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

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The Route Planner at the back of the book shows the star rating and difficulty rating for each route to help you plan your trip.

Canyon grading system

The grading is calibrated for a party of five people who have no knowledge of the canyon but who have a level of experience and fitness appropriate for it. It is comprised of three parts – vertical character (v), aquatic character (a), and the level of engagement, indicated by a Roman numeral. The letters v and a are followed by a numerical value from 1 (easiest) to 7 (hardest), although the grading is open-ended. Both components may change over time as the quality of rigging (which safeguards climbs as well as aquatic abseils) improves or deteriorates. Engagement is rated from I (frequent escapes) to VI and beyond (few, if any, escapes). The result is a grade in the form v4.a3.IV, meaning the canyon has a vertical rating of 4, an aquatic rating of 3 and an engagement level of IV.

Rope length

With repeated wet–dry cycles a rope can shrink by as much as 10 per cent of its original length, which means that a factory-stamped 50m rope may well turn out to be a few metres short on a 50m pitch. All pitch lengths and rope lengths quoted assume the use of a pre-shrunk rope. It is therefore essential to soak and dry the rope a few times, then remeasure it, before canyoning with it for the first time. The topo should not be relied upon too heavily for individual pitch lengths, given the difficulty of measuring pitches accurately while canyoning.