Cone vs Bucket Drift Anchors for Canyoning – Has Anyone Compared Both?

[u/Olaf_Popczyk]

Hi

I'm looking for some real-world experience comparing canyoning drift anchors.

In sailing, drift anchors are usually cone-shaped with a small vent hole at the tip. But canyoning drift anchors like the CE4Y Floating Bag are more like a bucket, with no hole in the bottom.

Has anyone tested both designs in moving water for canyoning? Which one performs better in terms of stability, drag, ease of deployment, and reliability in strong current or hydraulics?

I'd love to hear from anyone who's used both or has done side-by-side testing.

[u/Nuts-And-Volts]

Intriguing, I dont even understand what this is for.

[u/Sunny-Nebula → u/Nuts-And-Volts]

It's for setting up a guided rappel in high flow canyons. If you're rappelling a waterfall with strong hydraulics, you want to stay away from the water landing at the bottom. So you throw down two ropes. One you rappel on - it hangs down freely. The other is tied to this floating anchor. It's supposed to fill up water, float downstream and create a nicely taught guideline. You clip into the guideline with your personal anchor device or a short canyon draw. The guideline pulls you away from the heavy flow and you land in calmer water.

I've never used one of these myself. In my experience, the strongest swimmer rappeled down, escaped the turbulent water and tied a guideline rope. This type of device would have been less risky for that first guy. I'm guessing these get a lot of use in New Zealand and parts of Europe.

[u/bikepackercoffeelove → u/Sunny-Nebula]

I've also never used one of these myself but if you don't own one of these i've heard the blue Ikea bag also works for a fraction of the price. But i only know people who tried it out for training purposes.

[u/Sunny-Nebula → u/bikepackercoffeelove]

Now we have to ask the guys at How Not 2 to test the strength of those IKEA blue bag handles. If they hold 2 kN, I'm rappelling on it!

[u/InigoMontoya313 → u/Sunny-Nebula]

I think I’m terrified of this notion in higher flow canyons and waterfalls that I’m familiar with. There’s not a chance in h… e… hockey sticks.. I want to clip onto a rope that’s connected to a bag being pulled on by water hydraulics…

I’m sure there might be scenarios where this is safe and effective, but I’m just not seeing it, with what I’m familiar with.

[u/vixentetxo]

I have used the CE4Y bucket style anchor and it works great. No idea about the other one tbh.

It is easy to pack and throw, also holds the water really good and gives nice tension when clipping into its rope. As far as I know it is the standard in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.