South Guardian Angel Canyon
The last rappel is the point: 305 feet, mostly free hanging, sweeping down through a hanging garden alcove at the bottom of eleven drops.
Budget 17 to 20 hours car to car; the parties who wrote the route description took 19.25 and 20.5. Two things bite. Rappel 5 lands on a ledge, and the scramble up to the vegetated ledge that gets you to rappel 6 is easy climbing with lethal consequences: there is no bolt there, and protecting the first person up still leaves a bad pendulum. The final rappel measures 305 feet only if the anchor webbing is extended from the tree, about 20 feet back, all the way to the lip. Skip that and 305 feet of rope is not enough. Water in the canyon is knee deep at worst, so wetsuits are not the concern. The approach crosses and partly descends the Subway drainage, and Zion requires a permit for any trip into the Left Fork of North Creek, so this route runs on a Subway permit rather than one of its own.
Logistics
| Manager | NPS Zion National Park |
|---|---|
| Permit | Required, verify with land manager |
| Distance | 8.8 mi |
| Technical | 11 rappels, longest 305 ft |
| Coordinates | 37.3163, -113.0495 |
Sources
- permitType: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/canyoneeringpermits.htm
- feeUsd: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/canyoneeringpermits.htm
- manager: https://ropewiki.com/South_Guardian_Angel_Canyon
- nearest town: https://ropewiki.com/The_Subway
- desc: http://bluugnome.com/cyn_route/zion/zion_sga-canyon/zion_sga-canyon.aspx
- notes: http://bluugnome.com/cyn_route/zion/zion_sga-canyon/zion_sga-canyon.aspx
- notes permit: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/canyoneeringpermits.htm