UT: Zion – Das Boot – July 5th 2019

Since alot of Colorado is still under a sheet of rapidly melting snow and the canyons out our way are a bit sporty for my taste, I decided to make the drive out to Zion for the weekend after some convincing from some Cali friends of mine,. I knew I wanted to do a canyon but really didnt have a ton of time to plan. Originally I was considering Misery or Middle Echo, but due to trailhead closures, and traffic in the park, I decided to do something west of the tunnel.

Permits for Das Boot were available, so we picked some up and went for it. We arrived at the trailhead a few minutes before the hoards arrived. I think three 12 person groups took off from the trailhead within 20 minutes. I can only imagine the line throughout the Subway. The trail to the start of Das Boot wasnt the worst, but id be lying if I said I didnt get a bit off a few times. We managed to get down to the sandy beach to suit up. We had 4/3 wetsuits and one person elected for a dry suit. Ive always enjoyed a bit colder water, and the 4/3 felt perfect, almost warm at times. The person in the dry suit was the opposite on both counts and ended up getting a bit chilled.

The canyon was straight forward and super scenic. I feel like ive seen alot of varying beta in terms of rappels, but we only ran into two. a log jam that could probably be hand lined and the final rappel into a pool at the end of Das boot/ start of the Subway. The only downclimb that gave some of the group problems was a rounded boulder leading to a 10-15ft drop. I should have prefaced with the fact that this was my Cali friends first canyon ever, and they did great. Despite warnings of cold/high/running water, what I had found was what felt like low waters which were not running.

Since we couldn’t get Subway permits, we exited through the Subways entrance. What followed was an arduous climb out in some serious heat. We filtered some water before starting the hike out, which was definitely needed. the clear skies meant a relentless sun which had me wishing for the cool waters in the canyon.

Overall, the hike was worth it despite the exit. We saw a total of zero people once we split off from the subway trail, a stark contrast from the hordes of people in the park. Only thing id do differently is bring in less rope so I didnt have to haul it all out.