Climbing/Rafting Canons?

I am looking for a rafting trip that will have a lot of good climbing involved. Rafting (Class III ish), maybe a 5 day trip or so, anywhere in the US. Climbing mostly trad, maybe little aid. Any thoughts/suggestion? Thanks!

Canons are really heavy. You probably don't want to put one in your raft while going down the canyon.

New River Gorge, West Virginia.

rafting + world class stone (boulder, sport and trad and aid)

If you are looking for an adventure you could try to repeat this trip that Honnold and company took down the Green River. I don't have any beta on the climbing, but I have canoed the Desolation and Grey canyon sections. Awesome class III water and beautiful canyon all around.
youtube.com/watch?v=rkV4-cR…

Desolation Canyon in Utah is adventurous for a climbing trip. Shake Wait is a great route and most likely unrepeated, though definitely not a giveaway. Lighthouse Rock has also been climbed though I have no details, and toproping is semi-popular in the area around Wire Fence rapid.

A really good trip for climbing is Ruby/Horsethief on the Colorado. You can combine it with Westwater to make a longer trip with good whitewater as long as you can pull a permit. Good climbing around Mee Canyon and Black Rocks. The buttress above the Mee Cayon campsite has some nice Wingate cragging, and i'm pretty sure our route on the Forward Lookout Moon River is unrepeated. 3 miles up Mee from the river is a really impressive cluster of towers, 3 of which have been climbed.

I haven't done Labyrinth Canyon on the Green yet, but friends speak highly of it and i'd like to one of these days.

I know more about rafting than climbing admittedly but Ruby Horsethief (Loma CO to Westwater UT) is 27 miles of mostly flat water with some moving water that is hard to call even class 2. The hiking/climbing/scenery is lovely and no permit required.

Westwater is very fun whitewater and amazing scenery (7 flat 4 whitewater 7 flat for 17 total miles), and there is definitely climbing that you could find. There is a permit for the high season (April-October) that I believe is under $30.

Desolation/Grays is an 84 mile trip where you could also find some good climbing and some good rapids as well. There are roughly 50-60 rapids and probably 10 of them are super fun class 3's. You definitely need a permit for this trip as well and I am not sure of the cost.

At the end of the day I would say do Ruby Horsethief + Westwater

You need a permit for Ruby/Horsethief now for a large portion of the year. Regulations are evolving yearly there now so check with the ranger and don't just show up thinking you can put in.

The problem with Cataract is that the trip runs through Canyonlands and Glen Canyon Rec Area, both of which have fixed anchor bans. Totally a shame because there could otherwise be a lot of good climbing there.

On a similar note, I'm a (relatively new but hooked) climber who's joining a bunch of boaters on a trip down the grand canyon next summer. Even though I don't really paddle I feel likes it's one of those trips you don't pass up, especially considering how hard it is to get a permit these days. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to squeeze a bit of rock into a whitewater trip in that area?

For the Grand Canyon, just bring a pair of rock shoes. If it is a summer trip, it'll be blast oven furnace hot, but there is a lot of unique bouldering that is either permanently shady like the Redwall Cavern, or will be nice first thing in the morning. Most campsites have bouldering possibilities. I'd strongly urge not using chalk to keep impact to a minimum.

Routes in the Grand Canyon tend to be adventurous and many involve long hikes to the temples, so bouldering is your best bet. Many hikes have a fair amount of scrambling associated with them as well, so your group will be psyched if you can scramble up exposed low 5th class rock and fix ropes around tricky sections.

Make sure to rent an oar rig if you are psyched and your group is solid even if you aren't a boater. We had a fit mountain biker/skier type on our last trip who had never rowed before, and he did fine rowing the whole thing. He flipped in Crystal and Lava, but for the most part flipping in the Grand isn't that big a deal. Just don't keep the bread or eggs on your boat.

Thanks so much. We'll have at least one oar rig and an experienced boater will be driving. It's a party of 15. I be sure to bring shoes though. Do know about deep water soloing options on (presumably existent) flat water stretches? I'm also hoping to learn enough to play around in some smaller stretches, but rolling scares the shit out of me.

I'd think for a party of 15 you'd want at least 4 oar rigs to carry your gear, and more would be better. If you are in shape and have a go for it attitude, you should definitely just row an oar rig. The big water, eddy lines, and boils aren't very forgiving for rank beginner kayakers.

I would forget about deep water soloing. The water is icy cold even on the hottest days, and the consequences in such a remote area are just too high if you screw up and get hurt. Keep in mind that any rescue is done by helicopter.

Even though i've been a climber for a long time, there is so much to do between boating and hiking in the Grand Canyon that i've never felt the need to do more than just a bit of bouldering. Never had the energy for it either.

The Honnold, Ozturk trip was in Labyrinth Canyon not Deso. There is no whitewater and the rock in Labyrinth is Windgate. In Deso there is whitewater, up to class IV with the change at cow swim. Most of the rock is pure choss.

Some of the rock in Deso is better than you might think - the Wasatch formation can be excellent and climbs almost like Red Rocks. The Green River formation is a bit more challenging but cleans up with trundling. We were really surprised by the quality of the climbing on the tower we put a route up on. It definitely is no Wingate though.

Here's something a little different...

Cirque of the Unclimables by Packraft

Though it's a just a bit out of the US

Brian Prince wrote:Here's something a little different... Cirque of the Unclimables by Packraft Though it's a just a bit out of the US