Twixmas Fun in Alum Pot

Tom, Maz, Gareth, Billy, Sophie H, Ray

No to be outdone by Will’s Little Hull trip, a group of 6 of us met on the Alum Pot lane on the same chilly, but glorious morning. Tom had brought tackle for Dolly Tubs down to the bridge. I was equipped for SE route down to the sump.

After Christmas greetings, the 1st order of the day was to decide who was doing which route. Sophie and Billy were keen to do SE for the full Alum experience. Maz was keen not to. So that was easy. Tom and Maz would go in via Lower Long Churn and rig down to the bridge, where they could join our ropes and continue to the bottom if they felt so inclined. Gareth, Billy, Sophie and I would drop SE and rig down to the bottom.

The 2nd order of the day for me was to work out how to use my brand new Petzl Superavanti harness, complete with plastic inserts to stop the leg loops working themselves undone. I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest that Petzl should get their finger out and actually fix the problem!

After a pleasant walk up, Tom & Maz headed for Long Churn, while I set to rigging SE route. A small clump of young (and, hence hopefully undiseased) trees seemed like a good place to start, then off the big tree directly over the shaft – does this tree lean slightly more than it used to? It’s quite a while since I last rigged this route, but the anchors for the y-hang rebelay were easily located, although they are a bit off to the side in a corner. The rebelay is a bit awkward, being almost free hanging. I think I left the right length of rope in the loop for people to stand in. The rope was very twisted on the way down, so it was slow progress trying to untwist it as I went.

Next down was Billy. He made very short work of the rebelay, using his foot loop to aid, rather than standing in the loop of rope. He was down in no time, suitably impressed by the experience. Next was Sophie. Again, she passed the rebelay without an issue, this time standing in the loop of rope – nice! She claimed to be a bit nervous on the way down – funny how the daylight shaft is so much more exposed – but it didn’t show. Obviously Gareth was also down in no time.

By this time, Tom and Maz had appeared at the window at the bottom of Dolly Tubs pitch, having clearly sprinted through Long Churn. Good effort. They were busy rigging the Greasy Slab as I set off down the next big pitch. Luckily the deviation was easy to find, although it was higher than I remember. One of my slings around the old bit of in situ tat did the job nicely. Again the rope was slightly twisted on the way down, but not quite as bad this time. I wonder if washing them in the washing machine leads to twisting. Either way, I’m going to put more effort into untwisting them next time.

Again, Billy was down beside me in no time. Sophie claims to struggle with deviations, but there was absolutely no evidence of that. She coped admirably, despite it being quite an acute angle.

The last short pitch posed no problems and we were all soon down in the impressive passage on our way to the sump. Gareth pointed out the bypass to the final climb and Billy & Sophie were off, keen to see what lay beyond. Sadly, not much lies beyond and we were at the sump in no time. The waterfall coming in from Diccan was it’s usual noisy self. Sophie declared a complete lack of interest in ever coming down that way.  Billy was clearly tempted. No matter – I’m confident they’ll both be doing it before long.

We took some time at the bottom for Gareth to get some photos and then started to head out, unsure whether Tom and/or Maz were planning to come on down. By the time we got to the last pitch it seemed like they had stopped at the bottom of the bridge, so I derigged. Sophie and Gareth joined Tom & Maz to head out via Dolly Tubs, so I carried on derigging SE with Billy ahead of me.

Billy may have regretted his decision to go out SE when he was handed a full tackle sack to prussik up the top pitch with. Not that it seemed to slow him down any. The others seemed to be having a whale of a time on the traverse and Greasy Slab. Sophie managed to get some nice shots from the window of Billy on the top pitch of SE. I have to admit to finding the y-hang rebelay near the top a bit awkward due to the large offset between upper and lower ropes. Billy didn’t complain, so maybe he found it easy.

As for my new harness – I have to say I was quite pleased with it overall. It’s simpler and less bulky than my old Singing Rock. The only slight issue for me is that the central maillon seems to sit a little lower, which presumably leads to me leaning back and hence using my arms a bit more. Perhaps I just need to adjust it a bit better. I’ll experiment over the next few trips.

Billy and I strolled slowly back down to the cars, where I got changed and he waited for Tom so that he could access his dry clothes. Bad planning that! Thankfully it didn’t take too long for the others to reappear.

A stop off at the Station was called for to round off an excellent day. Not a bad way to kill some time between Christmas and the New Year.

Photos by Sophie.