QUITE AN ADVENTURE.
Jacob is a good canyon; it is also rather tough. The approach has steep, loose and exposed scrambling; among the most difficult scrambling I have done in Zion.
The canyon itself is long and interesting with a big finish! It does not hold water, so wetsuits are not required. It faces south and will be very hot whenever the sun shines, so, most of the year.
The approach starts with the wonderful hike/climb up Lady Mountain to the summit. Then a treacherous route leads over to and down into the canyon, where a couple rappels and several downclimbs lead to a lovely narrows. Pass through the narrows via a couple of raps and some downclimbs to a highly vegetated canyon bottom. Beware. Some of that vegetation is poison ivy!
The rest of the canyon has the occasional rappel, soaring canyon walls and many trees. Eventually, it comes to the BIG FINISH, a 150' downclimb to the edge of a big drop and a 240' rappel down a poison-ivy-sprouting wall. A final rappel leads past a spring, and a boulder-hopping section puts you on the floor of the Court of the Patriarchs.
Jacob Canyon is not named on the map. It is the canyon between the Jacob - Lady Mountain ridge and the Isaac - Peak 6945 ridge.
Canyon Profile
Logistics
RATINGS
4A IV R ★★★★☆
(R rating is for the approach)
TIME REQUIRED
10-14 Hours
PERMIT REQUIRED
Yes. Get a white pass and an early start.
SEASON
Fall; perhaps a short window in the spring
LONGEST RAPPEL
240 feet (73m)
ACCESS
In the Main Canyon. Starts from the Lodge, ends at the Court of the Patriarchs.
EMERGENCY
Zion Wilderness Desk: (435) 772-0170
Zion EMERGENCY: (435) 772-3322
Equipment
ESSENTIALS
Helmets, rappelling gear, webbing and rapid links. A FiddleStick will be useful. This is a rarely-done canyon, so anchors will need to be re-rigged.
COLD WATER PROTECTION
None required
DRINKING WATER
None available. Bring plenty.
DIFFICULTIES
FLASH FLOOD RISK
Small. However, rain could make the approach and the lengthy downclimb to the penultimate rappel anchor extra dangerous.
SKILLS REQUIRED
Anchor finding might be required. Good downclimbing skills on loose rock needed for every person in your group. Long rappel skills.
ANCHORS
A mix of bolted and natural anchors.
GPS - first chimney on Lady Mtn Route: 326152mE 4124749mN
Seasonal Adjustments
Winter and Spring: the canyon starts at 6900 feet, and any snow at altitude will make this trip extremely difficult and treacherous.
Summer: faces south, very hot.
Fall: should be good until the first snow.
Approximate times:
0:00: Start at Zion Lodge
4:00: Summit of Lady Mountain
5:00: First Rappel
5:45: Start of Narrows
6:45: End of Narrows
7:45: Second Big Rap
9:00: Arrive at Penultimate Rap
10:00: Big Rap: Re-rig, rap, pull, stuff
10:30: Final Rap finished
11:30: Finish at Court of the Patriarchs shuttle stop.
Getting there
From the summit, traverse the summit plateau to the far eastern end and the top of the ridge connecting to the summit mesa of Isaac. Downclimb a steep, loose chimney on the right, behind a tree, to the steep slopes below. Downclimb down and left, following the crest of the ridge to easier ground, then along the ridge. Pass the first rock obstacle on the right side, using ramps to regain the ridge crest. Continue along the ridge until blocked by a rugged rock tower.
Traverse and descend steep, brushy terrain toward the crease of the canyon where it tops out at a notch. When the bottom of the canyon is visible, descend into the canyon, then across to the far canyon wall. Work down to a set of trees above a substantial drop. Allow about an hour from the summit to this point.
The Business
R1: 85 feet (26m) off a tree.Walk and downclimb a few minutes to another rappel.
R2: 65 feet (20m) off a tree.Continue down brushy, dirty vegetated terrain to the start of the a rock narrows. A short downclimb leads to a 2-bolt anchor.
R3 to R8: about 6 rappels, mostly from bolted anchors, up to 75 feet. The narrows has changeable rock and tree debris on the floor. Rig your rappels carefully to avoid snagging a rope on this debris. You may need to rig more (and new) raps off this debris to assure rope recovery. Be smart, be careful.
Descend the vegetated canyon with the occasional downclimb through boulders. A short rappel off a smallish tree on canyon left is made.
R9: 50 feet (15m) off a tree.
A dropoff is found in a grove of trees. Rappel off a tree in the middle, very awkward start under/through the branches of the tree.
R10: 130 feet (40m)
Stroll downcanyon to an open drop.
R11: 150 feet (46m) off a small tree. Be careful of the edge.
The next section is a lovely walk in a wide, forested canyon with an occasional downclimb. This eventually leads to the top of a big, big drop. Downclimb a steep slab working ledges back and forth to the bottom right corner of the slab where a bolt anchor can be seen. The first move of the downclimb is a bit difficult; using a meat anchor and careful spot might be a good idea.
R12: 240 feet (73m) off a two-bolt anchor on the right wall. There is a lot of poison ivy growing out of the cliff.
Follow the left canyon edge about 100 feet down to the top of a drop.
R13: 130 feet (40m) off a tree to the ground in a wet alcove.
The Exit
Work your way down the watercourse several hundred feet until an exit can be made to the right to lower-angle terrain. Find and follow a human-type trail several hundred yards to where a real trail descends easily down through the cliffband. Follow trails south to "civilization", indicated by a horse-corral area with a distinctive aroma. Follow the trail that heads toward the road, up a slight hill, then down to a bridge over the river and a huge water tank, and soon to the Court of the Patriarchs shuttle stop.
AUTHORS EXPERIENCE
I have descended Jacob Canyon three times. The first time (May 1, 2013) with Bailey Schofield; we approached with an alternate route, down the east face of the Jacob-Lady ridge. In Jacob, we failed to rig the penultimate rappel correctly and got our rope stuck, cutting 60 feet off the end of our 300' rope and making two short raps down the right side at the bottom to get out. Beta from Brian Cabe was used on this trip.
I came back a month later with Jonathan Zambella and friends to clean up the mess. We descended the canyon from the top through the rock narrows as described here, finding bolt anchors in several places. At the big rappel, we rigged a little differently and left a pad to protect the rope from the edge. We also retrieved the trash.
April 2017 I descended the canyon with Springdale locals and placed two bolts for the big rappel in a position that allows a clean pull near the previous anchor.
Trip Reports
exterior links
Tim Dowling reports on a 2014 Trip down Jacob
history
RT (Royce Trappier) bolts were found in the narrows in June 2013. Earliest descent I have on record is from Brian Cabe and Dwight Curry on 31 March 2001. RT would have been before that.
The penultimate rappel shows a variety of bolt styles indicating more than two parties (at least) had placed bolts here before 2013.
Testimonials:
"Lady Mountain had been on my list for years and descending Jacob was a bonus and a last minute decision on my part. None of the others had heard of it. We walked and down-climbed off the top of Lady to the very head of Jacob. I thought the canyon was awesome. Different from other Zion stuff as it had some narrow spots, quite a bit of downclimbing and almost no water. I lost count of the raps. Interesting that it was entirely bolted with shiny new bolts and bright blue webbing-very surprised to see that. We were prepared to leave webbing on natural anchors or do some retrievable stuff. Curious that we couldn't find similar new bolts and that same blue webbing at the final two drops. We used the multiple bolt station for the 240' rap and slung a boulder for the final drop to the pools. Very wet and slippery there for the last with a flowing spring creating a light waterfall. I felt like there might have been a better course for the final two drops to the left but we were racing daylight and I didn't want to search around. All told, a fantastic day." —Todd Taylor, SLC.
Maps
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