Learning the Ropes - I

Since this blog is just starting out, I thought it proper to recount how I started out with canyoneering...

I don't exactly remember how I even first stumbled upon the word "canyoneering," I think I was just looking around for other exciting things to do after having skydived multiple times (and something cheaper than skydiving also). I'd never seen the word before and explaining it to people was even more difficult since I had never done it either. Regardless, some site had an article on it which directed me to the Alpine Training Services (ATS) website. After looking at pictures both on that site and others, I knew I just had to try it and see if it was something I would want to get into. I read the descriptions of all the courses, articles on the sport, practices, gear... I was really intrigued.

"I'd soon come to find that the ATS guys are some of the most chill, relaxed, and fun guys I'd meet"

So I decide to put the money down for their 3-day canyoneering school (friday-sunday). I contacted Travis, one of the "admins" I suppose of ATS, and thoroughly remember dropping at least 2 or 3 calls since I was on the beach at the time. Haha! I thought 'wow, what a great impression I'm making,' but I'd soon come to find that the ATS guys are some of the most chill, relaxed, and fun guys I'd meet.


Thus comes the first day - Canyoneering I. Everyone meets up at a Sport Chalet parking lot. There were at least 10 people taking this first course, and 4 (which shrunk to 3) who were in for the whole 3 days. Eventually Darren, Travis, and a few other ATS folks show up. I remember first seeing their monstrosity of a bio-fuel Ford Excursion, it was beautiful, like a tank, black and loaded with gear. We all get introduced, briefed on what's ahead for the day, shown/given our gear, etc. Then we all get into 3 or 4 vehicles and carpool up to Mount Baldy near Glendora, our canyon for the day being San Antonio Falls - 6 very strong waterfalls, the tallest being about 100 feet. Very short canyon, but challenging for the beginner. The wet rock really made me wish I had something better than the Reeboks I took those first 3 days!

So after the short but steep hike up, at the top of the first fall, we are all shown how to properly put on our harnesses, learn the names of the basic pieces of gear and how to use them, and of course the most critical part - how to rappel. So one by one we go down the first fall, pretty much everyone took their time and were extra-careful. Those first few times your trust in the rope and harness is demanded can be a little awkward, especially if you're afraid of heights at all (I wasn't :P). That urge to try and stand, rather than sit/lay back in the harness, always lingers there until you get used to it. So we continue going down the falls, stopping for a lunch break halfway through. As we get to the 6th and final fall, some including myself are starting to get a feel for rappelling and get into a comfort zone, or just finding our own pace/rhythm for it. There were 1 or 2 who were having a difficult time, but the instructors got them through it just fine.

"The wet rock really made me wish I had something better than the Reeboks I took those first 3 days!"

Throughout the entire first day, I think the question on most everyone's mind (especially my own), was the answer to the magic trick of getting the rope back. Obviously it's holding people's weight, do you have to go up to get it back down? Of course the anwer was an incredibly simple concept. It's actually a more complicated knot but the basic idea is: there is a ring the rope passes through. The rope has a knot it in, which is too large to fit through the ring. So one side is load-bearing, and the other side will release and fly right through that ring.

So that was the first day, just learning how to get down the rope, really. I'll go over the 2nd and 3rd days in a future post...