Tag: West Kingsdale

By Dave In Uncategorised

Jingling Pot

Dave, Dave, Ami, Paddy, Damian, Scott, Sophie & Billy

On a very pleasant, warm, clear, calm evening, the crew headed up the steep slog to Jingling with a mish mash of ropes based on the limited availability in the store (where are all the 60s?!). Dave cracked on with rigging the initial traverse with Ami in a close 2nd. With the two short folk thoroughly enjoying the rigging.. being too vertically challenged to reach the handy foot ledge, the ungracious back lying shuffling along the top ledge was called for. luckily Ami didn’t have a camera to catch this. 

Here began the usual verbal diarrhoea of the cavers war cry, as the bags were doing everything they could to be obstructive. 

The remainder of the lateral cleft route was quickly rigged with a couple of unorthodox rope change overs, and Dave descending the direct route and landing just before Dave on the lateral cleft and the rest of the team quickly filing down. 

Not many opted for the free climb down the final pitch, choosing to have a catch up before climbing out instead in the pleasant company of a rather large frog. 

We beat the retreat and started the exit climbs to complete our exchange and Sophie was last out after some derigging practice by half 9, so a nice early finish but too late for a pint, maybe next time!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Rowten Pot

Long Dave & Ray

For a long time now, I’ve been trying to arrange an exchange trip in Rowten. I think it would be a very jolly experience, with people passing close to each other all over the place. But numbers or weather have always conspired to thwart my plans. This time it was both! In the end, only Dave and I signed up on a particularly bleak early spring morning with a forecast for rain all day.

Having just returned from Tasmania a couple of days before, I was feeling particularly jet-lagged and lethargic, so was very happy when Dave said he didn’t mind not getting to the bottom on this occasion. This meant that we only had 2 bags to carry up the hill, rather than 3. Phew.

It was a pretty quick and efficient trip to the bottom of the Main Chamber. I rigged the entrance pitch down the Eyehole and Dave took over to rig the big pitch, which he hadn’t rigged before. He made short work of it too.

This was only Dave’s 2nd trip to Rowten. On the 1st occasion, I had rigged the big pitch, using my trademark hybrid route of descending from the 1st y-hang in the bottomless rift and swinging over onto the far wall halfway down to join the Big Gully route at the descending line of rebelays. Dave must have enjoyed this on his previous visit as he chose to take the same route this time, despite my suggestion that he may want to take the more traditional route to the end of the bottomless rift.

In no time at all, we were both down in Main Chamber, looking down the Flyover, wishing we had brought the other bag of rope. However, this did give us a chance to explore as far as we could (tackle-free) on the Direct route. I hadn’t actually been down that way for many, many years, so was quite surprised by how far it’s possible to get. There are a few short climbs to get down, which looked like they may be interesting on the way back up, but we forged on. Eventually we ended up about level with and reasonably close to the 2nd rebelay of Flyover route, reinforcing my opinion that an exchange would be a very sociable affair indeed.

On the way back up to Main Chamber, Dave spotted Calcite Inlet. We didn’t attempt to squeeze into this, but it does look very nice. The 2 interesting climbs weren’t too bad to get back up. Combined tactics worked nicely on the lower one. For the upper one, Dave had left a convenient length of 6mm string attached to a handy anchor, which I was very pleased to see.

I set off up the big pitch first, with Dave derigging. One of the advantages of my hybrid route is that it breaks the big pitch up, so that 2 people can be ascending at the same time. Despite the extra rigging, I think this actually speeds things up. At the top of the big pitch, I offered to take over derigging, but Dave was in his element, so I took his bag off him and set off out. Dave appeared on the surface before I’d even had a chance to catch my breath.

This was a great, quick trip and Rowten delivered as it always does. Just to round things off, Dave produced a couple of slices of the cake he made himself for his recent wedding. Move over OG Sophie, there’s a new cake king in town!

No photos of the trip, but check the cake out…

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Jingling Pot

James, Ami, Jasmine, Tom, Ray

As is so often the way at this time of year, the planned trip couldn’t go ahead due to high water levels. The “Crawling Crew” (James, Jasmine & Ami) were most disappointed about this as the planned trip was Bucket On The Head. Tom and I were considerably less disappointed.

Where to go on a wet Wednesday evening? Well, obviously Rowten! But, as Tom already had the ropes packed for Lateral Cleft, Jingling was the even more obvious choice on this occasion.

Ami & Jasmine set a cracking pace up the hill, obviously excited to get dangling. I showed my greater experience by treating the evening as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Jingling was the site for some of Ami’s initial steps into rigging, so she was keen to rig Lateral Cleft to show how much she had advanced. I don’t think she had rigged the traverse from Little Gully over to the Cleft before, but made short work of it. On seeing how much fun Ami was having on the traverse, Jasmine immediately declared that she wanted to derig. She loves a challenge apparently – worth remembering!

While Ami carried on into the Cleft, followed by the others, I rigged the direct route from the start of the traverse. Last time I’d attempted this, I was thwarted by Tim K, who had given me an “experimental” rope to use. The experiment failed when the rope proved to be too fast to stop in order to rig the rebelay, even with full lock on my descender. No such issues this time as I brought my own tried and tested rope.

While waiting for the others, I rigged the final pitch. Apparently the youngsters just free-climb this these days. It looked easy enough to climb down, but I’m not so sure about getting back up. As I had some rope left over, I carried it on down into the dig, rigging it off an old piece of wood that was just lying around. It reached down the first short drop, then the first big drop and another short drop. That was as far as I went as the next drop was another big one. It certainly looked climbable though. To me, this dig feels much deeper than the One-Armed Bandit series in Aquamole, which I’d always assumed it was hoped to connect with. What do I know though.

I got back up to the bottom of the main shaft just in time to see Ami dropping in, soon followed by the others, minus Tom who had turned back a bit earlier. Fair enough. It’s impressive that he gets out at all at the moment with his new mini-caver-to-be.

Ami & Jasmine carried on down. I forgot to look at whether they used the rope or free-climbed. James and I had a chat at the bottom of the main shaft. Eventually Ami reappeared, but not Jasmine. Apparently the next long drop in the dig was indeed climbable, so of course Jasmine couldn’t resist. I think she went to the very bottom of the dig. Good effort.

Ami and James exited via the direct route, Jasmine and I took the Lateral Cleft, with Jasmine getting her wish of derigging. She made quick work of it too. James had only finished derigging the direct route when Jasmine appeared at the start of the traverse – see attached non-artist’s impression as no-one had a camera. I love watching (and listening to) Jasmine developing as a caver. The running commentary captures each precise moment when some new idea clicks into place. In this case it was how to derig an awkward traverse.

Nice job all. Thanks James for making it happen… and for not doing Bucket On The Head.

 

By Ami S In Day Trips

Rowten

Paddy & Ami

We’ve both been wanting to do Rowten for a long time, but when it came up on last week’s Meets list, only Paddy was free! We therefore quickly rearranged and made a special trip out, but without any other takers, I was certainly nervous about the sheer amount of rope two people would be carrying!

I had seen the entrances before as they are (far too) close to the Turbary Road, and they’re really spectacular. We set off down Eyehole with Paddy rigging, and it quickly became obvious why Rowten is a cavers favourite! All those many entrances and holes up top make for some very atmospheric and effective lighting.

The first pitch lands you on a shelf in the middle of the action, which drops off in to the darkness below. From there, Paddy made light work of the ‘athletic swing’ that sends the route underneath the shelf and through a snug crack. Even those adverse to tightness will appreciate it here, as the bottom half of the 70m waterfall roars below you. Down the big pitch and I had to keep stopping to appreciate how awesome the view was!

From the bottom we located Flyover route and began our descent, however, we couldn’t find the rebelay and ended up landing in the water below. From here we could see where we were meant to be, but as our way was an option, there seemed no point in going back up. This also seemed the right choice as we found two carabiners and someone’s long lost medication. Medium water levels meant we could splash our way down from here on the Direct route.

It was equally fun clambering about in the bottom streamway and at the sumps (fairly sure I won’t be diving those at any point) before heading back up. However, here it became apparent why we should have chosen Flyover route after all, as a thorough soaking was in order to get us back up the falls. It sped us up at least, and before long we were back at the big pitch staring up through the mist at the blue sky 120m above us.

Despite carrying a lot of wet rope, we made it out in great time. This trip did not disappoint! Must go back and do the other routes now! Exchange trip perhaps?

By Dave In Day Trips

Yordas

Dave, Ami, Paddy & Yolanda

On a bit of a windy, cold, almost raining evening, the four of us met up in the usual layby, and organised Paddy’s Krabs and Dave’s Rope for a firm Wednesday favourite, we had initially hoped to do the top entrance but recent rainfall put a damper on this, so we opted for the more traditional mid entrance. A wise choice as once we’d quickly made the streamway there was a fair bit of water coming down from the direction of the top entry.

Dave cracked on rigging the Chapter House traverse, with only a couple pauses for a head scratch and pensive “how did Ray do it last time” moment. Without much ado the bottom of the waterfall was reached by half 7, with the rest of the team duly filing down for a nice quick trip. We explored the show cave, with Paddy and Ami opting to follow the water out to the bottom exit before looping back to the cave. 

With only minor discussion around who was de-rigging, and Ami coming out the winner, we started on our way back out with Ami doing a cracking job on the derig, swapping to Yolanda for some practice on the first pitch, and the squad all back in daylight by 9pm!  The pub beckoned but everyone was keen to make tracks as this small cave sure packs an SRT punch. 

Photos by Paddy

 

 

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Bull Pot Kingsdale

James, Pete, Maz, Paddy, Ray

More often than not in recent years, we seem to have limited club trips to the first 3 pitches of Bull Pot, either due to water levels or to make the trip more novice-friendly. With a crack team and with water levels very low, however, we were determined to get to the bottom this time. Originally, 8 people had signed up, so I packed tackle for the main pitches, as well as variants of the 1st and 3rd. In the end, 3 had failed to make it (mostly due to work commitments), leaving us with 5. We still took all the tackle, intending to rig the variants.

After a very pleasant and leisurely change, we set off up the hill. The others obliged me by taking the sweeping path out to the right, making the walk up slightly easier. A plan was hatched whereby I would rig the main pitches, while Paddy would rig the variants. So I set off down the 1st (also with tackle for the 2nd & 3rd), closely followed by James with tackle for the 4th & 5th. The idea was for us to race on ahead and see how far we could get before being caught by the others.

Meanwhile, Paddy (who had never been in Bull Pot before) set about rigging the Monolith variant of the 1st pitch, followed by Pete, who had done this variant before. It’s a great little alternative and Paddy seemed suitably impressed. He rigged straight down to the ground from the final y-hang – a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It’s possible to stop a bit higher up and join the traverse line to the 2nd pitch, but why would you? Well, because just around the corner, literally a few feet away, you have to climb back up to the traverse line anyway.

James and I made short work of pitches 2 & 3, rigged (as usual) with a single rope and dropping down the slot. The 4th was bone dry – not even a single drop of water. I set about rigging the traverse at the top, only to discover that I no longer have the flexibility to get my foot onto a necessary step to reach the final y-hang. Hmmm. After some, presumably comical, shenanigans I managed to get there. James was very diplomatic. We used the 1st deviation, more out of habit than anything else. Thankfully there was no need for the 2nd.

Further up, the “wisdom” of leaving poor Paddy, who had never been in Bull Pot before, to rig the 3rd pitch alternative was exposed as the pure idiocy it undoubtedly was. Of course, he assumed the slot was part of the 2nd pitch, so shot straight down it, as you would. My fault entirely for not considering this obvious outcome. Oh well – pointlessly carrying some unused rope down a cave never hurt anyone.

James and I could now hear the others behind us, so sped on to the final pitch. I must have gone a bit low to reach the start of the initial traverse as the first anchor seemed a bit close to the pitch head – well, slightly over it really. Only when I looked back at a higher level did I see the actual 1st anchor. Oh well, too late to go back now. The initial traverse is quite constricted, which makes things particularly awkward with my reduced flexibility. Thankfully things improved a bit after the drop onto the lower traverse line. Soon, both James and I were at the bottom.

James had a bit of a poke around to see if the passage carried on, but didn’t get very far. Unusual for him. I was sure I’d have to physically pull him out of some hole or other. Perhaps he’s learned something from Hazel Grove Cave a few weeks ago.

Soon, Paddy dropped in to join us. Then Pete. Nice one! Maz decided the initial traverse on the last pitch was a bit snug for him. Fair enough. He did incredibly well to get down the 4th for the first time.

Then there was nothing left but to set off out. I went first. Getting back across the 2 traverses on the last pitch seemed much easier on the way out and I soon joined Maz and we made our way out together. Paddy derigged the bottom 2 pitches. Apparently he had some fun on the “first” anchor of the bottom pitch being as it was too close to the actual pitch for comfort. Sorry again Paddy. Not to worry – his skills were more than up to rigging a little closed safety system. Nice.

At the front, I went up the 4th pitch first as Maz wanted someone at the head when he got there. We then made our way out, via the standard 1st pitch, without too much drama, picking up the unused 3rd pitch alternative bag on the way. James was close behind, but separated from us to derig the Monolith variant on the 1st pitch. Special mention must go to Pete. Not only did he get to the bottom, but he also derigged the top 3 pitches.

All in all, a very successful trip. Thanks all for making it a great evening.

By Will Burnett In Day Trips

BPK – rigging masterclass

Team: Will, Chris A

After achieving full member status with the club, Chris quickly set his sights on his next underground goals and asked me if I could introduce him to the world of rigging/de-rigging. Chris is clearly naturally talented on a rope, as he is also a competent rope access tech, so I knew we wouldn’t have to start totally from scratch and would get a lot covered in a single trip. To start with, Chris drove us to Gareth’s house to collect the tackle store key, before heading there to pack for BPK and show Chris the process of a) packing for a trip, and b) signing kit in and out of the store correctly – it seems he may not be the only person in need of this refresher after recent events!

Once loaded up we head over to Kingsdale and began our romp up the hill to the entrance. Chris was quickly put to work, rigging the entrance pitch and the second pitch using the slot and wide ‘Y’ hang variation. The third pitch has a couple of deviations that require a decent swing to grab, so as Chris hadn’t attempted anything like this yet I head on down first to give him a quick demo, before removing the stopper knot at the bottom of the pitch and getting Chris to pull the top back up through the deviations before his descent meaning he then had to swing for the deviations again. He clearly listened to what he was being told and like a pro he breezed down the pitch to join me. The baton back over to Chris, off he went to rig the final pitch, perhaps his biggest test of the trip given that he was now pretty tired, and faced a couple of tight traverses before the final ab. Without too much effort, we were soon at the sump trying to fathom the point of the final pitch given that it’s a lot of effort for nothing at all really!

After putting in a shift on Chris’s part, we decided to de-rig in turns on the way out to give him a little rest, and I took the last pitch and the bigger second pitch so he could work through de-rigging the deviations and not just tire himself out on tight traverses. It wasn’t long at all before we could see daylight once again and with all the kit hauled back up and out, we were on our way back to the car before heading back to the tackle store to carry out some post trip checks on equipment and sign it all back in. Today we looked at:

– Packing kit for trips, organising bags, understanding topo’s, emergency preparations.

– Personal kit related to rigging. What makes life easier, what doesn’t.

– Knot options and selection. When and when not to use particular knots. Equalised and offset ‘Y’ hangs, small and large. Traverse lines. Deviations. Traverse lines that work up or down and protecting a slide/fall.

– Personal placement, good ‘housekeeping’ skills (not creating a spaghetti junction, being aware of cowstails and rigging lines and not getting twists and overlaps)

– Mechanical advantage, being able to use the tools at your disposal to better your position or help you achieve the objective quicker, safer or more efficiently.

– Group focus, rigging for personal/mates and rigging for group trips with all abilities. Being aware of trouble areas where people might need more from the rigging to help overcome obstacles, and being able to identify ways to do so. Also having awareness of surroundings and passing on information, can others follow or do you need room to rig? Does the passageway require one caver passing at a time, etc.

– Swinging on a rope, the principles behind swinging SAFELY on a rope. What to check before swinging, how to swing, and what to do if things don’t go to plan.

– De-rigging principles, bag management, personal protection when de-rigging and making sure that you don’t de-rig yourself out of the system totally.

– General performance analysis, not gassing yourself out, passing the baton if/when tired, focus, delegation if required, caving targets and goals.

All in all a fantastic day out! Chris really impressed me with his ability to learn new skill sets and put them into practice. Not only this, but watching him rig  and de-rig it’s evident to see he’s already thinking about all the important things like placement, protection, movement, etc. Practice, practice, practice, that’s all Chris needs now and I really don’t think it’ll be long at all before we can add him to the list of club riggers. If you’re on a trip with Chris, make sure you put his new skills to the test and get him grafting!

Write up by Will, photos by Will and Chris

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Rowten Pot

John, Will, Ray

This was a quick trip following my favourite route: In through the Eyehole, descend the main pitch from the 1st y-hang in the bottomless rift, swing over onto the wall for a few of the rebelays on the normal Gully route, all finished off via the Flyover.

Both John and I had done Rowten many times (although this precise route was new to John), but it was a bit of a step up for Will. Having done a few of the West Kingsdale potholes, he was suitably impressed by their “big brother”.

We were down at the bottom in no time. Will couldn’t be persuaded to dive the sump, which is just as well as he started by looking at the upstream sump. Neither John nor I had any intention of diving any sumps!

Will did an excellent job of derigging. All was going very well indeed until I started to prussic the entrance pitch. The tackle bag I was carrying became tangled round the rope, so I hauled it up and started passing it around to free it. Unfortunately, being a bit depleted these days, I ran out of energy & strength halfway through this manoeuvre and let the bag drop. This was enough to break the donkey’s d1ck attaching it to me and it fell back down the pitch. We had 2 bits of good fortune here: (1) it landed on the ledge without rolling off down the main pitch, (2) I was only 6 or 7m up, so could easily pop down to collect it.

Will finished off the derigging in no time and we exited to glorious sunshine. Will tells me the whole trip took 3 hours, 20 minutes from car to sump and back. Not bad for a couple of old duffers… and a young tiger.

Photos by Will.

By Ami S In Day Trips

Aquamole

Scott, Ray, James, Will and (Report by) Ami

Ray, true to form, decided I needed some rigging practice (he’s not wrong) so listed me leading Aquamole, where I had never been. We had all seen the excellent film about ex-KCCer Geoff Yeadon though, so I was excited.

Keen to get out the chilly wind we set off, with a warning that the pitches were permanently rigged. While helpful for navigating, this other rope meant I managed to tangle myself in almost all of the 384 re-belays on the first pitch.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself rigging such a varied 80m, with lots of slots and squeezes and surprises along the way. We were soon all down and commencing a 5 minute wet crawl, before finding the short second pitch. At the start of the third we split, as Ray had also bought gear for the One-Armed Bandit route.

I was really impressed with the final 60m pitch. There were a few pesky deviations early on, but as the cave was so dry I opted to ignore the third and just enjoy the view – a splendid cavern with a huge bulge in the centre that made you feel very tiny.

We soon met at the bottom and checked out the sump, complete with several fish.  Since I forgot the snacks (I’m not sure Will has forgiven me) we began our mini exchange, but with only Ray being brave enough to opt for ascending the 60m. The rest of us took One-Armed Bandit, which involved two pitches (decent length for an exchange) with a slightly precarious climb over a rather deep fissure in between.

At the top there were two options to rejoin Ray, one of which was a very small, but very short, squeeze. I’m always tempted to see if I’ll fit, which I did. Scott was lured through after me, but poor James, after an admirable amount of pushing, found his shoulders were just a bit too wide and had to go round. This turned out to be rather convenient as he could finish de-rigging the 60m pitch.

Will and Scott went ahead as they were a bit tight on time, and Ray came last de-rigging. We seemed good for time until the final 80m rope. It turns out, having another rope rigged is a pain on the way up too, and poor Ray found himself repeatedly tangled, meaning James, Ray and I didn’t emerge until two hours after Will and Scott were driving off. I’ve learned some new four letter words today.

Absolutely splendid cave nonetheless. It’s gone in the book of favourites. Thank you all!