Canyoning Core Skills Practice Session (8am to 11:30am, May 31, 2025)

During this practice session we will perform some of the competencies included in the American Canyoneering Association (ACA) Core Skills checklist.

This is not a course and I am not a guide. No formal training is provided.

This practice session will not take place in a canyon. We will practice in low-risk conditions, such as on a flat/ low angle slab or on high-angle faces with a top-rope belay. Location will likely be somewhere on the North Shore.

You don’t need to have canyoning experience for this practice session, though there are some things you most definitely need to do to prepare:

• Figure Eight knot on a bight / Rethreaded Figure 8 knot
• Water knot
• Clove hitch
• Munter hitch
• Girth hitch
• 3-wrap Prusik hitch
• Double Fisherman Bend & Figure Eight bend
• Valdotain tresse (tied with a VT)

   Understand and use proper verbal commands for belaying, rappelling, and up/ downclimbing

   Understand and use proper hand signals.

In addition, participants will need to bring their own gear. If you already climb, you likely have most of what you will need:

• Climbing or canyon harness
• Helmet
• Whistle
• 4-5 locking carabiners
• Adjustable Friction Descender (rappel device)
• Lanyard / cow tail
• Foot loop (cord sling or webbing)
• VT prusik
• Ascender (mechanical ascender or friction hitch)
• 3-5 meters of 1 inch tubular webbing
• Rope – static and semi-static ropes are the standard in canyoning

Core Skills

The core skills we will practice can be divided into two broad categories: Basic Rigging and Vertical Movement. The objective of this practice session is to move through each core skill as a sequence of a larger progression – that is, first rigging a natural anchor, then setting up and using using a hand line to traverse to a rappel station, followed by setting up a rappel system, and finally rappelling. See below for the skills to be practiced.

Basic Rigging

Rig a single-point natural anchor using a simple webbing wrap or a cinching wrap (i.e., wrap 2 pull 1)

Set up and use a fixed safety/ hand line 

Set up and use a static (SRT) system for rappel (using a carabiner block and a knot block, with a safety applied for both)

Vertical Movement

Rig a rappelling device

Rappel using different starting positions that include (a) traditional (standing) (b) sitting (c) soft start

Set up and use a self belay with a VT prussik

Rappel and brake to a stop mid-rappel

Lock off rappel device while rappelling

Lock off while rappelling using a leg wrap

Use a rope grab and foot loop to remove tension from rappel device while on rappel

Demonstrate proper bottom belay (Fireman’s belay)

Recommended Resources

American Canyoneering Association (2020). ACA Core Skills Checklist. Retrieved from https://www.canyoneering.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ACA-All-Skills-Checklists- 12-21-21.pdf

Canyoning Level 1 (n.d.) V7 Academy. https://www.v7academy.com/courses/canyoning-level- 1

Clark, Kevin (2021). Canyoning in the Pacific Northwest: A Technical Resource.

How Not 2 Canyon (n.d.). How Not 2. https://hownot2.com/blogs/canyon-rope-systems? srsltid=AfmBOorFIyrPA3SFGNQ_0kxX6QERuYvTM4Wmsel8PQ0x9nVSE4h3NG4m

Knowledge Base (n.d.). Canyons and Crags. https://canyonsandcrags.com/knowledge-base/