Читать книгу Canyoning in the Alps. Graded routes in Northern Italy and Ticino, Austria, Slovenia and the Valais Alps онлайн

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Choosing your descender

For the lack of a perfect device, the figure-of-8 is most often used by our European neighbours. It is cheap, lightweight, provides a smooth abseil and can be used with single or double ropes. For canyoning a figure-of-8 is better threaded differently to the usual method (see photo). This alternative method enables the device to be kept on the karabiner at all times and therefore reduces the very real risk of it being dropped while loading or unloading ropes.

The figure-of-8: canyoning set-up

The figure-of-8: extra braking

The Petzl Pirana (see photo), designed especially for canyoning, eliminates this risk altogether. It also prevents cross-loading an open screw-gate, a potentially fatal side effect of normal figure-of-8 usage. The rope runs quicker in the canyoning set-up, although there are several methods for increasing friction, such as putting in an extra twist or running a loop back through a karabiner clipped to the harness.

The most significant drawback of figure-of-8 use is that it twists the rope. At the least this can cause problems with rope retrieval, particularly if double-rope technique is used. On longer abseils it can cause a great nest of rope to bunch up beneath the device, making further descent impossible if not noticed in time.