Los Angeles Canyoneering - VIDEO

[Sombeech]

[gootwan]

Cool video... but am I mistaken or did I see that dude rigging an auto block before rapping down a waterfall? Is that safe?

Jordan

[Scott Card]

Cool video... but am I mistaken or did I see that dude rigging an auto block before rapping down a waterfall? Is that safe?

Jordan

Good question. Looks like he was having trouble in the waterfall, maybe not, but it seems that would not be a good idea. If I saw correctly, he had a prussik next to his harness and has extended his Piranha with a tether. Ok oh Gurus. A little help here..... (this is why I need these canyoneering courses)

I'll go out on a limb and tell you what I would do in this canyon. It didn't look like the hydraulics were that bad so I would have never put an auto block on my set up. I would have gone normally, piranha attached to biner attached to harness - no tether and if I was nervous about anything, I would be nervous about getting tangled in the rope or stuck in a bad hydraulic. Therefore, I may have had a sheath knife on my leg strap just in case. Drowning scares me almost as much as falling. OK, critique away. (please) Thanks Beech for the video.

[rcwild]

Cool video... but am I mistaken or did I see that dude rigging an auto block before rapping down a waterfall? Is that safe?

Jordan

No, it's not safe. Hope they at least rigged a releasable system at the top. If not

[trackrunner]

[quote=rcwild]

Cool video... but am I mistaken or did I see that dude rigging an auto block before rapping down a waterfall? Is that safe?

Jordan

No, it's not safe. Hope they at least rigged a releasable system at the top. If not

[alusul]

[quote=trackrunner] Please correct me if I

[trackrunner]

Though I'm not sure what you mean by submerging in the water and not getting up, I think you're just leaving out getting twisted up in the rope when trying to go off rope and being unable to stay at the surface.

You are right I don't think it would be a problem now. I was thinking if the knot tighten while you were underwater in the pool it might be hard to surface but you would be able to swim to the surface. I think I got it confussed with your example of getting twisted up in the rope.

[m cabourne]

The canyon shown is Little Santa Anita, a short canyon above Sierra Madre in the San Gabriels. Even with the water shown, I don't believe it would be considered much of a class C canyon. When I took ATS courses 4 years ago, auto blocks were not taught to be used routinely and certainly not in canyons with significant water flow. I'm not sure what is taught now but I doubt they would consider this appropriate in class C canyons.

When this canyon is really pumping, the water shown in the first rappel shoots out to the over hanging rock in the background and hydraulics are a real issue in the pools below. Right now the biggest danger is from rockfall in the canyon and climbing the barbed wire fence at the canyon exit.

[rcwild]

http://www.canyoneering.net/forums/showthread.php?t=481