Five of us from Denver decided to undertake Alcatraz as our first canyoneering adventure in October 2014. Wow! It was a blast, but often referenced by us as 'type two' fun:) A couple of us were experienced climbers, a couple of us were on Alpine Search and Rescue, and our final member had balls of steel - she was awesome and was able to stem many of slots better than the rest of us. This canyon forced an accelerated learning curve for descent techniques, but somehow we managed to navigate the slot without injury - though definitely dropped into a couple pools with a little more speed than desired. As a team of newbs and a group of 5 it took us quite a bit of time - 9 hours round trip. Overall a a great day but was glad that we all had a fair amount of experience. And while we packed a lot of gear (95% of the weight was for the 5% chance that something could go wrong) which was a pain to carry through the tights slots, it was reassuring to know we had the necessary backup and safety equipment. In all, an excellent adventure. Will