Description
Approach by Car: Park in the Alva glen car park.
Approach by foot: Follow the footpath upstream over the bridge, see water level marker then continue uphill keeping left when you reach the track junction. Follow the path along the river until you reach the large dam with a 6m waterfall and gates around the top, if you are concerned about water levels you can look at the last abseil in the canyon by going through the fence and walking around the corner until you see the final drop. See photos for reference. If the canyon is in condition, continue up hill following the zig zag path until you reach the opening giving you a view of the bottom of main escape out of the canyon, continue over the stile and follow the track (DON'T GO INTO THE CANYON HERE) The start of the canyon has a flat river upstream.
Canyon entry: Enter at the flat river, a short DC will bring you to A1.
Canyon descent: A interesting descent down a deep slot canyon, multiple features to be found, some require careful management (see topo)
Exit: When you reach the Dam, exit TR and follow track down.
Escapes: Possible after A1 however any escape after would be difficult.
A fun short blast with a beautiful main feature of the ‘corkscrew’ ab. Descended in team of 4, low to moderate flow. 2 dead sheep in the canyon after A1 at the top of the 3m slide, all anchors fine. Last log jam feels a little unstable with lose rocks that do move.
Descended on 06/08/24. Team of 3. (In – 30 mins / Down 1.5hr / Out 20 mins) Water level was medium / high. Some features were slightly more aquatic than usual and required some roped avoidance. The main feature the corkscrew was quite violent and seems unavoidable for the 1st team member, the concentrated flow flipped one of the team as they passed through. Overall, Great trip!
Well worth the trip! We went in with the gauge reading between 0.5 and 0.6 and water levels were light to moderate in flow. All bolts were good, A3/ J 3m was not a jump unless you know exactly where to jump. Lots of loose rock at the top of the final abseil to be aware of to so watch out for that.
*Just a quick note to confirm the bolts at the bottom of the corkscrew waterfall are completely removed as of the 8th of July and yet to be replaced.
Overall Alva is one of my favourite canyons to run! Plenty of fun pitches and can be done relatively quickly for a short trip. Worth a visit!
A really nice canyon with some good pitches. Not the longest, but well worth doing.
Whilst the flow was one clean curtain on the weir, levels were moderate in the canyon. with the water in the stream itself looking very low.
All anchors were good apart from the guideline bolts at the bottom of the corkscrew (A5) which were no longer there/ smashed up. Not an issue for our group as those are predominantly for less experienced canyoneers or commercial led trips.