Highest drop 35m (2x 60m ropes needed, due lack of anchors in one place, requiring a 50m rappel.)
Public access
14hrs
A stunning, steep and slotted canyon. It starts high up Mt Earnslaw and continues without pause all the way down to the valley. 700m of descent and over 40 rappels. A real classic, although also quite a big day!
We had an awesome day in the eagles nest. Is the 1200m bush bash climb worth it? Definitely! Would I do it again? Probably not with out a heli!
This canyon is quite the trip, with beautiful pools and views, several jump options and amazing back to back waterfalls I would rate it over The General!
Unfortunately it does seam to have didymo. Though only apparent in the upper third, in the more open slab drops. Definitely be treating your gear after a trip through.
We did quite a few repairs, replacing several slings and added 4 bolts.
If you are heading that way I would recommend taking a hand full of ring hangers to replace the hanger/rusty mallion combo that is throughout most of the canyon. Grinding the mallions off at home will be much easier I would think.
Beautiful trip, hope to be back one day!
Good trip, tried approaching the canyon from a different direction, seemed better overall however the middle section of the track between 800m and 1200m is still difficult. The bolts are all in good condition, webbing could do with replacing.
Descended Eagles Nest on 15/3/23. All anchors are in good condition, some are hard to reach, almost all are single bolts, some deviations would be handy on a couple pitches to avoid the concentrated flow. Pools are a mix of deep and shallow, hard to check as the water isn’t clear. Two of us, Car to car in 12hrs (3.5hr walk in, 7hrs down, 1.5 hrs walk out). Flow seemed to be around moderate maybe slightly higher, had some heavy rain two days prior.
All anchors intact, except needed to get on each other’s shoulders to reach a few anchors that must have been bolted on a false floor.
One double bolt towards the end was bashed sideways but still usable, some tapes on trees could do with replacing, but we used a fiddle stick.
Didymo present in small amounts in canyon.
Team of four did Eagles Nest yesterday. A long canyoning day, 13 hours and a half. The canyon is worth visiting in my opinion better then The General and Major. It is just the long approach, that kills the wish to do it again. We bolted R10 and R34 and installed missing plate on R40. All the other anchors are in good conditions, next party should bring new webbing to replace old ones on the trees.