Gear overview – and safety issues

Shane, thx for the reply. A couple followup thoughts…

> Until than, the best I can do is point you to Tom’s gear > suggestions at http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/intro/gear.htm.

Yeah, have been all over that. Very good, but has thin spots in critical places for me. And, yes, I’ve discovered the “search” function on this list and have read hundreds of emails on as many topics. A very great email list.

> Yup, many canyoneers get around just fine on an 8mm cord, a few even > use 7mm. Climbers will find many of the things canyoneers do > insane.

I’m frankly thrilled with this hybrid sport, though, being oriented in Search and Rescue & climbing, the sometimes-reduced safety margins make me pause and think. Of course, SAR is hyper-safety oriented, for good reasons, i.e. there’s always a backup to every anchor, a belay, redundancy, redundancy, etc.

Here in canyoneering it seems (correct me if I’m wrong) that redundant systems are not common. For instance, one might tie off on a single anchor (even a potentially shakey anchor like a bush), with a relatively thin rope, over a potentially sharp edge, and do a single line rappel with no belay down a very tall feature. In that scenario if one element in the system fails then it could be pancake city and we divide up your gear amongst us. I painted a worse-case scenario in this example, and I’m sure most folks will use extreme caution in most cases… except they might still use only one rope, one anchor, no belay.

Clearly the need to travel light and sometimes alone means not wanting to carry extra backup rope or a 2nd belay person. You may be able to correct any misimpression I have on this. If however this impression is right, then it’d be interesting to see what kind of safety practices and gadgets might eventually enter the canyoneering arena. And, needless to say, everyone playing this game should be extremely well grounded in self-rescue, etc.

All that said, I’m totally hooked on canyoneering, am doing some in New Mexico, but setting my sites on Utah. But, safety issues are still in the front of my mind and practice.

Greg Malone St. John’s College Search and Rescue Santa Fe, New Mexico