canyons of martinique
December 2022-January 2023
Tropical canyon paradise.
Martinique has hundreds of descended canyons. While many are not very good, some are absolutely incredible. Picture lush vegetation, clear and warm streams, approaches up into the cloud forest, and an excellent canyoneering community with good beta and anchors.
Suhei and I spent two weeks on this crowded little island descending canyons. We travelled around the island as well, but mostly spent our days wet and on rope. Existing beta wasn’t really good enough for us to descend all the canyons we wanted. Local canyoneers typically go with someone that already knows the route, instead of using beta themselves. There was also torrential rains several times daily. While this soggy, saturated, verdant island doesn’t typically have flash-floods in winter, when we visited, we played it safe and cancelled some of the slot-like routes I was aiming for in favor of ones with easier escape.
We had a great time. Blanche Piton Dumauze was one of the best and most exotic canyons we’ve ever done, and fairly challenging, with lots of obstacles and ever-increasing flow as you descend. There were also many little canyons that were plenty of fun. The canyons we ran were:
I updated the beta on Ropewiki.com for all these and some other canyons to help future canyoneers. If you go, make sure to reach out to the Martinique Canyoning Club. They are very welcoming and helpful. Martinique is a world-class canyoneering destination, and I’d strongly recommend it.
