IN THIS MODULE
07.0 Leave No Trace
“Leave No Trace” is an ethical standard for hiking, camping, canyoneering, and really anything we do outdoors. At its simplest, it means leaving a place in the same—or better—condition than you found it.
That means packing out your trash, handling human waste responsibly, staying on durable surfaces, avoiding unnecessary damage, and thinking about the people who will come through the canyon after you.
“Take only pictures. Leave only footprints. Keep only memories.”
07.1 Why It Matters
These places do not take care of themselves, and they do not have a voice. If we continually carve, trample, build, drag, spray-paint, stack, or leave things behind, the canyon slowly changes because of us. Sometimes that damage takes decades to recover. Sometimes it never really does.
07.2 Leave No Trace — Canyon Version
• Pack out everything you bring in.
• Pack out solid human waste, toilet paper, and hygiene products in a suitable waste system. Check the land manager’s rules before the trip.
• Do not carve, spray-paint, or vandalize canyon walls.
• Stay on natural travel paths and avoid creating unnecessary social trails.
• Avoid stepping on cryptobiotic soil.
• Build fewer unnecessary cairns—not more.
• Think about your rope placement before you pull it.
• Minimize noise and let the canyon feel like a canyon.
07.3 Cairns: Less Is Usually More
An extreme example of excessive cairn-building.
Cairns can be useful for route-finding, but they can also become clutter. Building stacks of rocks everywhere changes the landscape, disturbs the ground, and can even create confusion when multiple “routes” appear to go in different directions.
My preference is simple: less is better. Let the canyon look like a canyon—not like somebody decorated it.
07.4 Rope Grooves Are a Canyoneering Problem
Rope grooves are a lasting canyoneering impact. A tensioned rope moving across soft sandstone can abrade it, especially during retrieval. Consider the rope path and pull angle before the first person descends. Protecting the rock must also preserve safe anchor access and a sound rappel system.
Leprechaun Canyon
Photo: Alan Giles (used with permission)
Cassidy Arch Canyon
Photo: Sam Staten (used with permission)
Unknown slot canyon — Photo: Tyler Wangsgard (used with permission)
Think about the rope line before the pull. Sometimes moving the anchor extension, changing the retrieval angle, or simply taking a little more time can prevent the rope from sawing the sandstone edge.
07.5 Brett’s Opinion
• No music inside the canyon, in my personal opinion. At camp? Absolutely. Inside the canyon, I would rather hear the water, the wind, my group, and the canyon itself.
• Do not treat Leave No Trace like a checklist you finish once. It is a way of thinking through the entire day.
07.6 The Canyon Does Not Have a Voice
I think that is the easiest way to remember all of this. The canyon cannot ask you not to step on the crypto. It cannot tell you that somebody’s graffiti ruined the experience. It cannot move the rope away from the sandstone for you.
We are the ones who have to make those decisions.
“Act like guests — not owners.”