As you know, besides hiking, our other main activity is canyoning. A not well-known form of this is dry canyoning or dry rappelling. What should you know about it?
Canyoning is primarily a water sport, and the equipment and anchors are always designed accordingly. Unfortunately, there aren’t many water-filled canyons in Tenerife, but there are plenty of dry ones. Approximately 400 dry canyons are found on the island, with about 150-200 being suitable for rappelling. One of the most famous is Barranco de los Arcos in La Orotava.
We organize dry rappelling on Mondays, primarily in the Barranco de los Arcos and Barranco de la Puente canyon (Hereafter referred to as „Arcos” and „Puente”. „barranco” means valley)
Perhaps many of you have done canyoning in other countries, for example in Slovenia or Austria, Madeira, or even in the Pyrenees, so you rightly think that canyoning is carefree joy, fun, jumping, and sliding. That’s correct. However, without water, something else comes to the fore. What are we going to do? Rappel, and that’s what we focus on.
There are many ways to get through the canyon. The most straightforward is walking through the canyon. As strange as it sounds, this is the most difficult and dangerous of all, since as „modern humans” we have forgotten how to walk. Those who have only walked on flat terrain or well-trodden paths may encounter unexpected obstacles when they have to navigate among large rocks. On uneven ground, you need to pay more attention to each step, and if there is water flowing in the canyon, you may not always see where you are placing your feet.
Unfortunately, the success and failure of canyoning, especially in large groups, have led to the custom among many canyoning instructors in Europe of not allowing guests to rappel independently, but rather lowering them down. This has many advantages and disadvantages; one thing is certain: they do not learn to rappel independently. That’s not the goal, as the emphasis is on jumps and slides. There is no time for all 8-10 guests to learn how to use the rope in the often 12-degree water.
The greatest merit of dry rappelling is exactly this: we don’t have to hurry because we’re cold from the water or because 6-7 people are waiting for us to jump into the pool. Here, we will rappel independently with top belaying.
What does top belaying mean? It means that on every wall where we rappel, there will be two ropes: one rope for rappelling and one rope that the canyoning instructor continuously uses to belay us from above. If you ever trip, fall, or slip on the wall and suddenly lose your grip on the rope, you will still be secured.
Despite the fact that dry rappelling doesn’t involve slides and jumps (like most water canyoning), it offers a lot of excitement and adrenaline. One of our favorite canyon is Puente, where you can learn every situation of rappelling from a completely beginner level with maximum safety. Rappelling on a positive wall, rappelling on a vertical wall, rappelling on a negative wall (in the air). There’s a small “via ferrata” approach, and even a zip line and rope slide (guided rappelling) are included in this program. In addition, you’ll enjoy a stunning volcanic environment on the southern side of the island, where warm weather and sunshine await you even in winter.
This program is open to participants from 10 years old up to about 65-70 years old. The canyon allows you to gradually get used to heights: 6m, 12m, and the highest at 23m, but the biggest challenge is not that, rather the subsequent rappelling in the air. If it’s too much for anyone, there’s an option to walk around and skip this rappel.