We got a ton of questions at the Wilderness Desk about why Echo Canyon is closed. The reason is the large piles of snow that choke the canyon and make it impassible in the winter time. But when it is reaching the 90's each day, the Narrows is now open because of low flow, and all the other canyons seem to be in summer conditions, one would assume that Echo Canyon would also be in that kind of shape.
Derrick and I assumed that when heading up to Echo on May 10th. We actually didn't even think that their would be a reason to check the snow level and decided to just drop the canyon. We went to the entrance of Echo Canyon of the East Rim trail. As soon as we dropped in, we knew something was amiss. We were wading in water that was over our head before even encountering the first rappel.
We both talked about it for a bit and decided that this wasn't worth it and we might get ourselves into some trouble if we continued. So we turned around and decided to give Echo a try from the bottom. Sure enough when we hit the snowy sections the snow was still there. We were able to get farther than I got in the early Spring, but still ran into an enormous pile of snow at the choke point. We estimated that it was at least 15-20 feet high in sections.
It did not matter if we could get around it, though, so we tried going over it and that did not work. We tried going around it and that did not work. We determined that while faced with a life or death situation, a determined person may be able to find a way around the massive pile of snow, there was no reason to put someone in that situation knowing what the conditions actually were in the canyon. So we determined that the canyon should stay closed. We hiked back down to let Ray know. He could not believe it, but sure enough, Echo sure can hold its snow late into the Spring.
Derrick and I assumed that when heading up to Echo on May 10th. We actually didn't even think that their would be a reason to check the snow level and decided to just drop the canyon. We went to the entrance of Echo Canyon of the East Rim trail. As soon as we dropped in, we knew something was amiss. We were wading in water that was over our head before even encountering the first rappel.
We both talked about it for a bit and decided that this wasn't worth it and we might get ourselves into some trouble if we continued. So we turned around and decided to give Echo a try from the bottom. Sure enough when we hit the snowy sections the snow was still there. We were able to get farther than I got in the early Spring, but still ran into an enormous pile of snow at the choke point. We estimated that it was at least 15-20 feet high in sections.
It did not matter if we could get around it, though, so we tried going over it and that did not work. We tried going around it and that did not work. We determined that while faced with a life or death situation, a determined person may be able to find a way around the massive pile of snow, there was no reason to put someone in that situation knowing what the conditions actually were in the canyon. So we determined that the canyon should stay closed. We hiked back down to let Ray know. He could not believe it, but sure enough, Echo sure can hold its snow late into the Spring.
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