Tag: Through trip

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Fun and Games in Voldemort

Sophie, Pete, Matt, Dave, Ami & Ray

It all started so well. OK, there was the usual random walk around the fell to find the entrance, but nothing to suggest the comedy sketch to come. But let’s start at the start…

There is a short ladder directly from the surface. At the bottom is a short bit of crawling. I’d forgotten how snug this crawl is, so had to re-orientate myself (and the tackle sack) to get through. No-one else seemed to struggle, so I’ll blame arthritis. Others may blame pies. Things then get a little bit less snug down a few climbs to the head of the 1st pitch. As last time, this was already rigged, so we were all soon down at the start of Haywagon. Everyone else went for a marvel at the pretties, after being good boys and girls and removing SRT kit. As I’d been before, I waited patiently for their return.

The 2nd & 3rd pitches follow soon after, again thankfully pre-rigged. The take-off for the 2nd is moderately interesting. Now the key to this trip is to leave the 2nd pitch at a traverse line halfway down, rather than following the rope all the way to the bottom. A short traverse then leads to the 3rd pitch, which is easy enough. The bottom of this pitch is where the fun really begins.

Immediately is a fairly tight downward sideways crawl, dumping you rather unceremoniously in a puddle at a T-junction. The way on is left, along a seemingly interminable crawl… nothing too bad to start with, but a few more tricky sections along the way turned the thoughts of some members of the party to religion and sex, at least judging from the language. The “pleasure” of this passage is only enhanced by the accompaniment of a tackle sack.

After what seemed like a long time, but was probably no more than 15 mins or so, we popped out at the head of Oliver Lloyd Aven. Phew! The ordeal was over. All we had to do was slide down a rope and stomp out of Notts II. The first part of this plan went well enough. Before long, most were down in Inlet 7 of Notts II, with Matt and I stopping on the big ledge near the bottom to pull the rope down. And that’s where it all went wrong…

We pulled, we tugged, we hung, we jumped, all to no avail. No way was the rope coming down. Perhaps a few more bodies would help. So we decided to abseil down to the bottom so that all 6 of us could try together. Just 1 problem, of course… we had managed to pull the rope down to some extent with our exertions, so was it now safe to use? The obvious solution was for Matt and I to abseil together on the 2 ends. Thankfully this worked.

Even with all 6 of us pulling, the rope wasn’t budging. There was nothing else for it – someone would have to prussic up and free things off, or at least see what the problem was. No sooner had such thoughts started to dawn on us than Dave was attaching his jammers and setting off. No need for any drawing of straws then. With Ami, Pete and I tied to the other end as ballast, Dave was soon up near the problem. Some comedy communication then followed, the gist appearing to be that the 2 ropes were rather twisted, although an equally plausible translation could have been that the pope was Father Ted. On Dave’s return, it turned out that the 1st translation was closer to the actual situation. He even remembered how many twists there were and in which direction. So a sketch looking rather like a typical Mayday dance around a maypole then ensued. Surely that must have freed things off… but no.

I then decided to go up and have a look, but couldn’t find my chest jammer. Meanwhile, Sophie had set off up, reporting that there were no twists, but that the pull-down krab was a good 5 or 6m from the top, rendering it impossible to actually reach the top to rerig. In the meantime, Matt had found my lost jammer on the big ledge about 7m up and dropped it to me. On Sophie’s return, I then set off up to view the problem, intending to prussic up beyond the pull-down krab and reach the top of the pitch to rerig, making sure that enough bodies were tied to the other end to prevent my early demise. On reaching the problem, it was clear that, while there were no twists in the ropes below the krab, they were very twisted indeed above. Ah, so that’s the problem then. Using ropes and walls for purchase, I was able to spin enough to remove all twists above the krab. The others were then able to take the twists out below me. Job done. All I had to do was descend and the ropes should feed freely. It became clear that this probably wasn’t going to work as soon as I started to descend. There was no way to prevent the ropes twisting again. Again we all tried to pull down from the bottom, but again there was no give whatsoever. Whether it is simply the twisted ropes or there is something more fundamentally wrong at the top, we couldn’t be sure. In any case, it was getting a bit late by this point and we were all getting a bit cold, so we decided to make our way out of Notts II and come back for the ropes another day. Ami had never been in Notts II before and was suitably impressed. It was a shame we weren’t more in the mood for an explore.

So, as I write this (the day after), my ropes are still on Oliver Lloyd Aven. Matt and I plan to go back tomorrow to retrieve them, presumably via Voldemort. Watch this space…

Photos by Sophie

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Swinsto Pot

Tom, Darren, Tim K, Pete, Steve, Rhod, Ray

A classic pull-through in dry conditions with Darren rigging. All went smoothly. No hang-ups or jammed ropes. Photos by Ray.

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Cupcake to Committee Pot – 28th October 2012

The Cupcake – Committee Pot: Richard M, Tim D, Jason

I’d been looking forward to this trip: the combination of one of the newer discoveries in the Three Counties system, some nice pretties and a through trip was enticing.  But I knew my companions would take some keeping up with, they being well-known members of the species Homo Ferrous Troglodytes.

According to Richard’s informant, all ropes were in place except for the short entrance pitch, which was a bonus, so we were quickly at the bottom and able to see The Cupcake in all its glory

– along with many other pristine stal formations and a host of long straws.  Care has to be taken to avoid these on the next little pitch, and more fine formations follow.  The following pitch is aptly named “Mud” and is a portent of things to come, but the going is still easy although a generous coating of mud does nothing for one’s SRT kit.  Then there’s an upward pitch, short but made longer by having to wipe gobs of gloop off the rope at each prussik step.  The next section of passageway is reasonably roomy but requires great care to avoid breaking or clarting-up some more nice formations.  It’s hard not to see this section deteriorating with more visitors.

From here the trip showed its less agreeable side; crawls in sharp hardcore, then mud, then some tight bits before we came to Bendall’s Dilemma.  We had understood this to be a hard squeeze, but we passed it with only a little thrutching and cursing.  We were rewarded by emerging into the fine large chamber of Hubert Carstairs II.  Following on into Hubert Carstairs I,we were presented by a choice of ascending ropes.  Richard took the right-hand one and after some doubtful mutterings, Tim investigated that on the left.  I thought it important for someone to stay in the middle to relay messages (and avoid unnecessary climbing).  After a while, Richard located a third rope, much shorter than the other two, which was the way on.  There swiftly followed another short ascent in a rift.  Short, but tight and awkward, bloody awkward – at least to me.  Richard cheerfully said “you got your money’s worth out of that one!”

Not long afterwards is the “Inverse Superman”squeeze, a U-bend followed by a constriction with a lump of rock cunningly sited at chest level.  A curious balletic episode ensued.  Richard goes first, passing through like an eel.  Jason makes a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to remove his SRT kit, attempts the squeeze, jams his croll against the lump, retreats, advances, jams and retreats again.  Tim reaches over and manages to divest Jason of his harness.  Jason advances – and passes!  Two sets of SRT kit and a helmet are passed forward. Tim advances, jams and retreats twice, then calls for Richard to push from behind.  Jason lies down, Richard crawls back over him.  Somehow his mere presence encourages Tim to a final, successful push. Then Richard crawls over Tim and back through the squeeze to retrieve Tim’s descender which had parted company from him in the fun.

After that, I’d like to say it was all plain sailing.  I’d like to, but it was actually a long grim crawl.  Not without variety though; sideways thrutching, flat-out crawling in mud, flat-out crawling in water.  And all the way pushing a ball of tangled straps and mud that was the SRT kit.  Eventually – eventually – we reached the top of the pitches at the top of Count Lazlo Stroganoff’s Aven.  At least one could sit up, just, though I found untangling my kit and putting it on in that position took so long that by the time I got to the bottom Tim was considering mounting a rescue.  On the last couple of pitch sections, the noise of rushing water became more noticeable.  Could this be the Notts II streamway ?  It could – it was.  Hallelujah!

Richard had already headed out to derig, so we were faced with the quandary of which way to go.  Knowing the inlet (Sir Digby Spode’s) was between the exit and Curry Inlet, it should have been obvious to head downstream.  But by this time, I was beyond rational thought, so we headed upstream for a bit against quite a sporting current (which cleaned up the gear a bit at least) before Tim decided we’d gone wrong.  After rather more streamway than we’d been expecting, we found the familiar passage and headed out for the jumble of scaffolding, ladders and breeze blocks – and daylight.

I was quite surprised, having felt the trip to have gone so long I was expecting darkness, but it was only 4:15.

So, a trip I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone – as long as I don’t have to come with them!

PS – If, like me, you’ve wondered at the origins of the colourful names of the various inlets and chambers of Notts II, you can find some clues here: http://loveandliberty.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/rogue-male-in-trap.html