Death Valley Anchor Class Curriculum

Station: Cars Welcome to Death Valley

• Introductions
• Instructors (Ideally 2 students per 1 instructor?)
• Who is everyone?
• Been to DV before?

Good Trips

• Everyone looks out for everyones safety, especially towards the end of the day.
• However, you and you alone are ultimately responsible for your own safety.
• Efficiency is key. Parallelism is key.
  • 10 people x 20 rappels x 1min = 3 hours
  • 13 peope x 27 rappels x 4min = 24 hours
• No rushing, people naturally rush as the sun starts to go down
• DV Eats ropes. Should we break a rope, we help the owner replace it.
• Knowing the length of their rope is key (I've been the guy who told people my 100 was a 160)
• Stay with your rope, rig your rope, pull your rope (This is your rope there are many like it)

Medical talk

• Who has training?
• Who has conditions we need to know about?
• Keep an eye on your teammates for 3 hypos

Goals

• We're all going to university. We're hear to learn, not "run" a canyon.
• Today I want to do everything the right way, curtail your shortcuts, no intermediate/expert syndrome
• Replace every anchor, If you've never build a rock cairn, today is your day.
• Load Cell fun:
  • Rappel contest
  • Squat contest
  • Tug of war
• Build and talk about anchors
• Practice and discuss sequencing and backups
• Rope abrasion, management and best practices
• We're going to take some extra extra time at the first rappel, and the last to talk
• We're going to stick together more because we're learning

The canyon

• Today is X Canyon: 5mi, 1000ft up, 8raps, upto 200ft.
• Not easy, just because it's 30% shorter than other canyons
• Weather
• Death Valley Extremes
  • Decisions matter more because you have more rappels
  • Bigger, hotter, longer canyons affect your decisions more
  • Sequencing matters more because anchors could fail
  • Where you place the rope on the edge matters more

Station: First anchor

Rope Choice

• Choose the shortest rope available for a drop, this puts wear and tear on shorter less valuable ropes.
• Getting a shorter rope stuck isn't as big a deal.
• Move the wear point after every one or two rappels. Creep rope on long rappels.

Rope Bags

• Don't catch rope bags
• Don't throw rope bags that don't belong to you
• Don't carry rope bags in your hands (Bring a big enough backpack for your stuff)
• Not worried about floatation

First Rappel

• Checking everyone all the time for safety
• Rappeller:
  • Asks for a backup
  • Asks for a belay
  • Asks to lower bag
• Meat and sequencing of getting people down to build the next anchor
• Lets you know if they need more material tossed down
• Builds anchors in parallel
• How long it actually takes people to rappel

Station: Rock cairn

• Demo building cairn
• Trade offs:
  • Webbing length / Work near the edge
  • How much webbing do you need to use?
• How much material is available to us?
• How bad do we need our rope back?
• We don't expect them to fail predictably, we expect them to fail unpredictably.

Station: Dead man

• Demo deadman
• When to pick a deadman
• How to check a deadman

Station: Sand Trap

• Demo sand trap
• Reiterate building confidence
• When to pick a sandtrap
• How to check a sandtrap

Station: Releasable rigging

• Demo smooth operator
• When to pick a SO
• How to check a SO

Station: Pitons if time and materials?

• Explain history of their use, and that they're found in many canyons
• How to check a Piton
• When and how to rappel off them

Station LaMAR:

• Generally rope owner, owners have (more) financial incentive to move the wear point of their rope and more incentive not to get it stuck.
• but sometimes the lightest person.
• Removes courtesy rappel point
• Sends pack ahead
• Pay attention to pull on long or
• Backup for everyone else
• Changes wear point
• Responsible for managing pull
• Makes sure they have enough material for the pull
• Asks for test pull if necessary
• Sets rope length with help (And how and when to do it)
  • Too much rope, for belays
  • Set length before or after penultimate person (so the get a backup) depending if they need a belay
• Dieting so you don't die.

Station: Canyon Exit

• One thing you did well
• One thing you could have done better
• Thanks for coming!