Ghosting Retrospective

Reinventing the wheel over and over

Adolfo Isassi

Aug 05, 2024

Originally posted in Instructional Canyoneering Resource on 6/19/2023

The other day I came across a quote that read something like:

"Don't look back, always look forward"

Well, I thought, that is a good recipe to walk in circles ;)

Canyoneering in the USA seems to take that quote at heart. Every generation of newcomers seem to rediscover the "best" gear, rigging, canyons, etc.

There is quite a bit of reinventing the wheel, but in a way, it seems inevitable because there is very little historical documentation, or written narrative.

My canyoneering backyard is tied to transient rigging (ghosting). So throughout the years, I've seen all sorts of systems in this category. I've been lucky to have instructors and mentors with ties to the history of canyoneering and getting glimpses of what has been tried, and the evolution, or de-evlution of all things canyoneering.

The Song Remains the Same

From:

Pulling a rope around a tree,
to a Duffour,
to Friction Savers,
to Toggle Systems,
to Exploding Hitches,
to Exploding plaquettes...

Objective motivations

Canyoneers have been trying to save themselves from establishing anchors that leave material behind. It seems that the motivation to do this has changed through the years:

Emergencies
Running out of anchor material
Weight savings
Difficult rope pulls
Rock scarring prevention

Reaching out for history

Recently, when I shared some of the latest systems with Rich Carlson, he shared some of the history of systems that he used for guiding, some that flourished in pre-social media canyoneering forums.

He was gracious enough to lend some of the items from his ghosting collection (photo):