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!
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.