Anyone have experience with pulls of potshots (as anchor) or a sandtrap with mud?
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Anyone have experience with pulls of potshots (as anchor) or a sandtrap with mud?
Yeah.
As in, No. Muddy conditions very difficult. Not effective.
Tom
What would be suggested if you found yourself in that situation... limited to no anchor building material other than sloppy mud?
Realistically - go somewhere else!
Very dangerous to do certain canyons just after it rains. Can do a WaterTrap, but that is not ready for prime time (I'm still healin' up).
Can do a SandTrap, but very hard to get it to release, complicated by the lubricating effect of the mud, which might require it to be heavier.
So, don't get into that situation. Mud is bad stuff.
Tom
Agreed!! I have not found myself in this situation, but it is regularly in the back of my mind when in canyons with little to no anchor building material, and things appear as though they could get sloppy.
I have been in several canyons that appeared to be dry until I was partly through them only to find myself in deep smelly mud or to find the walls still wet and slimy with mud. The answer is, you do whatever you need to get through in the safest possible manner. You and your partners get to decide what that is because you are the ones there who know best at that time.
I would use mud in a potshot. It probably won't empty well and extra precautions should be taken against rope grooves.
Maria and I took 3 friends through Colt 45. We dropped in higher than the previous group who gave us beta. Turned out to be half full of water in the keepers(think Big Bertha in Heaps). Came to the big daddy drops near the end.....also half full of water! With only mud available. Could have stacked some potshots, but they do not empty on retrieval and could burst on impact. So, set up the Sandtrap with mud, hanging behind the steep lip of a small pothole. Mud was slowly trickling out the sides, but enough to hold. We used a 300ft rope and over I went. Held great, but the next person had to stand on the rap rope to prevent the Sandtrap from falling back into the water when off rope. Everyone went over like this down to the hanging pothole and continued down to ground, total drop about 180ft. We even did the next 50ft drop off this anchor. The pull was hard even with the hose that I set up over the lip,because the retrieval rope went around two corners, but with 3 people pulling it came all of a sudden! So yes it can be used with mud. If mud too watery, then the water anchor concept will have to be used......Be safe out there!