Ghosting: Introduction

Ghosting is the art of descending a canyon and leaving nothing behind.

Ghosting techniques are used in selected places where leaving no visible anchors has abenefit. Examples include:

  1: anchor areas that are visible to the general public (eg: Cassidy Arch Canyon in Capitol Reef NP);
  2: descents of rarely-done canyons, where leaving the canyon without visible signs of descent means other canyoneers can also do a first descent of the canyon;
  3: in places, ghosting techniques can be used to minimize rope-grooves or other environmental damage;
  4: on first descents, ghosting techniques can be used to minimize the use of valuable anchor-building materials; and
  5: ghosting techniques allow using anchors that could not be used conventionally.

Ghosting techniques should not be used to replace anchors in trade-route canyons, and remove anchor slings already in place.

Ghosting techniques generally are 'advanced', meaning that using them requires greater judgment and experience than 'beginner techniques', they need to be tried and used and figured out in 'safe' conditions, before they are tried in the field when they are needed for group safety. Extra precautions are taken to backup and test these kinds of anchors before the last person's life is risked on its security. AND, the anchor has to pass the sniff test.

The sniff test is a final check. The rational part of your brain says everything is right, everything makes sense. If the irrational part of your brain still doesn't like it (if it smells like poo), get off it. Do something else.

Because these advanced techniques require significant testing before the final rappeller, these techniques are often best done with fairly large groups, and without an urgent drive to get people downcanyon quickly. Chaos is not the anchor-setters friend - chaos is a distraction.

To quote the inimitable "Bird": "Get it right or take the flight".