Canyoneering Courses

Learn technical Canyoneering skills.

Empower yourself to explore.

Full-Day Course with the family, then off to a week of self-guided canyoneering adventures.

Technical canyoneering curriculum delivery which challenges, changes, and enhances your skills, decision-making abilities, leadership qualities, and rescue skill-sets. We invoke the highest technical safety standards and empowering educational paradigms emphasizing Leave No Trace, community building within the group dynamic, and interactive problem solving of natural canyon obstacles. We introduce rescue skillsets for problem-solving at and beyond your current ability level.

Half & Full Day Canyon Course

Sample Course

Level 1 Curriculum: Introductory Half Day 100 or Full Day 101

(Half day courses are not recommended to get through the full intro to canyoneering curriculum)

  1. Basic of wearing harnesses and helmets

  2. Loading and unloading rappel devices

  3. Double rope and single rope rappel

  4. Belays and back-ups

  5. Basic bolted anchor settings (Full Day - trees and boulders)

  6. Rope handling practices

  7. Sequencing rappelers

  8. Body positions, footwork, speed control

  9. Down and up-climbing

  10. Planning logistics for some self-guided canyons (Geology of Desert Canyons)

  11. Flash flood safety

  12. Leave No Trace

Half/Full day Canyon Course pricing

Half-Day Canyon course 100

6 person max (start times may vary)
April – May (begin at 8am )
June – September (begin at 7am)

  • One on One: $469.58

  • 2 Students: $245.39/person

  • 3 Students: $208.11/person

  • 4 Students: $195.31/person

  • 5 Students: $181.26/person

  • 6 Students: $168.36/person

  • 7+ groups, call to discuss class options & pricing

    Cancellation Policy

Full-Day Canyon course 101

6 person max (start times may vary)
April – May (begin at 8am)
June – September (begin at 7am)

  • One on One: $804.54

  • 2 Students: $430.36/person

  • 3 Students: $335.31/person

  • 4 Students: $302.63/person

  • 5 Students: $267.76/person

  • 6 Students: $234.61/person

  • 7+ Student groups, call to discuss options & pricing

    Cancellation Policy

3 Day Canyon Course

Sample CourseS

Average 9 - 10 hour days, usually taught over 3 days.

Course 103

  1. Prerequisite that students are familiar with 101 curriculum

  2. Harness / helmet use

  3. Proper pack

  4. Rappel devices, carabiners, safety tethers

  5. Stone knot

  6. Auto-block wrap, traditional prusik

  7. Bachman, klemheist, alpine butterfly

  8. Coiling / deploying

  9. Rope back use / cleaning anchors

  10. Safety connections, loading devices, backups

  11. Approching an edge, body position, footwork

  12. Speed control / lock-off

  13. Belay 3rd hand pros & cons

  14. Fireman’s / top belay

  15. Bolted anchors, equalization log jams, trees, knot chocks, boulders, chock stones, arches, pinches, meat anchors

  16. Double / single rope technique

  17. Rope pull / coil

  18. Logistics (maps, navigation, watershed and geology)

  19. Rope ascending

  20. Captures

Course 203

  1. Prerequisite that students are familiar with 103 curriculum

  2. Multi-pitch rappel

  3. Meat anchors

  4. Sand traps / Water traps

  5. Utilizing a Fiddle-Stick

  6. Deadman’s anchor

  7. Bollard anchor

  8. Ghosting techniques

  9. Meat belays

  10. Captures

  11. Partner assist

  12. Rope ascending

  13. Knot pass / Heaps lower

  14. Tandem rappel

  15. Parallel rappel

  16. Piggy-back rappel

  17. Pick-off

  18. Conversion to lower

  19. Double rope technique to lower

  20. Last person at risk

  21. Pack drags / captures

Course 303

  1. Prerequisite that students are familiar with 203 curriculum

  2. Retrievable anchors / utilizing a Fiddle-Stick

  3. Deadman’s anchor

  4. Bollard anchor

  5. Ghosting techniques / problem solving

  6. Sand traps / Water traps

  7. Rope ascending

  8. Knot pass / Heaps lower

  9. Simul rappel

  10. Rope ascending

  11. Pot hole escape

  12. Pot shots / ballast escapes

  13. Person climb

  14. Hooking

  15. Last person at risk

  16. Pack drags / captures

3 Day Canyon Course pricing

intro 3 Day Canyon course:
intro to Canyon 103

April – May (begin at 8am)
June – September (begin at 7am)
6 person max, start times may vary

  • One on One: $1575.16

  • 2 Students: $846.41/person

  • 3 Students: $786.17/person

  • 4 Students: $723.98/person

  • 5 Students: $665.04/person

  • 6 Students: $602.79/person

  • 7+ Student groups, call to discuss options & pricing

  • Cancellation Policy

ADvanced 3 Day Canyon course:
Potholes + rescue 203

April – May (begin at 8am)
June – September (begin at 7am)
6 person max, start times may vary

  • One on One: $1750.06

  • 2 Students: $967.78/person

  • 3 Students: $908.42/person

  • 4 Students: $846.15/person

  • 5 Students: $786.10/person

  • 6 Students: $725.04/person

  • 7+ Student groups, call to discuss options & pricing

  • Cancellation Policy

ADvanced 3 Day Canyon course

ADvanced 3 Day Canyon course:
GHOSTING + RESCUE 303

April – May (begin at 8am)
June – September (begin at 7am)
6 person max, start times may vary

  • One on One: $1765.96

  • 2 Students: $1005.94/person

  • 3 Students: $974.14/person

  • 4 Students: $944.46/person

  • 5 Students: $913.93/person

  • 6 Students: $883.33/person

  • 7+ Student groups, call to discuss options & pricing

    Cancellation Policy

Retrievable anchor setup

Canyon Quest Course FACTS:

  1. Course = safety and rescue courses designed for aspiring canyoneers.

  2. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  3. Canyon classes are held in-canyon unless weather forbids.

  4. Both half- and full-day canyon classes include multiple rappels, some as high as 175’ on full-day trips.

  5. Short to long hikes from 20 to 90 minutes each way

  6. Canyon descents may include down-climbing and swimming; if no swimming is desirable just let us know.

  7. Full-day courses usually include 2x to 3x the amount of canyon as half-day trips

  8. All courses can be private for an additional charge of $50.

  9. There is no guiding allowed in Zion National Park Wilderness. No commercial canyoneering guide service is allowed in canyons such as The Subway or Pine Creek. All Zion Guru trip providers are licensed and permitted for access on public and private lands outside the boundaries of Zion National Park.

  10. We have access to over 25 different canyons in the Zion area, both east and west of Zion. We choose and change our locations to best serve the curricular needs of the group.

  11. We can coordinate locations with your travel plans. If you are headed toward Vegas, Bryce, or Grand Canyon on our trip day we can choose a canyon that puts you closer to your destination by the end of the day.

  12. All canyon courses, whether beginner or advanced, can be customized and taught over multiple days to ensure competency

If you are staying in the town of Springdale Utah, where the Zion Guru shop is located, your guide is happy to pick you up for your guided tour at your place of lodging for no additional cost.

Discovery Canyon Quest

The definitive multi-day canyoneering experience customized for your group.

Locations include but not limited to:

UTAH - Zion area, Escalante, Glen Canyon, Robbers Roost, North Wash 

CANADA - British Columbia

ASIA/SOUTH PACIFIC - Japan, Australia, New Zealand

EUROPE - Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Reunion Islands

Canyon Course Inquiry/Request Form