It’s A Cracker > Notts II

Dave (big), Dave (regular), James, Jason, Ray, Tom

The logistical difficulties of rigging a Leck Fell through-trip makes them less common on our meets list, but with the Two Daves bravely coming forward to enjoy an SRT-only bounce trip while de-rigging out it didn’t seem so hard this time round. Boxhead and LJ were potential entrances on the list, but in the end we decided on a less usual option – It’s A Cracker.

After Inglesport breakfast for some we met up on the fell, the through-trippers parking at Notts II for an easy walk out, and we reached Cracker to find the Daves already busy at work at the head of the first pitch. It was good to see Regular Dave back out again, and reassuring to hear him checking whether his Simple was on the right way while dangling over the 50 metre drop. 

Down Big Dave’s beautiful rigging of Paparazzi we headed, and on to Regular Dave’s equally beautiful ropework on Park Bench pitch. What’s not to love about these pitches? Our diligent riggers headed off to the final pitch while the rest of us regrouped and followed them down. In a matter of minutes Big Dave had an elegant rig across to the Kendal Flyover including a tyrolean guide line, we were truly spoilt.

At this point it was time to part ways, with Daves heading back north to the sunny fell above. The rest of us de-kitted and packed ourselves in tight for the gruelling crossing that lay ahead. Into the Cresta Run, we quickly reached the climbs down to the lower level. Ray took on the first downclimb, but at the first sound of difficulties James and I scrambled over the top of him to head for the larger gentleman’s rope 30 seconds further on. This proved to be horrible, with the combo of muddy gloves and muddy rope making it a bit of a hope and prayers situation. We somehow got down unscathed but were unhappy. If I do this trip again I’m either taking a bit of tat to rig as an in-situ mini pitch, or at least leaving my SRT kit on a little longer and down-prussiking the knotted handline. The other two headed down their choice of climb, Jason of course taking it head-first apparently.

Next follows 45 mins or so of general wriggling, muddying, ducking and routefinding through the complex of the Tate Galleries. Luckily we had a Ray with us who unerringly led us through from memory. Eventually we reached the bottom of the fearsome climb upwards into the Lyle Cavern High Level series where our KCC forefathers had lifted a boulder and discovered all this nonsense 40 years ago. This involves a well-polished near vertical gully heading up just over 10 metres, which was strenuous. Some found a jammer was a good reassurance on this (they just about fit on the current in-situ handline).

All up and well, now we could enjoy the 10 minutes of pleasant well-decorated walking in the middle of the trip. It was nice to match this up with where I’d been a couple of months ago with Scott when trying the 3 Counties connection out for size, and before long the pretties ran out and we were at the muddy scrabble up to the ‘vestibule of pain’ which affords a quick break before starting the connection. We slid through mostly solemnly, cursing every bag-catching rock as the connection drank our energy, and dreaded to think what might happen if we met a party heading the other way.

A final dunk through Bruno Kranski’s and we were back in the welcoming lap of Notts II, and made a speedy exit through comfortable and familiar territory, to emerge to the two Daves waiting for us. I assumed they were after their free pints for derigging, but it seems they just didn’t want to take the ropes back for cleaning. We made our way to the Pheasant at Casterton for a well-earned pint by the log fire. Cheers all!