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Casual Reading for Your Post-Shopping Pleasure
We are seeking a person to fulfill the role of Production Assistant at our office in Kanab, Utah.
A beginner proposed a list of gear they NEEDED to get. Here is my response to the first half. VERY opinionated Am I. —— I love your enthusiasm, and welcome to the obsession - but...
Slow down sailor! (I am prone to hyperbole:) It is like you are all gung ho to go help the Ukrainians, and have rounded up a musket, a cavalry saber and a spear, plus a drone you bought from Temu...
First off, Climbing and Canyoneering are very different sports. Climbers think there is an 80% crossover in technique and gear; Canyoneers have learned there is a 20% crossover. It's like Tennis vs. Ping Pong. - but at least that has Pickle Ball halfway in-between.
So, don't mix the two. Your proposed gear list says 'gear need for climbing and canyoneering'. Climbers in general know nothing about canyoneering. Canyoneers definitely know nothing about climbing. (exception: some people do both, know both.)
Several years ago, I surveyed canyoneers I know who had done quite a few canyons in Zion, to build a star rating for all these canyons. Some of the canyons are obscure, and had only a few people had done them. Some of them were ultra-popular. I did put a little finger on the scale by counting my opinion twice, but otherwise, this was ‘fair’.
I could do a survey now, and it would come out different. The world has moved on, the canyoneering populace is quite different than it was 15 years ago. Is this a historical artifact? I would not go that far — I think it better represents the quality of the array of Zion canyons than a current survey would. Or maybe I am just grumpy!
A Brief History of the FiddleStick
Developing the FiddleStick was very much a group project, though I do claim credit as the driving force behind it, being the 'equipment person'.
The Spark
The year was 2011, March 12th actually. We were doing a rest-day hike/rappel canyon partly to go look at a very large arch that Scott Patterson had noticed in Marinus Canyon, North Wash area, Utah. At the top of the canyon, we found the arch, with a spacious flat top about 30 feet down from the rim. We needed to do a short rappel to get to the top of the arch.
Repairing the Vinyl Bottom of Imlay Packs
Most of our packs use 18 oz Vinyl on the bottoms and side-bottoms, and while it is fairly tough, it does get chewed up. The good news is that it can be repaired. By you.
Ask, and we will send you some vinyl scraps, which you could glue-on like butterfly bandages with the HH-66 glue. Clean the vinyl (both sides) with rubbing alcohol before trying to glue it. You would want to fill the bottom of the pack very tightly, glue stuff on then wrap it up tight to hold them in place until the glue sets.