Other – Shoots N Ladder Canyon (Oct 13)

Last weekend, the crew sent out to run a canyon that I had been dreaming of for a few years now. The two day mission begun early Saturday morning. We staged cars, then made the long drive to where we would start. Our first day consisted of lugging heavy packs for 4 hours up the highest peak on the island. We finally made it to the summit, where we set up camp and messed around for a few hours before getting rest for the long adventure that awaited us.

We got an early start to eat breakfast, packed up the tents and other gear, and got going. We began our descent into the valley at 6:30am.

Bushwhacking into the valley was quite the struggle as Sean forgot his long sleeve shirt and about 50% of all the shrubs had some sort of thorn sticking out of them. It was a short bushwhack, and next thing we knew, we were suited up headed down our first rap.

It was a pretty cool scene as we we’re still pretty high up on the mountain and the cloud layer continued to surround us. Here’s one of the larger drops where we would look down and see nothing but clouds. Kinda scary not being able to see the bottom of the rap!

We continued rock hopping and rapping our way through the upper portions of the valley until we reached this area. There were 3 chutes, two of them dry. The view looking out of the valley was even more incredible, we were able to see the ocean and views of the towns far below.

Dropping into the lower section of Shoots N Ladder

The valley really began to quickly close in on us and before we knew it, we were in what felt like a whole another world.

Here’s Sean looking up at the largest drop in the valley.

The drops just kept coming, one after another and another and there seemed to be no end. What really impressed me was the length of slottyness in this canyon. Most canyons on this island have a short section where the canyon walls close in, though this canyon just kept going with tight sections and valley walls towering over you. It was one of those places that really makes you feel insignificant.

Another pic of the larger drops into a small chasm.

Looking back behind us.

The rappels kept coming.

After what seemed like an endless cycle of rappels through the canyon, the walls finally opened up, leaving us with a 3 hour hike out of the canyon. We made it back to the cars right before sunset, completing another awesome day in the canyon.

Overall, we completed a total of 19 rappels. Not bad. This was probably my favorite canyon on the island! Its rare to find a slot canyon that traverses the distance that this one did, especially out on the islands.