Canyon Fundamentals

Field trip: Waterfall Canyoning Supplemental Activities

Canyon Fundamentals - Mountaineers Seattle Program Center

A one day seminar focused on rappelling with a canyon descender, basic knots and basic rigging.

  • Easy

9am Seattle Program Center

In this seminar, you'll learn how to rappel using a variable friction descender, and you'll also have an opportunity to practice the knots you learned in V7.

Required Pre-work:

V7 Level 1 Sections 6-8

V7 Level 2 Section 5

Those who come to the course with some canyoning experience can choose to test out in the morning.

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Route/Place

Mountaineers Seattle Program Center


Roster
Required Equipment

Required Equipment

Students who have canyoning gear are encouraged to bring their own gear so that they can learn on their personal gear. However, no technical gear purchasing is required for the course, as any technical gear that students do not have will be provided to loan for the course.

Students will need to purchase or rent the following gear for the course:

Wetsuit (full body, minimum 5mm on the core). Drysuit is also acceptable though less desirable.

Neoprene socks (minimum 3mm)

Closed-toed approach shoes with sticky rubber or canyon-specific shoes

The Mountaineers will provide the following for students who do not wish to purchase their own:

  • Canyon harness (caving harness is also acceptable. Climbing harnesses are not allowed)
  • 2 dynamic lanyards with locking carabiners  (PAS is not acceptable)
    • students will get to keep their lanyards, which will be sized to each student. Students will NOT get to keep the carabiners. If there are two pieces of gear we recommend purchasing, it’s:
      • An HMS carabiner with a keeper wire (Sterling Falcon Talon is preferred because it is round-stock, but a flat-stock carabiner is acceptable, as is an HMS carabiner without a keeper wire)
      • A small locking carabiner (Petzl Sm’D twist lock is recommended, but a Petzl Spirit or other locking small carabiner is acceptable)
  • 1 variable-friction descender with locking carabiner (examples: Critr, Pirana, Hannibal, Hoodoo, Oka, Resonator)
  • 1 compact mechanical hand ascender (Petzl Basic recommended)
  • 1  mechanical chest ascender (Petzl Croll recommended)
  • 1 single runner (60cm sling) OR chest harness
  • 1 foot loop
  • 1 canyoning knife
  • 1 pea-less whistle
  • 6 pear shaped locking carabiners
  • 1 locking XL Master carabiner OR Grivel Vlad (recommended)
  • 1 Figure Eight Descender
  • 1 locking alpine draw (60cm sewn sling plus two locking HMS carabiners)
  • Canyon Pack with drainage and flotation
  • Rope bag with drainage & flotation
  • Helmet (Climbing helmets & Paddling helmets both acceptable)

GEAR AFTER THE COURSE:

Our goal is to make canyoning accessible to everyone. Graduates of this course will be qualified to participate on Mountaineers Basic Canyon trips. On Mountaineers trips, participants will have access to borrow the gear they borrowed for the course.

Wetsuits can be rented at https://urbansurf.com

Many participants choose to purchase canyoning shoes, however many others use old approach shoes. Any shoes with sticky rubber soles will work.

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