Sunshine, canyons, fun people. Jane and Roger and Deb were down for a weekend of slot-thrashing, and had invited their friends Jane and Steve for their first Sandthrax weekend. They invited me too, and I invited Dave and we drove over and... Morning found us over near Poison Springs Canyon to do a favorite - Constrychnine, aka Project X. Hail hail the gangs all here: Jane (1), Jane (2), Steve, Roger, Dave, Deb.

I had not been here for 5 years or so, when Ryan had lead us on an early descent. Ryan had called it Project X, but eventually Shane found it, yada yada yada, and came up with a great "Poison theme" name. It became Constrychnine, and popular. Fun to see how the anchors were. Much was the webbing was stuff I had put in 5 years before, but there was a lot of webbing added. With 5 additional years of putting in anchors, my style has evolved to minimize the intrusion (while maintaining safety, of course). Natural color webbing is important, as is extending the anchor far enough to minimize rope grooves. Leaving a minimum of webbing behind is also part of the mix, so we ended up taking away quite a bit of "double" and "triple" backups that did not contribute to safety, but tried to leave double independent strands where the webbing gets abraded. This picture: the anchor as we found it: A. two strands of webbing go all the way around the big rock (new anchor: one strand around the pinch on the front end of the boulder); B. anchor extension ends 3 feet from the edge of the drop... resulting in rope grooves (new anchor, extended over edge past grooves). C. bright colors replaced by dull more-natural colors.

Ropegrooves over the edge. It IS a difficult start, especially since it is a beginner-ish canyon. But, using the infamous "courtesy anchor" technology, only the final, most-experienced person need do the very awkward start.

Jane (2) on the first rappel (108 feet).

The anchor, as used. Blue backup to a boulder. White primary to a pinch under the front of the huge boulder. Tied back several feet so everyone (but me) can get on rappel easily (still an awkward start).

The anchor, as left. Single strand of 1: tubular webbing for most of it. Double independent strands where it crosses the edges. Rap ring extended over the edge. Tom gets an exciting start out of it!!

Jane (2), model for the day, on Rappel 2, 180 feet from a long sling on a tree in the watercourse, down into a slot (don't throw the rope, it might get stuck).