"Whaddya reckon?”
It was the end of Day Four of a planned six-day canyoning expedition in the south branch of Bungleboori Creek (AKA ‘the Boori’) in NSW’s Blue Mountains NP. Just then, having completed only two canyons of our intended five—after lugging in 20m+ of spare tube webbing, a collection of rope off-cuts, and six spanking new rap rings to replace old or damaged anchors—we ran out of anchor materials. Well, to be precise, there were no remaining rap rings; there was still ample webbing.
There’d been many surprises—navigational blunders, plus taking twice as long as anticipated to reach base camp—but the biggest shock was how few recent visitors had been to these canyons. By ‘recent’, I mean in the last three years, since the Black Summer fires. The anchors said it all: Bridge Canyon’s slings were charred, decrepit, degraded or damaged. Bubblebath’s first anchor was missing entirely. So many anchors, in our opinion, needed replacing or reconstructing that we’d expended our back-up supply of rap rings.
If we persisted with the plan and attempted a third canyon to find another forlorn anchor—which, if Bridge and Bubblebath were indicative, was probable—we’d be forced to manage with a less-than-ideal solution, like wrapping our rope around a tree or log without using dedicated anchor materials. (Doable, and commonplace during canyon exploration’s early days, but potentially problematic with the increased friction or, especially, with the damage it could cause to the tree.) Or, instead, abseiling straight off tube tape without a ring or maillon. (Also feasible,
