Isis Temple

Isis Temple 7,006′
Grand Canyon National Park
Total Time: 3 days
Distance: 36.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 14,200′
Crux: 5.8 R
Companions: Lee Chandler, Dallin Wellington
Trailhead: South Kaibab Trail

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With any big trip into the Grand Canyon, sometimes it’s good to get all of your bad luck out of the way early. Missing car keys, a busted alternator and a forgotten rope meant a late start and a team that was briefly at 5 and now down to 3. And as Lee, Dallin and I started down the South Kaibab Trail looking across the canyon at Isis Temple, it didn’t seem like the weekend would get any easier. We were planning a summit attempt on Isis Temple over 3 days, hiking into Phantom Canyon on day 1, a summit push on day 2 and hike out on day 3. Looking at the distance and elevation gain it seemed quite doable but we knew the numbers were misleading- with technical climbing, plenty of off trail scrambling and snowy conditions up high, it would make for the toughest canyon summit for any of us to date. We needed microspikes for the initial descent into the canyon, but as we crossed into the sunlight at Ooh Aah Point, we were able to ditch them the rest of the day.

Cruising past Cedar Ridge, the trail dropped beneath O’Neill Butte, the only other technical summit I had climbed in the canyon. There were plenty of hikers out on the trail for the weekend, and we worked our way slowly past. The descent to the Colorado took about 2:20 with full packs. I was happy with our time considering the amount of gear we were carrying- backpacking equipment for 3 days, a trad rack from BD #0.4- #4, personal climbing gear and a 60 meter rope.

We took our first long break at Bright Angel Campground, filling up on water and eating snacks before starting up the trail to Utah Flats. I hadn’t been up this route since my dayhike up Cheops Plateau when I had only a daypack, and had forgotten how steep and loose it was climbing out of the canyon. I was struggling to keep up with Lee as he charged ahead, the hot sun leaving the clouds for the first time all day just as we were heading up steep up hill. I had some brief relief in a short flatter section before piano alley, but was quickly huffing again as we scrambled up through the large boulders.

When we broke on to the red slickrock of Utah Flats, we took another short break, taking less than an hour from Bright Angel Campground. We could see Isis Temple again, not looking all that much closer from this side of the Colorado.

As we followed the use trail to the drop off into Phantom Canyon, we spotted two figures in the distance, surprisingly with climbing helmets hanging off their packs. The two were Matt, a Grand Canyon climbing ranger, and Kate, an NAU graduate student studying the impact of climbing in the Grand Canyon. They had been out to attempt Isis Temple as well, but decided against it with the snowy conditions up high, opting for Cheops instead. They were clearly experienced climbers and their hesitation made us nervous, but they admitted some snow had melted over the past few days and we may have better conditions. They wished us luck and we parted ways dropping into Phantom Canyon.

This was the first part of the trip that was new ground for me, and the trail steeply dropped into Phantom Canyon hitting the river at Shelter Camp. We dropped our packs and walked about 100 yard downstream to a nice waterfall that required a short 10′ class 5 downclimb with a fixed rope to see.

We had hoped to reach Hippie Camp that night, which would set us up well for the next day. But it was another 1.5 hours up canyon, and the heavy packs had us looking for a closer option. So when we reached the Overhang in about 30 minutes, it was a unanimous decision to make camp there for the night. The camp was well named, with a large overhanging cliff protecting a sandy and flat campsite with room for easily five tents.

We spread out having the entire canyon to ourselves, and filtered some water before making dinner. After organizing our gear and eating a quick dinner, we headed into our respective tents to bed, Lee sawing logs within 5 minutes of our heads hitting the pillows.

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The alarms went off at 5 AM, and I sat up to make coffee in the tent vestibule while I got dressed for the day. After a quick breakfast, we started off by headlamp shortly after 6:15AM. The trail was a bit harder to follow between Overhang Camp and Hippie Camp, and we had some early morning bushwacking and thrashing by headlamp as we worked up canyon. It took about an hour to reach Hippie Camp, the location of a squatter’s camp (hippies) occupied in the 1970s that led to high E. Coli levels in the water dumping into Phantom Creek.

We stopped and consolidated gear here, paring down to one large pack, one small summit pack and the rope bag. I wore my harness and trad gear to keep my pack light and we each had (or thought we had) two liters of water, although a warmer day would certainly call for more. When we had passed Matt the day before, he told us to head up the second ‘cone’ to find the class 4 break in the Redwall. I took this to mean the second shallow side canyon from Hippie Camp, and we continued that way up stream. But when we looked closer at our map, it looked like the route actually climbed the rib of talus between the two side drainages. We had already passed whatever use trail might head up that way. So rather than backtrack, I charged upslope before someone could talk me out of it, and with a little bushwacking and rock hopping, we found a cairned trail leading up to the redwall.

Lee was worried about ice in this section, but the rock was bone dry as I started up the first section of class 4, about 40′ before reaching another ledge. This first small pitch was quite easy to solo, but the next 40′ looked more challenging and exposed. I started up cautiously, but found the Redwall Rock quite solid and grippy, and wound up on a small ledge next to a juniper with webbing, indicating we were on the right track. Dallin was a bit slower with his large pack, but he made it up before I could get out webbing to set up a handline.

From the top of the class 4, the route traverses a five foot ledge right (north) for about 100 yards before it enters a gully above a huge dry waterfall. There were a few downed trees to make travel difficult, but we were soon on the talus slopes below the bands of Supai, the Coconino cliffs of Shiva Temple high above. It was a bit disorienting leaving the gully, but with a little more elevation gain we spotted Isis Temple to the south, looking within striking distance for the first time all trip.

But before the Supai crux, we had a long talus traverse dancing around thin brush and juniper. About halfway to the Shiva-Isis saddle, we encountered a deep gully to cross. It was hard to tell if there was a route from above, but I tried my luck and found a game trail just above a dry waterfall above the Redwall. Lee and Dallin had chosen a higher route, and by the time I scrambled up the slopes on the opposite side, they were thrashing through the brush below some Supai bands.

“It goes lower down!” I yelled up to them, and they changed course and headed my way, giving me a nice 10 minute break while they caught back up. We stuck together the rest of the way to Shiva-Isis Saddle, crossing over one more small gully before reaching the narrow strip of land between the two summits. We paused here to match the route with our beta, trying not to pay attention to the decent amount of snow in the hermit layer up high.

An ascending traverse west through some of the shorter lower Supai brands brought us to the crux pitch halfway across the first bay.

“Are you sure this is it?” Lee asked. I pointed to a stray ski pole lying on the ground, left by the Tomasi’s on their first ascent. He nodded in agreement.

Grand Canyon Summits Select rates the crux pitch a 5.8 R, although they do write that it is how it feels. I had read other trip reports rating it as low as 5.2, and pretty much everything in between. Regardless of the rating, looking at the set of sandstone cracks above, I felt confident in the lead. There was little argument when I started racking up the protection on my harness, and I tied into the sharp end while Lee belayed.

“Climbing!” I said, pulling on the first ledge, and nearly ripping a mini-fridge sized rock from the cliff face.

“Not such a great start,” I said nervously, and moved several feet to the right to start up a more secure spot.

There were easy steps and ledges to get me up the first 10′ where I placed my first piece, a small cam. To the right was a large semi detached rock that made for great hands, although I questioned its’ integrity with each movement. A nice solid crack on the left flared deep and I worried about my cams walking, so I placed a solid nut before gingerly stepping on the semi-detached rock. I was so concerned about that moving that I nearly ripped a different rock out at the top of the left crack. I was beginning to understand the ‘R’ rating.

A piton to the right signified the crux move, stepping onto a slabby face with a sketchy boogie board sized rock above that looked like it would could break if weighted. I looked for a few solid steps before weighting the rock and mantled to the top of the Supai band and end of the crux pitch. There were no trees around to build an anchor, so I slung a rock and placed two cams, quickly bringing up Lee. We tossed down the rope to Dallin and hauled up his pack with the other end. He slipped at the crux move but recovered quickly, and I broke down the anchor as he untied. It was unclear how much more we would need the rope the rest of the climb so I had it loosely coiled around my shoulder as we continued along the ledges to the west, climbing a short 10′ crack at the end of the bay. It was a bit exposed and certainly at least class 4, and I tossed down a hand line for Lee and Dallin to come up. We would find an easier crack/ ledge system only a few feet to the east on the return, making the downclimb much easier. Our next bit of beta said to cut back to the east and stem up a chimney formed by the main Supai band and a detached rock the size of a small home. We passed by it initially, then spotted it when we looked behind us.

The lower section was another 10′ of class 4 climbing, and Lee scrambled up ahead of us. I followed, and Dallin asked for a belay. I awkwardly flaked out some rope in the chimney and brought him up behind me. Once in the chimney, it was good stemming up another 10′ to get atop another Supai band. At this point, it felt like we should be nearly done with Supai climbing, but in reality we were only about halfway. After a lazy traverse back west to cut around the next low band of Supai, we spotted the pale gray fin of rock that marked the next pitch of climbing and scrambling, topped off with a belly crawl across a narrow and loose ledge.

I decided to head up first to see if a rope would be required, and found really easy scrambling to the right of the fin. I sat at the top while Lee and Dallin passed up gear, then started the sketchy belly crawl across the narrow ledge. There was a small, more open area halfway across that helped facilitate more pack passing, leading to another detached boulder with some stemming to get up onto the next layer.

Still 3 major bands to go… We found a 15′ class 4 crack to get through the next layer, marked by a dead tree near the top with some webbing, encouraging us that we were on track. This crack was quite loose, and after Lee headed up, I climbed halfway to help pass packs up, then gave Dallin a belay once I joined Lee at the top. With a little traversing back and forth, we found a pair of class 3-4 weaknesses to get us through the last two layers of Supai and on to the Hermit Shale below the North Face of Isis Temple.

The class 3 break through the Coconino was on the east face, which would require a snowy traverse to reach along the cliff base. More than one account had called this traverse ‘spooky,’ and although we wouldn’t need the rope for anymore climbing, I suggested we bring it in case the slopes were slick and loose. We each picked a line up the shallow north ridge through about an inch of snow to the base of the Coconino. There looked like some nice climbing lines in the rocks above, but it was already after noon, and we certainly didn’t have time to pitch anything out this close to our goal! The traverse around the east side was honestly probably made a bit easier with the consolidated snow. What would normally be packed and slick red rock was now either firm snow or mud that was holding us well. The only really tricky spot was an eroded gully just before our path up. I crossed a bit too low, and getting out was like climbing on a house of cards ready to crumble.

We start up our class 3 break and found plenty of loose rock, making the pack passing a bit sketchy. I initially continued climbing up the Coconino on the east side but it quickly dead ended, with the route actually crossing to a huge ramp on the west side of the Coconino that offered easy scrambling the rest of the way to the summit.

This was easily the most difficult Grand Canyon summit any of us had climbed, and that fact was certainly not lost on us as we celebrated at the summit. We took turns taking photos, and I opened up the register to sign us in. Although the register only went back to 2008, only 13 people over 9 groups had been to the summit since that time, and no one in 2018!

By the time we finished taking our photos, it was after 2 PM, and we had a long way to get back to camp. We headed back down the way we came through the Coconino, taking about an hour to get back to the top of the Supai bands. Dallin was out of water, and we were unable to scoop any out of the potholes in the Hermit slickrock. So we split up our remaining water and started scrambling down.

The first two bands we retraced our ascent, scrambling down the class 3-4 cracks. When we reached the dead tree above the loose class 4 crack, I set up a rappel. Knowing the last group to summit was in 2017, I replaced or added to every rap anchor we used, further increasing the time it would take to descend. After the first rappel, we hiked downslope to another tree, rappelling the crawl ledge that would have been a pain to reverse. We stemmed back down the boulder chimney and reached the top of the crux pitch around 5 PM. This final Supai rappel was off two large boulders just to the west of the top of the pitch, the longest rappel of the three.

I told Dallin and Lee to hike ahead while I coiled the rope, which we wouldn’t need again until the Redwall raps. We reached the Shiva-Isis Saddle just as the sun set, and we pressed on, hoping to get through as much as the talus traverse as we could before needing headlamps.

We made it about 2/3 of the way across before turning on our headlamps, relying heavily on my GPS to drop into the correct drainage to find the ledge that would lead us to the class 4 descent. Once in the gully, it was easy to stay on course with the occasional cairn, and I set up our rappel down on the juniper tree at the top of the class 4 Redwall pitch. I tossed the rope down into the darkness and dropping into the abyss after it, my headlamp dim from accidentally turning on in my pack during the day. I was hoping we would be able to rap the lower half as well in a single rappel, but a large ledge halfway down was as far as we got. No one was too excited to downclimb the second half of the class 4 in the dark, so I built a fresh anchor off a tree and we finished our fifth and final rappel of the day. Nothing between us and Hippie Camp but several hundred feet of loose class 2. I knew this was a good place for us to get injured, hurrying down the slopes and tired from a long day. Sure enough, when we were nearly at the bottom, some rock cut loose and hit Dallin in the back, thankfully protected by the big pack he had been suffering with all day. We hit Hippie Camp just after that mishap, and we took a break to snack, filter water, and switch out my headlamp batteries. After filtering two liters of water for the three of us, it was a long hour back to camp down Phantom Canyon, not arriving until after 10 PM. We barely had the energy to boil water for dinner before crashing in our tents for the night.

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“Did you hear that rain last night?” Lee said from his tent after our alarms went off. I honestly hadn’t. My tent was the deepest under the overhang, and I was completely dry. But when we unzipped our tents, we found more than a little moisture. There was a fresh dusting of snow covering the entire canyon down to our campsite, the lowest level any of us had seen the snow get in the canyon in person.

With a straightforward hike out, I took my time getting ready, not looking forward to the grind back up to Utah Flats or the south rim. But the hike out to Utah Flats was actually incredibly pleasant, the dusting of snow providing a unique and special canyon experience.

It was only 10 AM by the time we reached Bright Angel Campground, and after a short break, we started the final ascent out of the canyon. Dallin’s through hiking experience kicked into gear and he left the two of us in the dust. I still required my necessary breaks at the Tip Off and Cedar Ridge!

We hit the rim a bit after 2 PM, only to find the road east towards Desert View was gated shut from the snow. We found my car in the small lot buried in snow, and pushed the gate open to make our escape.