Malaita Point Abseils

As the coldness sinks in and the canyoning season comes to an end, I thought it'd be a great time for us to start training up new canyoning co-leaders. Leadership training within our club has been far and few between, and it's important to have them run regularly to avoid the same downturn as we've had years before. The idea of the training session isn't for canyoners to go canyon themselves- it's mostly to equip them with rigging and rope management skills such that they can play a bigger role in canyoning trips, managing anchors and sharing responsibilities with the trip leader. Most, if not all, canyoning trips require multiple leaders for them to be run safely and efficiently, having multiple abseils set up and ready at the same time, and these skills sessions mean more people will be able to help out and more canyoning trips can be run. 

I am fairly flexible in who to invite to these sessions- there are canyoners and there are also bushwalking trip leaders who may benefit from a bit of rope skills. I've also taken reference from how this is done with other outdoor clubs, the main thing being that I've made this invite-only so that time and resources are spent at the right places. 

With a few emails sent, we've organised 2 canyoning co-leading skills days, one on a Saturday in Narrow Neck, followed by a Malaita Point abseil, and one on a Sunday in Clovelly Beach. A few people from the Sunday session have also joined another Malaita Point abseil, putting new skills in practice. Main items to cover were a bit of anchor building, 2 common releasable setups and 2 common non-releasable setups, releasing participants, locking off descenders and usage of VT prusik for self-belay. Everyone had a few runs rigging, abseiling, and retrieving rope as the last person down, and releasing "stuck" canyoners hanging off the practice wall. 

I'm personally very hands-off with my training approaches, which can sound quite scary when your life depends on one rope. But then there's only one way you can make progress with your skills and confidence, and that is to be exposed to unfamiliar scenarios where you're now independently managing an anchor, or through a canyon you've never been in. That probably traces back to my healthcare background, as everyone learns by being thrown into a deep hole and trying to figure something out themselves. It's more important to be able to apply knowledge and offer creative solutions in an unfamiliar scenario than to be booksmart with knots and complex setups.

Once everyone had a bit of practice rigging, lowering, and learning a bit about rope management, we shuttled around the escarpment to put those skills into practice on Malaita Point.

It was in the carpark that we were joined by another group of 5, some cutting open their brand new helmets and harnesses (I became the owner of +1 Black Diamond helmet manual that they left on the ground). Adam was a little bit concerned about getting stuck behind a large group of first time abseilers, and suggested we should think about Malaita Point's neighbour Malaita Wall instead, especially given it was now afternoon.

Umming and ahhing ensued, but eventually consensus was to head down with the Point as originally planned, and we could evaluate from the first pitch whether to head back up and do Wall instead.

The next umming and ahhing was about which ropes to bring; we had my 60m, the club's 60m & 50m, Sabs' 40m, and Kosta's 35m all in our arsenal, so in consultation with the trip notes, we finally agreed upon taking my 60m, a club 50m, and Kosta's 35m.

Soon we were away and heading over to the first drop. We passed the other group as they were taking the party down a bolted practice slab at the top of the cliff, so we were able to just walk around and overtake them.

I got Tracy to rig the first abseil, a 25m drop down a long vertical wall. It's not a technical abseil- more like the mental aspect of being on an exposed cliff that makes it seem difficult. Adam has a bit of trust issues with abseils rigged by new co-leaders but after a thorough "that's not going anywhere" test, he headed down first as the test dummy of their first ever proper rig. The drop ends in a deep hole that runs the entire length of the cliff, and abseilers would have to swing left to land on the platform.

Everyone soon went down and a few of them had the 2nd abseil ready to go. I de-rigged the setup as the last person and came down- the final bit of the abseil requires a bit of a swing to the left to avoid plunging straight into the depths of the valley. I started pulling, and the rope was stiff, not moving an inch. I tried flicking the rope a few times, but with all the slack down a 25m pitch, it was barely helpful. Looks like it is stuck, I guess. With a bit of discussion, Sabs, who had mechanical ascenders, decided to ascend the rope and investigate the issue. 

As part of a pulldown for a figure 8 setup, the quickdraw was removed from the anchor, clipped onto the end of the figure 8 descender, but its other end was wrongly clipped onto the abseiling strand of the rope. One way of derigging a figure 8 block is to have the quickdraw unclipped from the anchor and clipped into the pulldown strand of rope. This shouldn't be an issue, as when it's pulled from the pulldown side, the quickdraw will simply slide along the rope. 

I suppose the quickdraw was somehow caught with a few rocks and got stuck along the way. If we gave the pulldown a few more tries, it might have unjammed as well, but oh well. Sabs removed the quickdraw, clipped a carabiner to the end of the figure 8 descender, and the pulldown from there was smooth. I suppose next time it's a good idea not to clip quickdraws at the end of figure 8 descenders, as they are a big chunk of metal waiting to get jammed. A carabiner should still be clipped such that the figure 8 block doesn't undo itself when the rope is rubbed against rocks. 

While we were fixing it, Kosta had the 2nd pitch long awaiting, sending everyone down except himself, me, Sabs and Vincent. The advantage of having multiple ropes is that many things can be happening at the same time, speeding up progress the entire way. We love efficiency in canyoning and it's standard for our trips to have multiple leaders, constantly sending people down the series of abseils.

Murray rigged the 35m pitch and headed down first. With a wind-broken shout, it was clear that he needed to be lowered. It was unclear whether it was "not" as in there's not enough rope or "knot" as in I'm caught on a knot/tangle. As I was sure I had now dispensed more than 35m down the pitch lowering him, I was hoping it was not the former and he had misinterpreted the landing to end up stuck in some gully. Fortunately, it was in fact "knot" and the rest headed down. I guess the rope throw of the 35m pitch ended on a tree canopy and formed a tangle, and when Murray abseiled into the tangle and hoped for it to undo itself, it didn't and instead a knot formed. 

I got to the 35m pitch and the leadership of the pitch was handed over to Sabs and me. The newly retrieved 50m rope from the 1st abseil was joined with Adam's rope to form the pulldown strand. My first time on Adam's CE4Y dyneema rope was really pleasant- it's a really smooth rope to abseil on (plus being lightweight with its modern materials). It does run a bit faster than other ropes but with a bit of friction setting, it's not a big deal. Adam was worried that on dry abseils, Dyneema would melt with the heat generated by figure 8 descenders, but apparently, that has been proven to be a myth. CE4Y makes great ropes and with the new advancements of new materials, the ropes are only getting thinner and thinner year by year. 

The 4th abseil was about 25m and it was first rigged with Kosta's 35m rope. It was then re-rigged with a 50m rope to facilitate pulldown once most people are down. The abseil is an easy walk down a gully- essentially bushwalking on rope, and while it looks like a tricky pulldown, it's in fact a very smooth pull. 

The best thing about running one of these sessions is that rigging responsibilities are now on our new leaders. Every time I get to an anchor, everything has been done for me and all I needed to do was to abseil down- no need for me to rig anything!

Murray then anchor-managed the final mandatory abseil, abseiled as the last person down and did the pulldown, essentially the entire cycle. We made sure he removed the quickdraw before abseiling last, a common mistake that will lead to the rope getting stuck and having to be ascended. 

Shortly after this was an optional abseil using an overhanging tree as an anchor. Kosta the fiddlestick advocate, took out his fiddlestick and gave everyone a quick demo on how to use it. It's essentially a stone knot with a fiddlestick as a toggle- while the stick is not a weight-bearing part of the setup, the integrity of the knot depends on the presence of the stick.

In a fiddlestick setup, the 2nd last person would set the pulldown strand and the last person would undo the quickdraw securing the fiddlestick, finish the abseil and pull the stick out to complete the pulldown. How do we make sure the stick stays in place for the last person abseiling? Apparently, the anchor manager would observe everyone abseiling and how the stick swings, moves and behaves, and that would give an idea of how to safely abseil last. It's not a hard technique- for me, it's probably the mental barrier that's holding me back. I'd need to practice this somewhere safe before I could confidently apply this elsewhere. 

The day ended with a pub meal in Bootlegger, and a few people getting the fancy Affogatto with liquor (mind you this is $19). Looks like we've all had enough of overpriced meals in the mountains and are leaning more towards the succulent Malaysian meal next time. 

2 weeks later, I ran another Malaita Point trip for those who missed out on the first one. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough leaders to take too many beginners, but luckily, Elias and Zhan have gotten enough practice out of this trip to be able to start anchor managing and co-leading. I top belayed a few people down the first 25m abseil, as I wasn't 100% sure whether everyone could safely make the landing, and I guess that was proven to be a bit unnecessary with Elias abseiling confidently first and everything demonstrating good head for heights. 

Elias rigged the 2nd abseil and Zhan rigged the 3rd one. We did a rope throw for the 3rd abseil and it landed on a tree. Learning from Murray's knot incident, we decided to flake the abseiling strand into a bag and abseil from a rope bag instead. We now have a few rigging kits to facilitate skills training and for new leaders, but I forgot to bring the extra figure 8s from the gear locker- good opportunity for our prospective trip leaders to practice their munter mule overhands. 

Elias went down the 4th pitch first while Zhan anchor managed. They only rigged for a 10m abseil while the abseil was closer to 20m. Elias shouted rope too short and Zhan released the releasable anchor for the very first time (other than in skills days). That was unexpected and probably a bit nerve-racking, but it's always good to have a few of these scenarios, putting skills into practice.

Elias and Zhan managed the 5th and 6th abseil well without issue. Zhan anchor managed the final abseil but wasn't entirely sure about switching the setup to a biner block for the last person down. He practised tying a clove hitch a few times but still wasn't 100%. The good thing about this dry abseil is that there's mobile reception, and he can always give me a Whatsapp video call if he gets stuck. We waited for a while for him to de-rig, but luckily I haven't received any phone calls from him. 

Afterwards, we walked out via Golden Stairs back to Narrow Neck as Furber Steps was closed for a month. Good trip for everyone involved and glad that we now have a few prospective trip leaders progressing quickly into being independent canyoners. Soon we'll probably see canyoning trips being posted at the same frequency as bushwalking trips in the club, being one of the most active university clubs in canyoning training and activities.

For those who're wondering how to get on a canyoning trip, I'll probably run some beginner abseils in July and that'll set our beginners up ready as the canyoning season approaches in October. Alongside will also be more co-leading skills days, and hopefully by the end of the year, I'll hit my target of 5 new canyoning leaders in the club. And a fun fact- trip leaders are guaranteed spots in canyoning (subject to fulfilling the min. experience requirement), so an easy way to jump the queue is to run trips within the club and become a trip leader. 

One thing I found out recently is that the Claustral Canyon pictures shown in the welcome fest have actually drawn a lot of people into the club. The sport of canyoning draws a lot of strong and talented bushwalkers into the club, forming the core of our club's bushwalking program, even though only a small percentage of the club participates in canyoning trips. With the canyoning program going strong, we can perhaps look forward to the return of other adventurous trips, most likely starting with snowshoeing and ski trips.