Photo: Ian Tuttle

Swaney throws a rope bag off the final rappel in Cyclops Canyon. May 3, 2016.

We make our way down four more rappels and reach the top of a truly massive wall. We can see the outlet and gentle hike back down to the valley far below. But atop this cliff, there isn’t anything to use as an anchor. We scrounge rocks for a cairn anchor, but there aren’t enough to make a sufficiently heavy pile. There’s a small ledge about ten feet below us that we’ll use for the anchor point, but there aren’t any rocks on it. Swaney throws rocks down to the ledge and curses as one rock after another bounce over the edge. He downclimbs to the ledge to investigate and soon shouts up that he’s found a chockstone— a golf-ball-sized rock that some past flood event has wedged into a crack in the top of the cliff. This will be our anchor.



Swaney clips in and looks over the edge. He tells me I might want to try a Z-rig on this one, and then disappears over the edge. My Petzl Reverso device (from my climbing gym days) doesn’t offer a lot of friction, and I noticed it can get going really fast on the longer rappels. I clip a carabiner to my leg loop and another to the rope above my harness, giving myself the option to add friction mid-descent. This is the Z-rig that Scott had shown me earlier. Then I sit at the edge and shimmy over, letting out rope, looking down at the tiny specks of Swaney and Navarro below. Halfway down, I’m having trouble gripping the brake rope. I’m sweating like crazy, my fingers ache, and the rope is getting very hot as it passes through my gloved hands. I engage the Z-rig just before the rappel goes free-hanging; the added friction is a welcome relief. I slowly descend past a huge cave in the cliff face in front of me. With my legs dangling and my heavy backpack pulling me backwards, it takes a lot of core strength to remain upright. I try to enjoy the view, but mostly I just want to survive the descent.