AGM – Diccan Route

Connor, Dave L, Jason, Sophie, Gareth, Scott

Once again the weather gods blessed us with settled weather for the AGM. After a fine Inglesport breakfast (and some lift-share reshuffling) the Kendal were assembled for action in Long Churns Lane. After the walk-in we formed three tight squads – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Earth, Wind and Fire?… No, the Long Churners, The Dolly Tubbers and The Diccaneers were we to be.

Team Diccan consisted of Connor, Tall Dave, Jason, Gareth, Sophie and myself.  As the tackle stooge for this trip, I had lovingly crafted three perfectly balanced bags of gear for this trip (except the one carried by Connor, which was initially full of steel maillons, and the one carried by Tall Dave, which wasn’t quite big enough for all the rope within). My bag coincidentally was the first to be used, so I set off in front.  On the way the bag sank into one of the pools, but I was wise to its ways and avoided a wetting with a violent yank and a swift kick. The bag behaved perfectly for the rest of the pitch.

The first shaft has a couple of rebelays, a handy guide line and two deviations.  All of this took me far enough away from the waterfall that my suit didn’t quite get the thorough washing that I was hoping for.  I touched down, shouted ‘rope free’ and got on with rigging the next little drop.

Connor took over for the next pitch, and had the traverse rigged in no time. A couple of drops later, Tall Dave took over for the final extended pitch.  This involves a few rebelays and deviations as the rope follows a suspended route over the final gully and waterfall. We all gradually descended this in stages, getting in plenty of hang time on Dave’s excellent rigging.  Jason even managed to try a little experimental SRT near the bottom, but the classic system was not to be dethroned just yet.

Meanwhile, Gareth had been doing lots of filming, and Sophie lots of shivering.  We were glad to meet the first of the Dolly Tubbers, and a swift exchange was made. Connor, James and Paddy raced back up Diccan to derig, while everyone else headed back up the Dolly Tubs.  I loitered at the back, chatting to Charlie (Tom’s mate from UCET) and did a bit of derigging on the Dolly Tubs route.

The Dolly Tubbers had rigged the larger hang to the North of the Bridge, and it was a spectacular ascent in the sunshine, although rumour has it that Pete had enjoyed the most dramatic view of Alum Pot that day 🙂

Back on the surface, sunbathing and tea drinking had commenced. Tom, Charlie and I emerged to cake and a hot brew (thanks Sophie!) with the promise of even greater things to come at the Helwith Bridge Inn later on.

Another fantastic AGM with new friends and old! Thanks all for a great day out.

Pictures courtesy of David Lund