please, please read what i am about to say to you.

are you all novices? do your buddies have extensive Grand Canyon experience? and i mean EXTENSIVE experience. the New Hance/Red Canyon trail is NOT NOT NOT suitable for beginners. i've been down in the Grand 6 times and i don't consider myself at all skilled enough to do the New Hance.

read this trails desription from Kaibab.org, the best GC website out there:

http://www.bobspixels.com/kaibab.org/bc/gc_tr_rc.htm

an excerpt:

"Like the Tanner Trail this trail should not be used by any but the most experienced canyoneers, especially you are travelling solo. If you should run into trouble along it your chances of rescue are very slim. This trail has additional disadvantages because its trailhead is not easily accessible and also because none of the trail is visible from any of the rim lookouts, meaning that all a signal mirror will do for you is let you signal aircraft. Another problem in that area is that in the winter months most the upper sections of the trail never get any direct sunlight making a signal mirror useless. At least on the Tanner Trail you can use a signal mirror to try to get help from people at the Desert View lookout. If you run into trouble on the Red Canyon Trail your best bet, depending on how far from the rim you are, is to keep heading for the river and to get help from a river party."


this is a completely unmaintained trail. it is not visible from most of the south rim. if you are going to do it, and i strongly recommend that you do not, you should rent a satellite phone or contact the GC backcountry office to ask what kind of personal locator beacon might work in there. i'm serious. if somebody gets hurt you are a loooong way from help. the trailhead itself is a quarter mile walk from the highway, and there is no parking, no view point. you'd have to wait for a car to drive by.

snow is absolutely a possibility. i have encountered snow, hail, and ice at the south rim, and in months closer to summer than November.

please, i'm not being an elitist "you can't do this" snob. you can do this in a few years, after you have some more Canyon experience under your belt. i just strongly suggest that you not do it this time.