Anchoring Rage and Education

A Road Rage analogy

From time to time anchoring arguments flare up across canyoneering communities.

There are some arguments that have become staple stock to defend anchoring a certain way, and tearing down someone else’s anchors:

• Bolting makes canyons easier, and they should be difficult.
• Webbing makes canyons unsightly, cut it down.
• Cairns and dead man anchors lead to rope grooves.
• Canyons should remain in a state of first decent for everybody.

Like Road Rage:

The canyoneering convoluted anchoring and rigging disagreements can be better understood when seen through the lens of the “Road Rage” analogy (as coined by David Angel in one FB Instructional Resource canyoneering group)

When we are driving on the road, we get exasperated when we encounter drivers that are not driving at the same speed we want to drive.

Whoever is driving slower, is just unskilled and, it may even cause an accident.

Whoever is driven faster, it is just reckless and surely is going to cause an accident.

As it turns out, you think that your speed is just the perfect one, and everybody should conform to it.

Just like our particular belief about the “correct” anchoring and rigging for canyoneering.

Education

It boils down to training and education. Either leader and guide education, or recreational canyoneer education.

• The “canyoneering as first descent theater” crowd dreams about newcomers and entire communities learning and embracing techniques like toggle-rigging and sandtraps. “Everybody should drive faster”. This, clearly never is going to happen.
• The “bolts are unethical, but deadman and cairns are ok” crowd move the ethics line to semi-permanent installations. But since rigging education is still missing from the equation, these installations usually result in rope-grooves.
• The “lets bolt everything” crowd at some point strikes, thinking that bolts will solve their concerns. But again, since education still is missing from the equation, bolts get placed poorly, resulting in rope grooves, or botched installations that result in loose or spinning bolts.

Safety is a subjective criteria that can not be used to justify your preferred anchoring solution: Your preferred “speed”.

Conservation and clean rope pulls, long lasting installations are more objective criteria to aim for.

Motto

The CGI motto: Safety & Conservation Through Training and Education

Under the current state of anchoring practices though the USA, we see the need to teach a wide range of anchoring situations so you know how to evaluate and mitigate risks. From bolts, to deadmans, to cairns, to natural anchors.