Pandemonium is a great canyon and will forever hold a special place in my heart. In fact, it was my life goal (up until this year, now I need a new one. I am open to suggestions. You have my email). After 3 days, $5,000, an endless amount of staring at Lidar data, topos, historical maps, Caltopo, and an amazing team. We completed the canyon in August of 2025. This was no easy feat and was certainly not done overnight. Please heed this warning and take it to heart.

Pandemonium is a very serious undertaking, despite the technicality of the canyon being mostly straightforward. This is a very remote canyon with no possible rescue. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. If you run into problems, it is up to you to find a solution. No team in Montana has the Swiftwater and vertical skills to drag a person down this canyon alive. Additionally, due to the geometry of the canyon, no helicopter is pulling you out either. This is a do-or-die canyon. A rolled ankle is serious business. A broken leg? It could be fatal. Do not underestimate this canyon's ability to kill you or a teammate.

What could possibly make this canyon so unusual?

• The canyon is an avalanche chute with its drainage being mostly slick rock. That means this canyon sees serious forces in the winter that may remove bolts or anchors. Do not expect there to be an anchor at every rappel.

• This canyon’s headwall is all rock; flash-flooding is fast and very violent. Do NOT do this canyon with rain in the forecast.

• The rock quality of this canyon is extremely poor. You can literally pull bricks of rock out of the walls in most places.

• Remoteness. This canyon has been done once. The National Park Service doesn’t even know it exists. NOR DO THEY WANT TO. An accident in this canyon could force the park to ban the sport completely. Do not be the reason why we can’t canyon in Glacier National Park.

• Communication is extremely limited or not possible in sections of this canyon. You will not be able to talk to your partners as radios, whistles, and visuals will be severed during the Vide Noir sequence.

• Emergency exits are slim; there are two I can think of. Both of which are impossible for the injured and extremely risky, as they are slick rock and soaked.

• The water is cold and constant; it's glacier water after all.

• It's a long day. Likely 10 - 18 hours, depending on the group!

• The approach is complex, brushy, steep, and riddled with Grizzly bears. This is not a joke. This approach will put you in high-density, low-visibility bear terrain with a LOT of bear movement. We ran into a lot of bear sign and smelled constant wet dog. We were likely within 100 feet of this bear(s) multiple times along our approach and exit. If this bear gets cubs, this approach will be impassable.

• The approach is long and grueling with no obvious drop-off point! You will have to enter the canyon in a different way than we did, as there is almost no way for me to describe the entrance. That means having proficiency in setting anchors! You’re hanging above a 400’ cliff, find your way down!

In other words, this canyon is for small groups of expert canyoneers, who are comfortable with bears, are great at route finding, can suffer… A LOT, carry bolting supplies, can self rescue, are proficient in swift water skills and are okay with putting themselves and their friends at risk.

If you have not done a Glacier canyon before,

If you do not rig releasable,

If you cannot ascend a rope quickly,

If you cannot convert a rappel system into a haul system,

If you do not like hours of trudging through inhuman terrain,

If you do not have the ability to set bolts and carry a bolt kit,

You are not prepared for this canyon. It can and will kill you under the right conditions.

You WILL be miserable at some point in this canyon.

If you have doubts, take them. Go do something way more enjoyable and safe. Work your way up to this canyon, or wait until it is more established. There is nothing in this canyon worth you or your partners life.

This page is not to scare you, or make this canyon sound like it is the hardest canyon ever done (technicality wise, its pretty straight forward). It is not that. But it is a compliancy killer. Do not be the person or group that closes the sport for the rest of us, or worse, dies. Consider this as the Heaps of Glacier. Its challenges are much different, in fact it might as well be a entirely different sport, but you get the point. It is big!

Thank you for reading through this page, you accept all risks if you continue to the beta page (not that you already weren’t).

*Please note: If you and your team are seriously considering this canyon. Please reach out to this webpage (Eric). There are things you need to know that are not in the beta. Reach out here. Thank you and cheers!

Please click here for Pandemonium beta