Sell Gill

Pete, Tom, Tim K, Nick, Maz, Ray

According to the meets list, we should have been in Ibbeth Peril, but the recent wet weather put paid to that. We instead opted for an easy (and dry) pootle down Sell Gill. The brown colour of the water flowing into the wet entrance suggested we had indeed made the right choice.

After a very pleasant walk up, Tim K set off rigging the 1st pitch, followed by Tom, Pete and Nick. Once the pitch was clear, I rigged up a 2nd rope so that I could descend in parallel with Maz as this was just his 2nd SRT trip.

Meanwhile, down below, Tim & Tom had both rigged different routes down the 2nd pitch – Tim rigging the LH route (along the ledge) and Tom rigging the RH. Tim, Tom & Pete continued down the 3rd pitch, where they were apparently met with rather a lot of water coming down the wet route. Nick opted for exploring a side passage at the bottom of the 1st pitch. Apparently it goes quite a long way. He was stopped at a climb down, for which he would have preferred a rope.

Maz and I followed Tim’s traverse along the ledge at the top of the 2nd, without descending the pitch. We then headed back out for some tuition on ascending the 1st pitch. By this time the others were starting to reappear from their various routes and we all finally emerged in daylight. A visit to the Station Inn rounded off the evening nicely. Thanks for organising this one Pete!