Gerbil007
Member
Sunday 5th March 2017, Kev Speight and Dave Lossl
Recent years have seen my caving mojo decrease in inverse proportions to my waistline. My demanding 2 year old, a career change to a sedentary job and a spectacular display of dietary intemperance all contributing to a couple of failures in squeezes and a mini epic/panic attack on a deep Charterhouse trip. Suffice it to say that when the scale started to read north of 17st, I decided drastic action was required in the form of strict calorie control. The laws of thermodynamics haven't let me down and thus far I'm at 2 stone loss and counting. (Brag over!)
In the weeks leading up to this trip I'd tested myself in a couple of squeezes that had become a challenge and my success in passing them confirmed what the scales were reading. Once the 2 stone milestone was achieved, I decided I was ready for something more challenging and the idea to revisit PGS was conceived.
I have done PGS before, back in 2010 when I was caving 5 times a week and at my peak caving fitness. Even then, I recall that Clitoris Crawl was indeed "a bit of a c**t", so I was not without trepidation prior to the trip. Nonetheless, I felt pretty confident that I'd be okay physically; whether my head was in the right place was the real question.
I met Dave in the early afternoon at the MCG, where we decided that we'd stick to the main route and not bother with diversions or the more convoluted descent of Main's Aven. To that end, we streamlined the kit as far as possible, collected the key and headed to Priddy.
Our first obstacle came in the form of the key held by the MCG for PGS being about a decade (at least!) out of date. We owe huge thanks to Alison Moody, who we luckily just caught on her way out and was able to furnish us with a key. (More on keys later!) My impression of the trip is that the difficulty increases quite gradually, with the initial stages being 'typical Mendip' and not overly strenuous. By the time we arrived at the head of Clitoris Crawl though, we were both in no doubt that we were involved in a technical trip and sweating freely!
Being the larger caver in our little party, I led into CC (commonly acknowledged as the crux of the trip), with our reasoning being that if I did have an epic, it would be far easier and quicker for Dave to retreat to summon help, than be obliged to complete the trip solo. I forced myself to take a good long look at the initial stages, quickly discounting a feet first attempt as being a waste of energy. (I tried this on my first, unsuccessful , attempt at the trip and again on my second, before finally committing to the head first approach). I'm sure someone will disagree, but for my money, by far the easiest way to negotiate CC is head first, left side down. The thing that makes it intimidating is the pretty drastic forced change in level about one body length in. Initially, you are holding yourself high in the rift, before suddenly dropping down considerably to near floor level. In addition, the rift heads round a bend so you can't really see what you're heading into. You just have to trust that it gets easier. My slow and considered approach saw me through with very little drama except for a couple of helmet jams and a requirement to back up slightly after misjudging the moment to commit to the lower level. Even the tackle sack co-operated! Dave wasted no time in following my lead and before we knew it we were back slapping in Barrel Aven.
Keen to keep moving and wary of the fact there was still plenty to come, we kept our celebrations to a minimum and forged ahead, pausing briefly to admire the nice, if small, cave pearls just after Barrel Aven. Tin Can Alley offered a brief splashy crawl to cool us down and before we knew it we had reached Top Avens and found the first of the bolts at Dave's Knee. A cursory inspection of the small pot saw us deciding not to bother unpacking rope or harnesses and a simple free climb led us down to the very aptly named 'Shit Sump'. Despite Manor Farm switching from Dairy to Goats some years back, this feature still more than lives up to its name and was the first time either of us would really detect a funky aroma.
Shortly after this delightful feature comes 'El Crapitan', a 6m pitch that would be quite pleasant were it not for the accompanying slurry waterfall and slimy, wildlife coated walls! Mendip Underground describes this pitch as free climbable, but we both struggled even with the assistance of a handline. Personally, I'd recommend rigging this properly, although my climbing skills do leave plenty to be desired.
Before long, we reached the fixed ropes protecting the traverse over Main's Aven. I'd definitely like to return and descend this route soon, but on this occasion, we opted for the more straightforward Bladder Pot route, so donned our harnesses and clipped into the rope to reach the really very nice phreatic tube that is Ken's Crawl. This pleasant bit of passage soon led us to the head of Bladder Pot; a fine 17m pitch with a couple of distinct ledges. I quickly rigged this for pull through and dropped down, followed swiftly by Dave. Unfortunately, the rope obstinately refused to be pulled down, so, thankful for the fact that we'd heeded advice to carry one set of 'up' gear, I prussiked back up to re-rig, which solved the problem nicely. Unfortunately, the problem re-occurred when, on the last but one pitch (6m to alcove in Swindon's four roof, followed by final 8m) I decided it would be clever to combine the two pitches into one. In this case, the rope actually became tangled to the point where I wasn't really happy to re-ascend due to uncertainty about whether I was attached to the correct side of the rope. (Lesson learned: take more care about management of the rope on pull through trips) In addition to this minor calamity, I carelessly allowed my bottle of Lucozade and flapjack (to which I had been looking forward for some time!) fall out of the semi-open tacklesack. With the stream more or less in spate, my precious rations were quickly washed into the murky depths of Sump 4. Whilst I was gutted at losing my re-hydration and sugar fix, I could at least console myself that I wouldn?t be burning energy lugging my 40m rope, which we opted to abandon, up Blue Pencil Passage!
Blue Pencil, while nowhere near as bad as most of PGS, is still quite a challenging bit of cave, even without excess wet rope to carry. This was Dave?s first visit to BP in 20 odd years, and mine in probably 4 years. I actually quite enjoyed it, once the femur bending awkward dog-leg at the start was passed.
We?d already decided that we?d make our exit via The Troubles rather than Mud Sump, so wasted no time in beginning to bail the first of them, which was full to bursting. Working as a team, we soon had a comfortable airspace and bobbed through. The second trouble was, as usual, comfortably open, but the third was also brimming. Neither of us had ever seen it so full, but with precious few options, set to using up yet more precious calories with rigorous bailing. Contenting ourselves with only a few inches of airspace, a more ponderous approach was required, but saw us through without any ?shark attacks?.
Despite the rigours of the trip so far, I still harboured some nerves about the ?Not Birthday? squeeze. In the past, even at my fittest, I?ve always approached this obstacle with caution, but on this occasion was delighted to find that by sliding through on my back, I literally had space (albeit about 2mm!) to spare between roof and chest. This has never been the case previously and gave me a big morale boost in spite of depleted fluid and energy reserves.
Dropping down The Landing, we both observed an unusual smell. I found it evocative of an old style waxed canvas tent. Presumably, the source is the long known about heating oil spill which has affected the fossil passages for a while. Still, this was the first time we?d ever noticed it here. We also noted the fact that the streamway was very much in spate. We?d probably been quite lucky to avoid being caught by flood pulses in PGS. Normally we?d welcome the sporting water levels, but in truth we were both pretty knackered by now and craving the surface. All the same, we made good progress and were soon de-tackling the twenty (which Dave had pre-rigged earlier in the day), before slogging out to the surface via the Short Dry (but actually pretty wet!) Way.
You may recall that I mentioned earlier that keys would be mentioned again. Well, in a near disastrously stupid oversight on my part, at the start of the trip, I had stowed the keys (for cave and car!) just inside the PGS entrance, before throwing the bolt and merrily heading into the bowels of Mendip. Of course now, the lid was locked to the surface with no means of retrieving them! With the prospect of hiking to a probably deserted BEC or Wessex to beg for a key not high on desirability list, I crossed my fingers and knocked on the Moody?s door, where once again, Alison was our saviour with another spare CSCC key! Pathetically grateful, we retrieved the keys and changed, bruised, sore, but thoroughly chuffed at having knocked off one of Mendips best sporting trips.
Recent years have seen my caving mojo decrease in inverse proportions to my waistline. My demanding 2 year old, a career change to a sedentary job and a spectacular display of dietary intemperance all contributing to a couple of failures in squeezes and a mini epic/panic attack on a deep Charterhouse trip. Suffice it to say that when the scale started to read north of 17st, I decided drastic action was required in the form of strict calorie control. The laws of thermodynamics haven't let me down and thus far I'm at 2 stone loss and counting. (Brag over!)
In the weeks leading up to this trip I'd tested myself in a couple of squeezes that had become a challenge and my success in passing them confirmed what the scales were reading. Once the 2 stone milestone was achieved, I decided I was ready for something more challenging and the idea to revisit PGS was conceived.
I have done PGS before, back in 2010 when I was caving 5 times a week and at my peak caving fitness. Even then, I recall that Clitoris Crawl was indeed "a bit of a c**t", so I was not without trepidation prior to the trip. Nonetheless, I felt pretty confident that I'd be okay physically; whether my head was in the right place was the real question.
I met Dave in the early afternoon at the MCG, where we decided that we'd stick to the main route and not bother with diversions or the more convoluted descent of Main's Aven. To that end, we streamlined the kit as far as possible, collected the key and headed to Priddy.
Our first obstacle came in the form of the key held by the MCG for PGS being about a decade (at least!) out of date. We owe huge thanks to Alison Moody, who we luckily just caught on her way out and was able to furnish us with a key. (More on keys later!) My impression of the trip is that the difficulty increases quite gradually, with the initial stages being 'typical Mendip' and not overly strenuous. By the time we arrived at the head of Clitoris Crawl though, we were both in no doubt that we were involved in a technical trip and sweating freely!
Being the larger caver in our little party, I led into CC (commonly acknowledged as the crux of the trip), with our reasoning being that if I did have an epic, it would be far easier and quicker for Dave to retreat to summon help, than be obliged to complete the trip solo. I forced myself to take a good long look at the initial stages, quickly discounting a feet first attempt as being a waste of energy. (I tried this on my first, unsuccessful , attempt at the trip and again on my second, before finally committing to the head first approach). I'm sure someone will disagree, but for my money, by far the easiest way to negotiate CC is head first, left side down. The thing that makes it intimidating is the pretty drastic forced change in level about one body length in. Initially, you are holding yourself high in the rift, before suddenly dropping down considerably to near floor level. In addition, the rift heads round a bend so you can't really see what you're heading into. You just have to trust that it gets easier. My slow and considered approach saw me through with very little drama except for a couple of helmet jams and a requirement to back up slightly after misjudging the moment to commit to the lower level. Even the tackle sack co-operated! Dave wasted no time in following my lead and before we knew it we were back slapping in Barrel Aven.
Keen to keep moving and wary of the fact there was still plenty to come, we kept our celebrations to a minimum and forged ahead, pausing briefly to admire the nice, if small, cave pearls just after Barrel Aven. Tin Can Alley offered a brief splashy crawl to cool us down and before we knew it we had reached Top Avens and found the first of the bolts at Dave's Knee. A cursory inspection of the small pot saw us deciding not to bother unpacking rope or harnesses and a simple free climb led us down to the very aptly named 'Shit Sump'. Despite Manor Farm switching from Dairy to Goats some years back, this feature still more than lives up to its name and was the first time either of us would really detect a funky aroma.
Shortly after this delightful feature comes 'El Crapitan', a 6m pitch that would be quite pleasant were it not for the accompanying slurry waterfall and slimy, wildlife coated walls! Mendip Underground describes this pitch as free climbable, but we both struggled even with the assistance of a handline. Personally, I'd recommend rigging this properly, although my climbing skills do leave plenty to be desired.
Before long, we reached the fixed ropes protecting the traverse over Main's Aven. I'd definitely like to return and descend this route soon, but on this occasion, we opted for the more straightforward Bladder Pot route, so donned our harnesses and clipped into the rope to reach the really very nice phreatic tube that is Ken's Crawl. This pleasant bit of passage soon led us to the head of Bladder Pot; a fine 17m pitch with a couple of distinct ledges. I quickly rigged this for pull through and dropped down, followed swiftly by Dave. Unfortunately, the rope obstinately refused to be pulled down, so, thankful for the fact that we'd heeded advice to carry one set of 'up' gear, I prussiked back up to re-rig, which solved the problem nicely. Unfortunately, the problem re-occurred when, on the last but one pitch (6m to alcove in Swindon's four roof, followed by final 8m) I decided it would be clever to combine the two pitches into one. In this case, the rope actually became tangled to the point where I wasn't really happy to re-ascend due to uncertainty about whether I was attached to the correct side of the rope. (Lesson learned: take more care about management of the rope on pull through trips) In addition to this minor calamity, I carelessly allowed my bottle of Lucozade and flapjack (to which I had been looking forward for some time!) fall out of the semi-open tacklesack. With the stream more or less in spate, my precious rations were quickly washed into the murky depths of Sump 4. Whilst I was gutted at losing my re-hydration and sugar fix, I could at least console myself that I wouldn?t be burning energy lugging my 40m rope, which we opted to abandon, up Blue Pencil Passage!
Blue Pencil, while nowhere near as bad as most of PGS, is still quite a challenging bit of cave, even without excess wet rope to carry. This was Dave?s first visit to BP in 20 odd years, and mine in probably 4 years. I actually quite enjoyed it, once the femur bending awkward dog-leg at the start was passed.
We?d already decided that we?d make our exit via The Troubles rather than Mud Sump, so wasted no time in beginning to bail the first of them, which was full to bursting. Working as a team, we soon had a comfortable airspace and bobbed through. The second trouble was, as usual, comfortably open, but the third was also brimming. Neither of us had ever seen it so full, but with precious few options, set to using up yet more precious calories with rigorous bailing. Contenting ourselves with only a few inches of airspace, a more ponderous approach was required, but saw us through without any ?shark attacks?.
Despite the rigours of the trip so far, I still harboured some nerves about the ?Not Birthday? squeeze. In the past, even at my fittest, I?ve always approached this obstacle with caution, but on this occasion was delighted to find that by sliding through on my back, I literally had space (albeit about 2mm!) to spare between roof and chest. This has never been the case previously and gave me a big morale boost in spite of depleted fluid and energy reserves.
Dropping down The Landing, we both observed an unusual smell. I found it evocative of an old style waxed canvas tent. Presumably, the source is the long known about heating oil spill which has affected the fossil passages for a while. Still, this was the first time we?d ever noticed it here. We also noted the fact that the streamway was very much in spate. We?d probably been quite lucky to avoid being caught by flood pulses in PGS. Normally we?d welcome the sporting water levels, but in truth we were both pretty knackered by now and craving the surface. All the same, we made good progress and were soon de-tackling the twenty (which Dave had pre-rigged earlier in the day), before slogging out to the surface via the Short Dry (but actually pretty wet!) Way.
You may recall that I mentioned earlier that keys would be mentioned again. Well, in a near disastrously stupid oversight on my part, at the start of the trip, I had stowed the keys (for cave and car!) just inside the PGS entrance, before throwing the bolt and merrily heading into the bowels of Mendip. Of course now, the lid was locked to the surface with no means of retrieving them! With the prospect of hiking to a probably deserted BEC or Wessex to beg for a key not high on desirability list, I crossed my fingers and knocked on the Moody?s door, where once again, Alison was our saviour with another spare CSCC key! Pathetically grateful, we retrieved the keys and changed, bruised, sore, but thoroughly chuffed at having knocked off one of Mendips best sporting trips.
