Keyhole Falls

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viboourolcot Keyhole Falls is a part of The Subway that gets its name from it's keyhole shape (when viewed from the side)

[edit] 2006 Conditions

As of May 5th, 2006, the Subway was perfectly "in season". The water was cold, but the water level is significantly lower than last year at this time. As an example of how much conditions can change from year to year, the following information shows what theis part of The Subway looked like in early 2005.

[edit] When in Flowing Conditions - May 2005

Keyhole Falls on May 4th - (click to see larger image)

On May 4th, this is what it looked like. (This water was waist deep, and flowing heavily) Neither the video nor the photo show really how strong the current was (the photographer apologizes for not being willing to risk his life for a better shot). The potential for serious injury was too great at this point for the group going on May 4th to continue on - so they tried to find any way possible around it. They weren't able to find any anchors on the shelf high above the water to the left-hand (facing downcanyon) side, nor on the right-hand side. When they were directly above the falls - they saw clearly how fast the water was flowing and how strong the eddy current was. There were many swirling currents on either side of the canyon past it. To top it off - after the rapid waters was a logjam (that would have been passable).

They ended up emergency bivying and then retreating upcanyon. To retreat The Subway upcanyon when it is flowing heavily is not a fun task. To pass the waterfalls and sections of chest-deep flow, they had to do some exposed climbing up the sides of the canyon and walking alongside several-hundred foot drops into raging water. In short, it was not fun.

Because of the above conditions, the canyon has been moved to the "out of season" list on the list of Canyons in Season.

A video (3.8 MB mpg) of Keyhole Falls on May 4th is here:
http://www.canyonwiki.com/bigfiles/MOV02162.MPG