Canyoneer Das Boot Canyon and The Hourglass Zion National Park, UT

May 30, 2022 — This route outlines the full Das Boot Canyon, and also includes a jaunt to a remote peak called The Hourglass. Both The Hourglass and Das Boot Canyon can be done without including the other, but being this far out in Zion National Park put us in the proximity of both, so it was near-impossible for us to not go for it all in a day. Das Boot Canyon flows into The Subway, so when doing Das Boot Canyon most include a top-down trip of The Subway as well. Both are named technical sections within the Left Fork of North Creek, and each require separate permits. Alternatively to our route, many people seem to instead choose to do a shortened version of Das Boot, which trims the canyoneering route significantly. That lower portion of canyon is pretty and worthwhile on its own, but the shortcut doesn't provide access to The Hourglass. I included this shortcut in my attached map for reference. Unfortunately, we couldn't procure a permit for The Subway this trip and were forced to exit the Left Fork of North Creek rather than continuing through. The Subway is gorgeous and worth visiting if you do get a permit, plus it allows you to descend to the Left Fork Trailhead rather than ascend using the more strenuous approach Subway route. The good news was we didn't have to set up a shuttle, so there's that.

I set out with Shawn, Josh, and Matt from the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead, taking the popular trail through the forest on our way to the start of the standard Subway route, which is marked with a sign. The route can be baffling because there are so many cairned options as the route descends the slickrock slope and enters the brushy forest below. Take whatever option feels best, as long as you're heading generally southeast and on some semblance of a well-traveled social trail. The trail continues onto some orange slickrock at the head of Russell Gulch where it begins to ascend slightly. Rather than continue south along the standard Subway route from here, head southeast toward the base of the tall cliffs (you can see this spot on my attached map where the orange line diverts and heads southeast). After gaining about 200 feet of elevation, the terrain becomes relatively flat and a social trail should be fairly easy to locate. If not, just stick to the slickrock as best you can and begin traversing east. You'll notice a purple line on my attached map that outlines the route into Das Boot Canyon if you plan to only do the lower section. This can also be used as an escape route if Das Boot Canyon's upper portion was enough and you prefer to leave before the lower portion.

We continued along the slickrock on the north side of the Left Fork, wrapping around at about 6300' for a good half mile. It was tempting to try to just drop east, but the slickrock dome was far too steep, so we continued north on Class 2 slabs until we spotted a steep, dirty gully that would more easily allow access to flat ground below. While we pulled a Class 2+/3 move here and there, you can likely navigate the crumbly sandstone cliffs better than we did in order to find a good descent point. Once below, we continued east along somewhat brushy terrain, only locating hints of social trails here and there. The goal was to reach the head of the Left Fork of North Creek (aka Das Boot Canyon and The Subway), but there were plenty of Class 2 obstacles, manzanita, and small drainages to wrestle with.

A little bit of poking around on the north rim of Left Fork's cliffs eventually led us to a Class 2 slope we used to enter the drainage, though I'm sure there are plenty of other options to get in there. We dropped our gear at the head of Das Boot Canyon just before it abruptly narrowed into a slot. Our plan was to hike to The Hourglass before we would start the canyon, and we didn't need all of our crap. It was a chilly day, so we were happy to let the canyon warm up a bit anyway. Now we just had to get out of the drainage and ascend to the south to reach the peak. Since I had just done the Right Fork of North Creek a couple of weeks ago (which enters the Left Fork briefly), the landscape was pretty fresh in my mind. I remembered a brushy Class 2 slope with a social/animal trail just before the start of Das Boot, which we took to gain higher ground, where The Hourglass became visible just ahead. Some slickrock walking and crossing through a small drainage got us to the sloped northern ridge of The Hourglass.

Easy walking led us through some sparsely-vegetated forest up to the slickrock at the base of The Hourglass, where tame Class 2 along its crest got us efficiently up to around 6500'. Here, a lump along the ridgeline would serve as our first obstacle. Going up and over adds some fun Class 3 and good views toward the peak, but you can avoid this by keeping to the left (east) side of the lump on Class 2 slabs with some light exposure. Just past the lump was a colorful section of sandstone with a few cool-looking pinnacles that formed around a small bowl. We kept left of these pinnacles and found ourselves at the base of the very steep and treacherous ridge crest. I highly recommend not taking the ridge crest proper. We did some weird and dangerous nonsense on the ascent, which I removed from my attached map altogether. Instead, once past the colorful rock section, we dropped to the right (west) about 50 feet and traversed on the loose slope just below the ridge crest's cliffs, where we located a Class 4 move on a tree trunk growing out of a sandstone crack. It's a bit exposed on the right, but there are plenty of large holds and it's only one move. After the tree move, some Class 2 led us pretty much horizontally for a while along the western slope of The Hourglass. We watched as the crest rose steeply next to us, knowing the ascent would be brutally steep. Sure enough, we entered a loose, dirty gully that shot us up 400+ vertical in a ridiculously short distance. While nothing exceeded Class 2+/3, it's not a fun endeavor. The last 50 feet or so are especially steep and become more dangerous, tree limbs serving as the only holds to escape the sandy nonsense.

Once above the loose slope and back on the ridge crest we continued south, some Class 2 and ample bushwhacking the only obstacles until the summit block about a third of a mile away. Finally we made it to the summit area, where the views are absolutely stunning. You can see the West Rim to the east, Greatheart Mesa to the west, and the many slickrock domes that characterize the Zion backcountry to the south. To the north we could even see roughly where we had started the day. The actual summit block requires a Class 3+ move, but it's not exposed and the rock is solid.

We backtracked from The Hourglass to reach our gear at the head of Das Boot Canyon. We put on our wetsuits and started down, immediately encountering waist-deep water and getting a taste for the cold conditions we'd signed up for. A bit of hiking and scrambling through many minor potholes and sections of narrows got us to a short open section that only lasted briefly before we got into the more committing section of Upper Das Boot. We encountered many short downclimbs, swimmers, 2 drops short enough to set up a handline, and 3 rappels (none exceeding 50 feet). There were even some fun log jam obstacles on our visit. Fortunately the canyon opened up a couple of times from the otherwise dark narrows, allowing us some time to warm up. The last half mile was nontechnical, but included some of the most gorgeous canyon scenery I'd encountered in a while. Colorful walls and interesting curves had me taking a ton of photos.

A few hours of cold canyon fun got us to the end of Upper Das Boot Canyon and the start of the lower portion, the spot where an escape is possible if necessary. However, this second portion of Das Boot Canyon has lots of fun obstacles and gorgeous walls throughout, and is usually what people talk about when referring to Das Boot Canyon, since the upper section gets a bit less attention. After the descent through Lower Das Boot Canyon we reached the one rappel, located at the very end.

From here it was just a matter of locating the standard Subway approach route (Russell Gulch) and hiking out on the Class 2 trail. I thought this was an excellent day, and Zion yet again overwhelmed me with beauty. It's especially cool to link up a remote peak and a canyon in the backcountry, one of my favorite features of the Park.