Totem TRRP

Canyoneers use a few terms when we talk about anchors, rigging and rappels -- releasable, retrievable, transient, ghosting -- that are sometimes confused or misunderstood.

Most of us want two things on rappel:

- A way to RETRIEVE the rope so we can continue down canyon

- A way to RELEASE the rope if a person on rappel gets stuck or injured and needs to be lowered

A tree is an example of a fixed natural anchor. People sometimes use ‘anchor’ to mean the whole station; the tree plus the webbing and rappel ring we add. But the tree is the anchor; the webbing and rappel ring are ‘rigging’. In typical fixed rigging, we retrieve our rope after the rappel and leave the webbing and rappel ring behind.

Transient anchors are things like sand bags, sand tarps, human/meat, that we rely on to get down, then come down after us.

Ghosting is a term that refers to leaving nothing behind that did not already exist in nature. In the tree example, by replacing the webbing and rappel ring with another type of rigging that is retrievable, we leave nothing behind except the tree. Transient anchors, by their nature are included in ghosting.

Retrievable rigging and releasable rigging solve different problems.

Many forms of retrievable rigging have been developed over the years -- retrievable webbing, omni sling, macrame, CEM, toggles, etc.

Examples of releasable rigging include MMO (munter-mule-overhand), figure 8 (device) blocks, Jester, etc.

For a long time retrievable rigging and releasable rigging were generally considered mutually exclusive. Toggle = ghosting, but not releasable. MMO = releasable, but not ghosting.

Transient Releasable Rigging (TRR) - reducing the tradeoffs.

TRR is a type of rigging that is retrievable and provides a master point that can be used for releasable rigging. Personally, I believe the term Transient Releasable Rigging Point (TRRP) is more precise because the retrievable component and the releasable components are separate. TRRP names the retrievable master point. The releasable component you install on that point could be MMO, figure 8 block, Jester, etc.