Cattle Canyon

a new canyoneering first descent (as far as we could tell) down Cattle Canyon on the SouthWest side of Mt Baldy.

Swaney: We did a loop starting from Glendora Road, down to Baldy Village, and then up the Bear Flat trail to the 9400' level near the West Baldy summit. From there, we headed down Big Horn Ridge. We immediately dropped straight off the ridge for a horrendous descent down to the canyon floor. This is an extremely steep, completely rotten section of mountain that you could easily get into serious trouble in. May 2021 descent: Dropped directly into Cattle from the saddle at its head rather than contouring around to the west. It was a steep scree slope but didn't feel overly sketchy. It took 25 minutes of sliding down this to intersect Swaney's track.

Information from May 2021 descent is below. There could be more rappels depending on the group's downclimbing abilities. Anchor material is abundant throughout. R1: 150' - webbing around boulder, two-step rappel, possible to do as two pitches using a shorter rope R2: 70' - rope placed directly around log, low angle in watercourse R3: 30' - rope around boulder R4: 60' - rope around tall boulder; beautiful vertical slot in the watercourse