Anchor materials are a must regardless of how popular the canyon is. Bring enough gear to rebuild all the anchors on your route. You probably won’t have to, but you don’t want to be in a situation where the anchor is gone or super sketchy, and you have to trust your life to it because you couldn’t be bothered bringing anchor gear. That’s just embarrassing.

Along similar safety-related lines, you need to have ascending gear. It’s extremely comforting to know that you can get back up that rope if you have to – side note on this: an ascender won’t do you any good if you pull the rope! So if you’re concerned that you might need to ascend – for example, you’re rappelling into a pothole and aren’t sure if you’ll be able to manage the escape, or if you’re not sure there’s going to be enough material to build an anchor at the next rappel – Don’t pull your rope. Just leave it there until one of you has escaped from the pothole or until you’ve confirmed the safety of the next anchor. Enough admonitions, here’s the gear we carry!

1. Carabiner: DMM Phantom Carabiner – Carried as a back up and chosen because it’s light weight, you can clip all your rapid links, rap rings, and ascenders to this for organization.
2. Rapid Link: Maillon Rapide 7mm Galvanized Steel – These come in various sizes, but we like the 7mm.  Fits our ropes and not too heavy. You’ll want to carry several of these (1 per rap if possible).
3. Rap Ring: Omega Pacific Rappel Ring – these are lighter than the rapid links, but they’re not sturdy enough to be used as permanent anchors, so you’ll only bring a couple of these as emergency back-ups.
4. Ascender: Wild country Ropeman 2 – good light weight ascender option that takes less attention than the tibloc but is heavier. Learn how to use these correctly and practice!  Requires additional carabiner and sling depending on your technique.
5. Ascender: Petzl Tibloc – they make larger ascenders that are easier to use, but they’re much heavier. These will work in a pinch and you’re not tempted to leave them behind to cut weight. Learn how to use these correctly and practice!  Requires additional carabiner and sling depending on your technique.
6. Shears – needed to cut lengths of webbing, these are trauma shears, but you can also just bring a knife (Tom carries a Swiss Army Hiker).
7. Ghosting Gear: Fiddlestick or Smooth Operator – we carry a Fiddlestick (shown above), but the Smooth Operator is a similar option. If you don’t know how to use these tools, please don’t attempt it without instruction or an additional safety line.
8. Webbing: BlueWater Tubular Climb-Spec Webbing 1″ – make sure you bring enough to rebuild multiple anchors and be aware that you may need to run the webbing over some distance to get the appropriate pull angles and weight distribution.  If you’re leaving it behind, choose a color that blends in with the rock so it doesn’t ruin the scenery.