Notts Pot: Adamson’s – Centre Route exchange

Tom, Maz, Sophie, Dave, Claire, Ami & Ray

A great turnout on a miserable evening. Summer is well and truly over. At least we’re not quite into winter yet… but it feels like it won’t be long.

Tom, Ami & Claire set off as an advance party to make a start on rigging the first few pitches, while the rest of us took our time getting changed out of our nice warm, dry clothes. Sophie was particularly keen to cower in the car for as long as possible.

Eventually we set off on the long trog up the hill. On reaching the cave, we were most confused to find that, not only was the 1st pitch not rigged, but there was no sign of the other 3. Where could they be? Climbing back out of the shakehole for a better view of the fell, we must have looked like 4 meerkats, standing on the rim looking in different directions. Not content to sit and wait… and being considerably younger than me… Dave set off across the fell to track them down. Very noble, but how did he know in which direction to go? It turned out he didn’t, as the others reappeared way off in the distance from a completely different direction. They must have walked pretty much to Ireby Fell.

All reunited, and after virtually no p1ss-taking at all, Tom set off rigging the first few pitches to 3-Ways Chamber, where the 2 exchange parties would separate. Tom rigged down Centre, followed by Sophie, Ami & Maz. I rigged Adamson’s, followed by Dave & Claire.

My performance was less than slick, getting hung up on cowstails (twice) and having to be freed from a jammed tackle sack by Claire (at least twice). The initial rising traverse is interesting to rig, with only 1 intermediate anchor on a 15m rope. The 15m rope I took was only just long enough to reach the final anchor. After that, there is an interesting climb up some steel stemples, leading to a short pitch down to the start of the big pitch. The big pitch was fun, although I missed an anchor just a few metres down from the top. This led to a slight bit of rope rub, so Claire rigged a rebelay on her way down. Nearing the bottom, the Centre Route party could be heard below. On the final drop, I narrowly missed dropping directly onto Sophie’s head. She moved just in time.

The exchange timing worked out perfectly. Tom and Maz had a brief foray down into the Lower Streamway, but the rest of us struggled to muster the enthusiasm, preferring to sit and chat instead.

Eventually it was time to start the long journey upward. Everyone exchanged, apart from Maz, who preferred to brush up on his technique on a familiar route. Ami led out Adamson’s, followed by Tom, with Sophie derigging. I led out Centre, followed by Maz and Dave, with Claire derigging.

Maz did very well on the ascent, given that, by his own admission, he is not a natural vertical caver. He has certainly come a long way since his first SRT trip in Bull Pot Kingsdale! One thing that really struck me on the way out was how good the rigging was. Nice one Tom! I’ll have to step up my own game.

Derigging both routes seemed to go well as there was virtually no waiting around on the surface. All 7 cavers emerged in quick succession, one after the other. This was another great trip and it felt like a real team effort, with various people rigging, derigging and carrying tackle. Proof positive that KCC is currently in a really good place.