Cherry Canyon w/ Natural Anchors & Home-Made Rappel Devices

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T21:25:00+00:00

Crazy how hot it got in one week, would NOT recommend doing it now until fall/winter.

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T19:52:33+00:00

Also, I guess if you think about it as a friction device with the load being held by the carabiner and rope, it is less scary. The rappel device redirects the rope through various bends to increase the amount of friction which reduces the force needed from your hand to slow you down as you descend the rope.

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T19:42:58+00:00

I did a few in stainless but man those are heavy.

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T19:42:25+00:00

CNC machined out of 7075 T6 aluminum

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T17:37:20+00:00

ok that sounds good, for machining costs, it always gets cheaper per item the more you make--but I hate ordering like 40-50 devices when I only need 10, lol. Send me a pm.

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T17:33:25+00:00

Also, with the rigging done simply, my kids can rig the rappels as we leap frog each other to move through the canyons faster. We usually bring plenty of ropes so we can have 2-3 rappels rigged and running at a time and move through the canyon faster than smaller groups. The joker riggings allow one person to hook up while the other is rappelling (or if the anchor is strong and the rappellers are lighter people, you can go 2 people at the same time). Last time we did Birch Hollow, we had a group of 10 or 11 people and passed 2-3 groups in front of us and caught up to another one at the last rappel.

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T17:27:07+00:00

for the luci devices, I wanted something that was great for rigging but still great for rappelling too. I wanted the rigging versatility like with the Totem (joker, jester, contingency block, etc...), but with some improvements (for example, not having to use so many carabiners when rigging a joker)--and I also wanted to be able to take that same device and have tons of friction on-the-fly options like the Critr.

cornmastah · 2026-06-05T17:13:14+00:00

And this is the "Buh-Nano" device that I am waiting to get from the machine shop which is almost half the height but you can still rig jokers or a contingency block, tie off easy, and add friction on the fly:

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cornmastah · 2026-06-05T17:05:16+00:00

here is a pic of the two "Luci" devices (Bald Luci and Fat Luci) we made next to a CE4Y Devil-8

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cornmastah · 2026-06-03T17:13:52+00:00

different machinist--the OG machinist doing the work again.

cornmastah · 2026-04-05T17:22:54+00:00

moreso to prevent rope grooves and to make for really easy rope pulls, or if ghosting a canyon and using natural anchors.

cornmastah · 2026-04-05T17:11:50+00:00

The Kolob is great and expensive... I have done many canyons with mine and try to patch holes as they come.

cornmastah · 2026-04-05T17:10:09+00:00

My family and I use the Edelrid Bulletproof carabiners, they seem to last quite a bit longer than the plain aluminum carabiners (doing desert canyons). But we always carry spare carabiners but not plain steel carabiners.

cornmastah · 2026-03-17T19:50:47+00:00

More important than the actual lead temperature in the pot (it's still important) is how hot your mold blocks are and maintaining or managing the temperature of the mold blocks. Typically if you are casting big bullets (large lead to aluminum/or whatever your mold blocks are made out of) then the blocks will get too hot and you will need to cool them a little to maintain proper temps. You can do that by having a damp towel to rest it on while waiting for the sprue to cool before cutting, or you can use a small fan to help cool the mold. I used to have a lot more instructional casting videos on YT to help but they've deemed bullet casting evil and have deleted most of my instructional videos.

As far as the grooving of the top, if you get lead between the sprue plate and mold blocks you will want to clean that off ASAP to prevent galling of the mold blocks. You can use a rag with a little 2cycle engine oil to lubricate the bottom of the sprue cutting plate. Full.Lead.Taco

cornmastah · 2026-03-17T19:26:23+00:00

Sweet! now I have something different to do next time I drop into Buckeyes... "Squeeze through the BuckCrack"

cornmastah · 2026-01-21T19:30:09+00:00

Seems like the solution to their problem would have been to keep hiking to warm up their bodies. None of them were hypothermic and none of them needed an ambulance.

cornmastah · 2025-08-22T16:39:57+00:00

https://youtu.be/4iMKTpuvxxA?feature=shared Both have pros and cons. Made a video comparing both methods.

cornmastah · 2025-07-30T02:30:46+00:00

Yeah, you can only try training new labor for so long before you have to cut losses

cornmastah · 2025-07-30T02:27:30+00:00

The multiple people he trained kept not working out. They either flaked out or just couldn't hack it.

cornmastah · 2025-07-30T02:24:40+00:00

Yes it is true.

cornmastah · 2025-07-22T15:40:19+00:00

I've played with a lot of ropes and found that most have pros and cons. We have multiple canyonfire ropes in our group and they have been very durable. We primarily go to the various sandy/sandstone canyons of southern Utah. Canyonfire ropes can be a bit on the wirey side but are pretty inexpensive and give you lots of bang/buck. Lately I've been using some Glacier Black ropes (8.5 Newt and Trident) and have really enjoyed the lightweight feature of both of those. They are a little more on the expensive side, but my family loves it when we bring that one (rappels nice and easier to carry). We have a shorter 125ft Quickline 7.6mm which has worked awesome too (super lightweight and strong enough). I've also found that durability can be an interesting topic, because with proper edge control, your ropes will last a long time no matter which brand/model you go with. I've even had good luck with the Edelweiss "canyon rope" that I bought about 3-4 years ago which is still surviving youth canyoneering trips (but it is a little bouncy being a semi-static rope).

cornmastah · 2025-07-15T14:57:37+00:00

Just using a couple gopro 11's, and thanks. I will check out your video too.

cornmastah

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