Proposal,
Statement of Objectives and
Request for Articles

Canyoneering in Utah has moved very quickly from an obscure activity practiced by a few hard-cores to a mainstream activity with participants arriving from a variety of outdoor disciplines. The impacts of all these people are being felt by our canyons and by our land-managers. Given the dispersed nature of the activity, opportunities for the canyoneering community to meet, develop unified ethics and exchange information are extremely limited.

At the same time, it has become obvious that many people coming into the sport are ill-equipped to deal with the difficulties they encounter. This has resulted in numerous rescues plus unacceptable impacts on our canyons in the form of poor and unnecessary anchors.

Therefore, it is time for the canyoneering community to use the Internet as a forum for discussing controversial issues, informing the public, and fostering safe and environmentally friendly travel.

Proposed Format -

Quarterly Magazine, Internet Only (keep costs minimal).
First Issue Target Date March 1, 2001.

Articles solicited from a variety of canyoneering enthusiasts. A wide range of viewpoints to be presented. No litmus test. However, editorial emphasis will be placed on safe and environmentally friendly technique.

Emphasis in articles to be placed on:
- Philosophy
- Technique, especially safe and environmentally friendly technique
- Safety
- Stories
- Travel - descriptions of canyons and locales outside the Colorado Plateau.

We will not have "destination of the week" articles that highlight canyons on the Colorado Plateau, however, I do expect to highlight canyons in other areas, such as Colorado, New York, Nevada, Arizona, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Pyrenees, etc, etc, etc.

Legal / Organizational -

Article authors are volunteers, and maintain copyright to their work. Authors become de-facto advisory committee members.

Magazine will be "shareware" - ie, donations will be solicited from the readers. Revenues will be first applied to expenses, then held in reserve. If revenues become significant, the mag will need to be formally organized.

Initial organization would be as a sole proprietorship benevolently run by Tom. May become part of ACA. May become separate non-profit. May become separate cooperative. Let's see how it goes.

While not wishing to be over-bearing in editing, I do plan on working with each author to clean up and clarify each submission to a high level of quality language usage (though that's not a very good start, is it).

At this point, I am looking for people to sign on for putting some energy into this thing. I think I have placed the date far enough into the future to folks can mislead themselves into thinking they have the time. I am looking for Article Proposals and for Volunteer Editors. Or you can take on any of the captivating articles I propose below.

Suggested Articles

Publisher's Opening Statement - magazine purpose - to foster communication in the canyoneering community, to promote safe and environmentally friendly travel, to preserve the wilderness character of remote canyons.

Philosophy / Editorial
1. Murder of the Impossible - Are Bolts Necessary? - An impassioned plea for restraint on the part of bolters.
2. Regional Ethics - Escalante/Swell/Zion - What Ethic should apply to each area?
3. Trads vs. Rads - Bolt wars revisited or Can't we all just get along?
4. Holding Information Private - does it work?
5. Get Over It - a few bolts never hurt anybody...

Technique
1. Natural Anchors - beginning to advanced technique.
2. Natural Descents - a strategic approach - how to descend difficult technical canyons and leave them as God made them.
3. Rope Tricks - handling and coiling a long rope using the Canyoneer's double coil.
4. Rope Tricks - rapping into water - the mummy position and how to avoid it.
5. Wet vs. Dry - a discourse on why Wet Canyons are different.
6. Climbing the Rope - Why, when and how.
7. Maybe an excerpted chapter from Rich's book.
8. Clean Bolt Removal - how to.
9. Chains aren't just for bondage anymore - installing chains in Zion's high usage canyons.
10. Doing it Right - a quick review of modern bolting hardware.

Safety
1. Time bombs in Zion - know your bolts, which ones are good, which ones could kill you!
2. Accidents and Rescues in Zion Natl Park Y2K - an analysis.
3. Future Plans at Zion - an interview with the Zion Backcountry Lead (if available).

Other Stuff
1. The ACA Canyoneering Course - story and ravings by a participant, most likely pretty positive.
2. Foreign Travel Canyoneering - at least one article about doing canyons somewhere other than in USA, good chance that means guided.
4. Book Review - if available, someone should review Rich's book.
5. Getting Started - how does a hiker become a canyoneer?
6. GPS and Canyoneering - what you get, what you don't get.
7. Near Death - a couple near death stories would be good.
8. Rescues - a couple rescue stories would be good.

Etc, etc. yada yada yada.

Backpedaling

Those are some of my ideas. But it would be a shame if this is another Tom soapbox. I would really like this to be a community effort, and I think it will only be successful as a community effort and reflects the canyoneering community. I hope some of the articles will be controversial. But I hope all of the articles will be well-presented and well-reasoned. I expect a lively letters section in the second volume.

Here are some other on-going sections of the CanyoneeringUSA site I forsee:

1. Guidebook corrections - a list, by guidebook, of errors.
2. Canyon Accident Database - an interactive database for viewing and entering accident reports.
3. Links
4. Advertisements - I would like to give a free ad in issue #1 to any appropriate business. Once we have an issue out and some idea of response, we should discuss the appropriateness of paid advertisements (if we can get some).
5. MorningReport Tidbits - an ongoing selection of tidbits from the NPS Morning Report.
6. Safety Page - a center for stuff about safety, accidents, analysis, news, etc.

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