Notts Pot: Adamson’s – Centre Route Exchange

Dangling tonight: Ami, Jasmine, James, Scott

“The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”

Anyway, it had stopped raining for the first time in days when we met on a dark Leck Fell. In fact there were distant fireworks, this being Bonfire Night and all.  We had a brief discussion about whether to bother exchanging routes with only four of us?  James expressed a slight preference for exchanging and was justly rewarded with two rope bags for the walk in (thanks James, I was keen on exchanging too!)

Jasmine rigged down the entrance shakehole.  The bedding plane crawl wasn’t as soggy as I’d feared, and soon Jasmine had us all down safely in 3 Ways Chamber.  Here we separated into two factions – Ami and James on the Centre Route, and Jasmine and myself on Adamson’s.

I had intended on rigging the 15m traverse on the approach to the metal staples, but didn’t really spot it and we ended up just doubling back on ourselves to find the right place. A scruffy pitch brought us to an oxbow on the right, and the start of the first section of Birthday Pot ( down a hole on the left). I’d be quite interested to come back at some point and explore De Profundis, another route which diverges from here.

Birthday Pot is in 3 sections, the middle one being the most pleasing, and it lands only a metre from the base of Centre Route, at the time occupied by an Ami.  It was a bit soggy down here, with the water from Left Hand Route emerging nearby.  We exchanged pleasantries while we waited for the other two to descend – my main contribution being to mention that I’d brought Wagon Wheels for everyone, but left them in the van by mistake.  Jasmine arrived, but no James? I eventually went up the last two small pitches of Centre Route to see how he was doing.  It turned out that the rigging had been a bit tight on the final section after adding in an extra anchor, and he’d wisely decided not to swing around under the waterfall for too long trying to escape, and had backtracked.  A bit more fiddling and he was then able to get past, and descended to the bottom.  At this point I pondered that I hadn’t realised that Centre Route actually took this much water… clearly I hadn’t been there in wet conditions before.  The cunning thing is that the water only appears at some late point on the first pitch, and then departs down a convenient hole before the base of the last pitch, some it comes as a delightful surprise…

Jasmine followed me up, very competently derigging the 60m rope, and we swapped bags for the top pitch of Centre. While she derigged the last bit, I spotted the traverse that I should have rigged to get to Adamson’s, and climbed up it in time to meet Ami again.  This traverse is a bit polished, and I didn’t climb back down the same way afterwards.

In a fit of remorse for letting James carry two bags on the way in, plus not considering that Centre Route might be rather wet and then finally denying everyone a Wagon Wheel at the lowest point of the cave… I set off out with two tackle sacks, reflecting that at least I’d eaten a Wagon Wheel before the trip began (this was originally earmarked for Tom, but he cancelled last minute and thus forfeited his sugary snack).

It wasn’t too long before we were all back on the surface. A good trip, with everyone rigging bits and pieces.  Maybe a BT route – De Profundis exchange next time, if there are any takers? 🙂