Notts Pot

Team Twilight Zone: Will, Jim, Jess, Jasmine, Paddy

Team Centre Route: Steve, Tom, Dave, James, Pete M

Yet again another top turnout for a Wednesday night! Certainly too many bodies to be chugging up and down the same route so we opted for an exchange of the upper series. It’s been a while since I’ve made it out on a Wednesday night, however Tom specifically requested a bald rigger and so I had to oblige. I messaged him to see what madness he had lined up for me and his exact words were

”don’t think any of us have done Twilight Zone before, possibly a KCC first or at least the first time the clubs done it for decades.”

That was me sold, sounded right up my street! But it just didn’t add up, the topo didn’t look like anything too crazy, so I decided to google it and see if anything came back. Imagine how gutted I was when the two top results were Ray’s trip reports from 2023 and 2024! After reading through them, nothing sounded awfully difficult, in fact if anything it sounded like one of the many fun days out Ray and I have shared on a rope. The only bit of trickery I could pick out was that he seemed to struggle with finding the deviation on the first pitch. I’m not sure if Ray’s since found this, or if it is still a mystery for him, but I was intrigued to say least to see what it was all about!

Our initial plan was to just do the entrance pitches and Twilight Zone on a quick bounce, but with a few last minute additions to the numbers, we altered the plan to go for an exchange. Steve quickly packed to rig the Centre Route, and Tom had already preached for me to do Twilight Zone. A few forgotten essentials, (oversuits, wellies, helmets) saw a couple of the team having to dash to the tackle store and back, while the rest of began the hike in across the fell. Before long we were at that shake hole and Tom quickly set about rigging the entrance pitches whilst everyone else was kitting up. Tom took us as far as Three Ways Chamber, with me closely in tow, and Dave not too far behind. We waited here for everyone to regather, minus James and Pete that had dashed to the tackle store, then a quick team meet to decide who would go which way before we departed and set about route finding. Following the rift towards Left Hand Route, it wasn’t long before the hard work started as we scrambled up the slick rift. Without too much effort I had the first pitch rigged and a quick check of the topo before setting off down the first ab. Instantly I spotted an old bolt to my right roughly 2-3m down from the Y hang, this had to be the deviation! Relaying the information to Jim behind me t the pitch head, he looked at what was looking at and certainly didn’t seem keen to use it. I gave it a little wiggle and check, the hanger was freely spinning but it seemed solid enough, it wasn’t a huge deviation either so if it had popped it wouldn’t be super consequential. Not wanting to upset those following me, I opted not to use it, and we didn’t experience any rope run or anything anyway, but as I neared the ledge at the bottom of the pitch I noticed I was awkwardly on the edge of it and having to swing back in to get a solid footing. Once on the ledge, I looked back up to where the suspected deviation was and followed in a straight line down and had I used it, it would have landed me comfortably on the ledge not the edge and also literally on top of the bolts starting the next traverse. Possibly the more awkward one to rig, once through the traverse, the Y hang was quite committing with not many foot or hand holds to go at and an obvious void below. It didn’t take too long to get it knocked together with use from my short link I know carry everywhere after using it in rope access a lot and wondering if it would be any good in a cave and now it’s a main part of my SRT kit. Part way down the pitch I spotted the next bolt on the opposite wall and took the swing out to it, although it is possible to continue straight down here also – another of many options of variation to a trip in this vertical playground! Here we could start to hear the other team working their way down through the pitch also, and occasionally saw their lights also flashing through the many openings. Straight onto the next pitch with an interesting window deviation into another chamber that you touch down in, again nothing too taxing. Soon we were working our way through the last pitch, with an awkward pitch head and below me I could see Steve just touching down at the bottom of his pitch, perfect! Exchange is on! The others perched on the ledge while k had a quick drop down to the passage leading to the lower stream way bit instantly everything became very wet and nobody else fancied a look either, not that we could get far as we didn’t bring anymore rigging. One by one everyone touched down, and by now James and Pete had caught back up, so a quick picture of everyone at the bottom before we picked our exits. Tom and I went first, Tom up Twilight Zone and I went for Centre Route, with Jess hot on my heels. Top job from Jim and Paddy de-rigging Centre Route and negotiating kit bags, and likewise in Twilight Zone with Dave and Steve. Again in a similar order we exited, with (I think!) Jim de-rigging the entrance pitches. It was certainly noticeably colder now on the surface, but once all regrouped we all head back across the fell, warming ourselves up as we went.

Thank you all for a great evening!

Write up by Will, pics by Will