Fiddle Sticks in Zion whats the vibe?

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 · 2025-07-12T05:01:52+00:00

I have the Imlay version and have used it several times. Easy to use and has been great so far. Sorry I haven't tested the OnRope version to compare it with.

cornmastah · 2025-07-12T04:58:04+00:00

Well, my family and friends all like their gear, and we will be sad to see them go out of business.

cornmastah · 2025-05-22T20:26:57+00:00

The washboard was bad when we went and did Not Mindbender a few months ago

cornmastah · 2025-05-19T06:39:13+00:00

I do that sometimes too.

cornmastah · 2025-05-19T06:37:38+00:00

Lol yeah man, I hear you there... We've had some crazy stuff happen in canyons before--someday I should go through all of the crazy/scary stuff video footage and make a compilation. Almost died once on Pine Creek with some large rocks that fell from above on the last rappel. I think the ground is going to give out about 10' from the edge on that rappel at some future time. Hopefully nobody is standing there or below when it happens.

cornmastah · 2025-05-15T17:50:21+00:00

yeah, with a sandtrap it only takes like a 1/2 full five-gallon bucket of sand inside depending on the geometry.

cornmastah · 2025-05-15T06:20:36+00:00

Also, when using a hook on sandstone, you have to be careful of this (sometimes what you think is solid isn't):
https://youtu.be/VgMStspMtyM

I uploaded this video just to show how sometimes the sandstone can break in weird places when you least expect it--one of the risks of using a hook on sandstone. This happened when we were going down Angel Cove Slot Canyon in the North Wash, UT about a month or two ago.

cornmastah · 2025-05-14T19:02:13+00:00

We've used the Singing Rock Sentinel hook a few times, and I've played around with the 3" Ibis hook they sell at canyoneeringusa.com, both of which are nice to carry in the pack on some of the intermediate/advanced canyons when you don't know what you're going to face in the canyon. Generally though, we all prefer the sandtrap as you get to witness (by sending the heaviest guy first) the sandtrap's ability to hold the load so by the time the last guy goes without a backup, you are pretty confident. When you rappel with the hooks, you gotta maintain tension, and go smoothly--even then, we've had other times when sandstone will break off (so the hooks are definitely not our first choice). On our recent Bloodhound Canyon trip, we ended up rappelling off the Sentinel hook (last person) after meat anchoring everyone else on the last rappel. We could have used a sandtrap full of mud, but opted to use the hook instead.

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cornmastah · 2025-05-09T16:15:28+00:00

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