35m max drop, mostly 10-15m high features
At least 2x60m ropes, throw bag, natural anchor & bolting gear recommended
9-12hrs
Public access
A wild and rough west-coast adventure canyon. Lots of boulders & downclimbing, mixed with some seriously beautiful and technical slot sections, tricky jumps to 10m, rappels to 35, scrambles, technical swims and more…
First descent: Keith Riley, Big Al and Greg Lee, 15 April 2022.
First D images – April 2022
3rd Descent images – 31 Jan 2026 –
Note the increased water levels! – expect an update to the topo soon.
This was quite an adventure……
For us, the flows were quite a bit higher than the first descent crew. Also, the rock was really slippery in lots of spots. Together, that made things more technical and slower – ropes, careful sequencing and new anchors were needed.
We’re chatting to Keith about updating the topo in a few ways watch this space!
Although most of the features aren’t particularly high, anchors (human, bolted or natural) are often a ways back from the lip, so at least a couple of 60m ropes helps with sequencing.
As well as 2×60’s we brought a few 30m ropes – and barely used them!
We did, however, use a fair bit of webbing and 4-5 maillions to create new anchors – in places where the first team may have just climbed down, flows and slippery rock meant we had the rope out. We also placed 2 new bolts… The existing bolts are only singles – and some of the maillions are starting to rust. I’d definitely reccomend a (light) drill with at least 6 bolts for future parties.. If you were wanting to fully bolt it up, you could probably put 20 in – there’s lots of meat anchoring, natural anchors way back and sequencing which deals with the lack of bolts… (which is fun and challenging!)
I had a small climbing cam in my natural anchor kit – but took it out before the trip. Definitely a couple of spots where it would have been quite handy – but we found other ways. Another tip would be to bring a small wire brush – to clean key foot holds in a couple of critical spots… Likewise, there’s several interesting jumps into flowing pools with hydro features – having a small throwbag for the leader would give them somethign to protect the pool for the next people coming down with bags.
Also, we reckon a shortcut from .867 to the coords that Maddy gave (near the confluence of Diedrichs and the stream with several marked waterfalls on the map) could be better way to do the trip. As Maddy says, above this it is mostly boulder hopping, with a few fun features. Going directly to where the good stuff starts will save a bit of time, on an already long and physical day!
At the flows we had, we’d grade it v5a5IV** We reckon the levels were maybe a little above a median flow, so probably the most common condition outside of drought and flood.
Would have been better to enter the creek at
Lat: -42.98155 long: 171.05653
As the first 1.5 km is just creek walking.
Probably would only give it 1.5- 2 stars, had to add a few bolts and abseil off some trees in some drops as the flow was very high and not passable safely on original bolts.
Took a lot of creek creek walking, to get to a not very slotted canyon, a few nice jumps and short slides. Approach from walking track was very steep and scrubby, we slid down muddy steep slopes most of the way.
Took 3 hours from car to turn off point on walking track, then 45 ish mins to scrub slide down to canyon, 35m rap into creek.