Sell Gill Holes Exchange

Will, Tim K, Tom, Jason, Helen & Ray

We seem to have done the dry route in Sell Gill rather a lot in recent years, but it has always been too wet for the Goblin (wet) route. This time, however, there was a chance of Goblin being dry enough… at least until some heavy rain over the previous 2 days. So we really didn’t know if the exchange was on or not until we got up there. As it turned out, there was no need to worry – while it wasn’t completely dry, the stream sinking at the wet entrance was very low. So it was all systems go for a fun, short exchange. I have to say, I was really looking forward to a straightforward stress-free trip after the shenanigans in Voldemort last week.

The first order of the day was deciding who was going in which way. It had already been decided that Will was going to rig the dry route, while I would rig Goblin. Most people seemed to prefer to descend Goblin, so Helen, Tom & Tim followed me, while Jason followed Will.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever done Goblin before. If so, it was so long ago that I have no memory of it. So, either way, it was essentially a new route for me. And what a great route it is! The initial climb down into the entrance is “entertainingly” slippy, so a short (10m) rope was useful. After that it’s a short easy walk to the head of the pitch. The fun starts with a traverse round to the left into a short oxbow, leading to a y-hang just out of view round the corner. Then it’s a short (5 or 6m) drop down with the water – this would be miserable in higher water – to an entertaining bit where you have to post yourself through a letterbox into a short crawl. While it had all been fun to this point, my sense of homour was tested when the tackle sack refused to follow me into the crawl, necessitating a feet-first reversing manoeuvre back out towards the drop to free it.

At the end of the crawl is a short climb down to a ledge from which the next drop is rigged from a y-hang well out over the shaft. While teetering out to rig this y-hang, I was most perturbed to find Helen pulling the rope to which I was attached. Not that Helen did anything wrong. There was an intermediate anchor between us, but even the small rope movements transferred to me were nearly enough to pull me off my perch. Apologies for barking at you Helen. The happy voices behind suggested that the rest of the team were making light work of the SRT behind me.

After the next drop is a humungous y-hang – exactly my sort of thing. Then there are just 2 single-anchor rebelays to reach the bottom. As I was rigging these, I could hear Will & Jason on the other route. Will won the race to the bottom (if there was one) and I landed about the same time as Jason. Perfect timing. The others made short work of bottoming Goblin. Prior to descending, Tom had announced that this route was his nemesis, due to a bad experience shortly after he had started caving. Well, times have certainly changed. He smashed it on this occasion.

With a bit of time on their hands while the rest of team Goblin touched down, Will & Jason went for a bit of an explore. After a while, Will came back, but not Jason. He must have gone exploring in the downstream crawl. So we sat around and chatted for a while. Eventually Helen started making her way out the dry way. A while later, I started up Goblin. Still no sign of Jason. Then Will, Tim & Tom went looking for him. Tom even got as far as starting the miserable crawl, reporting that Jason was coming back just in time to save Will & Tim from a similar fate. Apparently Jason had been all the way through to the elusive final pitch. Good effort!

Tim & Jason made their way out the dry way, followed by Tom derigging. Will followed me up Goblin to derig that. Considering Will hasn’t been caving for long, he made short work of it. He did say it was the first time he’d derigged a route he hadn’t previously descended, which made it a particularly interesting experience. There is a great vantage point, perched at the top of the shaft, just beyond the short oxbow. I waited there and got some great views of Will reversing out of the letterbox and derigging the top y-hang. If only I’d had a camera!

We emerged to find Tom, Tim & Jason waiting for us on the surface. I presume they hadn’t been there long. A decamp to the Helwith Bridge was called for. This rounded off a near-perfect evening. I will definitely be back to Goblin before long. It is an absolutely stunning route. Such a lot of interesting and varied SRT packed into a single pitch.

Photos by Will.