"WHAT??"

"IS IT X??"

"NOT YET!"

"COPY THAT!"

We worked through the skinny section, then found an easy escape out of the side.  The group moved forward and we rearranged who was in the front.  Nerves were still running high.

The canyon eased a bit.  Soon we encountered an amazing subway section.  Everyone relaxed and the cameras came out.  The rest of the canyon was wide and friendly.

We arrived at the final drop which was wide and had knee deep water in the bottom.  Most of us rapped off of meat.  Tony downclimbed and marveled at his own flexibility-"Wow!  I didn't know that I could do the splits!"

He continued,

"It would have been funny if I'd fallen, because I would have hit the water balls first."

We all howled with laughter.

From there, it was a short walk back into West then back to camp.  We were elated with how incredible our first day had been.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO GRAND CANYON AIRLINES FOR THEIR CONSIDERABLE EFFORTS IN MAKING THIS DAY A REALITY

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS TO THE NAVAJO NATION FOR ALLOWING US TO LAND IN THIS EXTRAORDINARY LOCATION