We were in Cedar Camp the next morning after a 40 minute scramble. Actual time spent traveling from the falls to Cedar Camp was six hours and 45 minutes. All things considered - boulder scrambling, brush-wacking, and almost innumerable stream crossings - meant that we could not have been making more than one and a half miles per hour. Therefore Cedar Camp must lie about 10 or 11 miles above the entrance falls. Our previous try at the peak saw us make two attempts up wrong washes which headed toward the Pinnacle Ridge. It is the consensus of opinion among ourseleves that Canyon del Diablo does not extend more than two miles beyond Cedar Camp, making the total length of the canyon probably not more than 13 miles. From Cedar Camp we followed the Bernhard Route description which appeared in the December 1963 issue of SUMMIT MAGAZINE. A brief synopsis of this description in incorporated in the following material. Cedar Camp is rather easy to locate when you keep one major feature of Bed Bernard's route in mind. The camp lies at the intersection of Canyon del Diablo and a rocky wash leading in from the north. A prominent bald rock dome known as the Teapot is located on the ridge to the left of the rock wash. In fact, there are several bald prominences to be seen up this rock wash but the Teapot is the closest. This is the only canyon we noticed with the obvious domes. Cedar Camp can also be located 50 yards to the north of rock cairns on either side of the stream in the canyon. If one goes beyond Cedar Camp, the canyon forks and the north fork gets steeper and has several rapids and small falls. Starting up the rock wash leading NE from Cedar Camp, we first located the Teapot. We stayed in the wash no longer than necessary, and one hour later crossed over the ridge a 7150 feet, directly above and behind the Teapot. The Club attempt in November made the mistake of contouring the ridge too low and crossed just below the Teapot. After crossing, we contoured toward a bald ridge which had an eight foot tall dead pine stump on it. Crossing the ridge 100 yards above the stump, in an area of scrubby trees, we saw another rock wash running to our left and ahead of us. This is the Slot Wash, up which we traveled. The Slot Wash is actually a sort of "hanging canyon", not visible from Canyon del Diablo, and tributary to the large canyon up which Andy Smatko and two others climbed in November. It "hangs" above this large canyon and would be extremely difficult to enter from below. Memorize the spot on the ridge from which you descend into the Slot Wash in order to locate it on your return. This is the only place on the route up where you loose elevation. Several ducks were seen in the Slot Wash as we proceeded toward the peak. 55 minutes after starting our descent into the Slot Wash, at about 8500 feet, we came to a rocky prominence which divided the wash. Our directions stated that we should avoid sharp turns to the left or to the right out of the wash, but this was neither, so we chose the right or south fork. This later proved to be a departure from the Bernhard route, which we discovered

Page Index	Prev	Page 8	Next	Issue Index