Arizona Rock & Canyon Adventures

Class meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings (my house) and all day Saturday at the Tom's Thumb Trailhead in Scottsdale. Registering for this day is for the entire course.

This course is the perfect primer for those who have never touched a rope looking to begin canyoneering along with those wanting to refresh their understanding of the many core concepts. The basics are a critical starting point for every responsible individual entering the canyons.

Throughout the course you will learn to identify and understand core concepts of trip planning, equipment, rappelling, rigging, canyon movement, overall general safety and much more. The goal of this course is to have you leave understanding the core concepts of canyoneering, so you can become a contributing team member while in canyon with competent leaders and mentors.

Please bring all your typical canyoneering gear, if you have any. We can provided what you don't have at no cost. Please bring whatever you need to stay comfortable all day as we will be outside the entire day. Please bring plenty of water and an appetite for learning. Let us know if you need to borrow any gear.

It will be a long day and very hands on so please come prepared to work. We will be practicing all the skills we teach. We typically talk about the skill, demo it and then have you do it. We find this is the best way to learn.

We will spend 2 days together going over core concepts with some time spent in a classroom type environment and the bulk of the time outdoors putting the freshly acquired skills to use.

Basic skills covered:
LOGISTICS & SAFETY
LEAVE NO TRACE ETHICS
ROPE & EQUIPMENT CARE
GEAR SELECTION
BASIC KNOTS
INTRO TO ANCHORS
INTRO TO RIGGING
SRT AND DRT RIGGING
SPOTTING
BELAYING SELF AND OTHERS
HAND LINES
RAPPELLING
SELF RESCUE

YOU MUST BE A CURRENT AMC MEMBER TO ATTEND

Advanced Rigging covers techniques used when obvious bomber anchor selection is limited, the canyon demands advanced rigging, groups must deal with tricky starts, and improvising available resources to safely keep the team making forward progress.

Many unbolted or seemingly barren canyons typically offer a feature that can be rigged or natural resources to begin several variations of construction projects. This workshop focuses on the principles of advanced canyon anchor building, identifying natural anchor choices, advanced rigging scenarios, common anchor construction projects, soft starts, and working to safely meet the demands of the team.

We will spend the day focusing on a very particular set of skills using a hands on approach that allows each individual to practice and master the techniques presented.

Technical skills covered:
• Effects of friction
• Sequencing
• Human / meat anchors
• Marginal anchors
• Chock anchors
• Courtesy anchors
• Guided rappels
• Lowering
• Retrievable traverses
• Dead man switch / hands free back up
• Double rope technique (DRT)
• Single rope technique (SRT)
• Retrievable rigging / ghosting
• Toggle set up and pull
• Various tension techniques
• Protected traverses
• Deviations/redirects
• Rope management
• Creeping
• Tail up retrievable rigging
• Multi pitch considerations
• Rappel lower
• Counter weight rappels
• Simultaneous rappels

Please Note that the skills covered will be based on time and location and are subject to change.

This workshop is focused on perfecting many of the core skills performed on rope along with basic rescue situations. On Rope Techniques allow you to become competent and comfortable ascending or descending regardless of any impediments such as knots in the rope or gear restrictions. Understanding and being comfortable with the concepts of safe rope movement will allow situations to be addressed from the moment you rig on rope to the time your feet touch bottom.

Companion Rescue touches on ways to address common issues encountered such as stuck items in rappel device a companion in need of assistance down a rappel. We will spend the day focusing on a very particular set of skills using a hands on approach that allows each individual to practice and master the techniques presented.

Technical skills covered:
This workshop is focused on perfecting many of the core skills performed on rope along with basic rescue situations. On Rope Techniques allow you to become competent and comfortable ascending or descending regardless of any impediments such as knots in the rope or gear restrictions. Understanding and being comfortable with the concepts of safe rope movement will allow situations to be addressed from the moment you rig on rope to the time your feet touch bottom.

Companion Rescue touches on ways to address common issues encountered such as stuck items in rappel device a companion in need of assistance down a rappel. We will spend the day focusing on a very particular set of skills using a hands on approach that allows each individual to practice and master the techniques presented.

Technical skills covered:
• Selecting and using multi-purpose gear
• Adapting light-weight ropes and gear for technical rescue
• Anchor considerations in rescue
• Specialized single-rope and twin-rope rigging
• Belay systems
• Converting static rigging to lowering
• Dropped loop lift (2:1)
• Basic mechanical advantage haul systems
• Converting top rope belay to raise
• Ascending and transitions on fixed ropes
• Tandem rappels and pick-offs
• Balancier pick-off on tensioned rope

Please Note that the skills covered will be based on time and location and are subject to change.

Class meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings (my house) and all day Saturday at the Tom's Thumb Trailhead in Scottsdale. Registering for this day is for the entire course.

This course is the perfect primer for those who have never touched a rope looking to begin canyoneering along with those wanting to refresh their understanding of the many core concepts. The basics are a critical starting point for every responsible individual entering the canyons.

Throughout the course you will learn to identify and understand core concepts of trip planning, equipment, rappelling, rigging, canyon movement, overall general safety and much more. The goal of this course is to have you leave understanding the core concepts of canyoneering, so you can become a contributing team member while in canyon with competent leaders and mentors.

Please bring all your typical canyoneering gear, if you have any. We can provided what you don't have at no cost. Please bring whatever you need to stay comfortable all day as we will be outside the entire day. Please bring plenty of water and an appetite for learning. Let us know if you need to borrow any gear.

It will be a long day and very hands on so please come prepared to work. We will be practicing all the skills we teach. We typically talk about the skill, demo it and then have you do it. We find this is the best way to learn.

We will spend 2 days together going over core concepts with some time spent in a classroom type environment and the bulk of the time outdoors putting the freshly acquired skills to use.

Basic skills covered:
LOGISTICS & SAFETY
LEAVE NO TRACE ETHICS
ROPE & EQUIPMENT CARE
GEAR SELECTION
BASIC KNOTS
INTRO TO ANCHORS
INTRO TO RIGGING
SRT AND DRT RIGGING
SPOTTING
BELAYING SELF AND OTHERS
HAND LINES
RAPPELLING
SELF RESCUE

YOU MUST BE A CURRENT AMC MEMBER TO ATTEND