Tag: AGM

By Scott In Day Trips

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

By Scott In Day Trips

Alum Pot, President’s Meet and AGM

by Scott

Cracking conditions for our annual bash. Alum Pot was the place to be this year, with multiple routes being rigged in the sunshine, and lots of fun was had by all. Sophie, Matilda, Nic, Bumper, Fred and Andy G went for a romp around the Churns. Will, Chris A, Paddy and Jasmine descended via Dolly Tubs and the Bridge. Pete and myself took on NW route, and Ray rigged Diccan (soon to be joined by Darren, Andy B and myself after I’d nipped back up NW). Much exchanging took place at the sump. Special mention must go to Paddy and Jasmine -both new members this year – who valiantly derigged Diccan as a pair. That’s a lot of wet rope for two people on a technical route!
The caving fun was followed by a good feed and natter at the Helwith Bridge Inn, with more members joining for the AGM. It’s been a very good year for the Kendal, with new faces, trips abroad and lots of caving-related hi jinks. Long may it continue!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Notts Pot

Darren, Chris D, Tim K, Gareth, Sophie, Sedgey, Ray

It was AGM day and Sophie had tried to arrange a day of fun in Chapel le Dale, with trips to Sunset and Meregill. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, so we settled on Leck instead, with parties going down Notts, Notts II and Shuttleworth. Aren’t we an active club!

The plan in Notts was to rig 2 different routes down to the Lower Streamway, then recombine for the lower pitches. I rigged down to Threeways Chamber, where we all reconvened for a discussion of who was going where. I ended up rigging down Twilight Zone, with Gareth, Sophie and Sedgey following. Chris rigged Adamson’s, followed by Darren and Tim.

It’s probably 30 years since I last did Twilight Zone, so my route finding wasn’t as slick as it could have been. A few metres down the 1st big drop, I tried to swing over to where I thought the route went. A lot of effort and some very big swings indeed all ended in failure… which is just as well as I was apparently trying to swing over to Centre Route. You live and learn. Further down, I completely missed the passage I was supposed to swing into, instead following the water down. It got wet. It got very wet indeed. An improvised deviation off a natural helped a bit, but lower down it got very wet again. There was no alternative but to prussick back up and, strangely, the correct way on was obvious. All this pointless up & down and swinging to & fro took exactly the right amount of time as we got to the Lower Streamway at exactly the same time as the Adamson’s party. Almost like it had been planned!

Tim was having a bit of back trouble and decided to head out via Twilight Zone, so at least he managed the exchange. Gareth took over rigging for the lower pitches and all were soon at the bottom… apart from me. I decided to forego the pleasure of the last big pitch to speed things up a bit. There were already 5 people down there!

Everyone exchanged on the way out. Darren & Chris derigged Twilight, Sophie and I derigged Adamson’s. While derigging Birthday Pot, I managed to get the rope snagged, so had to down prussick to free it. Poor Sophie got the job of derigging the nasty little down climbs near the top… with virtually no whimpering at all. She carried on derigging the entrance pitches from Threeways. I think I may have detected some language when one of the ropes got snagged, but luckily I was mostly out of earshot.

On the surface, we were vary surprised to find everyone stood around waiting for us, including Tim. Personally, I would have buggered off to get changed. An almost perfect day was rounded off by too much beer and food at the Station Inn after the formalities of the AGM. I’m already looking forward to next year.