Rowten Pot and the trip where absolutely no-one got strung up

N.CHECC – 21st March  with Tank, Jack, Sam, Glen

This trip was supposed to be a freshers rigging trip… Well that went well…

Depending on who you ask about this trip, both everyone and no one got stuck. Sam got stuck coming up at a rebelay,  Tank had a ‘moment’ on the way down (he can deny it all he wants). I got stuck on the way up and down (but especially down). And Glen was stuck behind the rest of us getting stuck and getting more and more pissed off.

Before we even attempted to go caving Sam realised he didn’t have a chest strap on his harness, after fashioning one from Jack’s spare foot loop we set off. We didn’t have enough rope to rig all of the pitches so the plan was for one to rig the entrance pitch, one to rig the traverse and one to rig the final pitch.

It started off well when Sam (who had learnt the knots the night before whilst slightly inebriated and everything was hazy) went first rigging. Just under two hours later and after much jumping around on the surface, the first pitch was rigged.  Jack followed behind and then me. This was not fun. Strung up at the top of the free hanging rebelay before the pitch for forty-five minutes. How? Having strung myself up on the long cowstail, I tried to get out of it by using my handjammer but because I’m a twat I let go off it and it was way too high so that my footloop was hitting me in the chest. I pulled myself up and got into my footloop three times because I let go at the wrong point and ended up back at square bloody one. I should apologise to Glen and Tank for all of the swearing, it was at the kit and myself. Again, this was not fun. Eventually I disappeared off down the pitch and after much faffing and whatever Tank eventually got down the pitch closely followed by a irate looking Glen. Glen then informed us that he would be rigging from now on. Glen, Sam and Jack disappeared off down the next pitch whilst I refused because I’d managed to scare myself on the last one thanks to my inability to learn to use a simple bit of kit and Tank because he didn’t fancy going down. Jack appeared soon and disappeared up the rope followed by me; it’s quite disconcerting to be prussicking up and see the luminous hood of a penguin onesie below you (courtesy of Tank). On the bright side, thanks to spending so long stuck there on the way down, I managed to get off the rebelay easily after a bit of faffing. Tank then followed and then Sam. Sam managed to get stuck on my favorite rebelay on the way up and couldn’t get his chest crowl undone. Jack claimed that the same thing happened to him and thought a patin would help. (Tank claims that because he had his harness on and Jack didn’t, that he single-handedly rescued Sam and is therefore training for working in the CRO… good luck with that!)

Glen then appeared at the top of the pitch and threatened Sam that he was going to derig the rope in the next minute, it was fun watching a panicking Sam trying to get across the next rebelay as though Glen was going to pack him in the tackle sack still attached to the rope. Going back down the hill, I realised that I hadn’t even turned my light on all trip because it was so light.

The worst trip I have done so far, the only thing that I enjoyed was looking at the sun and view waiting for Sam to finish rigging. Enjoyed Lancaster pot the next day though with the tiny snowman made of mud.


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