Eldon Hole exchange trip – 1st May 2018

Present: me and Louise.

I’ve been finding it a little difficult this year to get much rigging practice. On a given trip the rigging is either very straightforward and easy or it’s a long trip and I don’t want to slow things down. That and I have done a lot on pre-rigged stuff in Peak lately.

Me and Louise met up after work on Tuesday with the idea of doing one or two exchange trips down Eldon for rigging practice. After negotiating some rotting sheep and getting to the shaft we made a start. Louise rigged the North Gully and I rigged the South Gully. It turns out that Eldon on a mild evening is a ridiculously nice venue for this sort of trip because it’s light, it’s warm, it’s dry and you can each rig a route alone, but still not be very far apart so you can chatter and laugh nervously as you try to remember a sensible way to join ropes fifteen meters off the ground.

Louise practiced hauling her tacklesack while I took an age adjusting a rebelay and installing a knot pass, then we passed each other across the impressive snow plug that is still at the bottom of Eldon, and each de-rigged the opposite side. Bits of the North and West routes are still hard-rigged on mouldy green rope unfortunately.

Very pleasant trip, only two dead sheep and a dead lamb on the way. Not a bad way to get some rigging practice in. Highly recommended if you don’t really want to go caving.