Just listened to a great podcast by Rich Carlson and Adolfo Isassi on gate keeping, i.e. keeping a canyon or details about a canyon secret. My question is:
-Do you believe gate keeping is a positive thing or not? (please elaborate)
Here’s the link to the podcast:[ Gate Keeping - Canyons & Crags]
I personally dislike gate keeping. I think it’s pretentious. I believe in giving people the best information available and then letting them decide whether or not they should proceed. My reasoning behind that is people will go whether they are prepared or not. At least if they have the information, they can make a conscious decision to proceed. I work in the rescue community along the Wasatch Front, and see people get into bad situations on a daily basis. The areas we respond to the most are those that have the least amount of good information about them available. Usually it’s a social media post that looks really cool. It doesn’t matter if an area is closed or dangerous, people will still go there to get that cool pic for the gram. If there is good information available, I believe that more people will go to those locations prepared for what they will encounter. Canyoneering is no different. When there is more information that is available about a canyon, I believe that there are less epics, emergencies, and need for rescue. It doesn’t mitigate all emergencies, but it does lessen their frequency. As such I am against hoarding info and keeping your secret canyons to yourself. What are your thoughts?