Planning to do a trip down Nettle to Derbyshire Hall the weekend, but it is a bit confusing for the number of ropes needed.

No problem with the entrance, and also the pitch before the "boulder passage". Also aware that there will be (very likely) two fixed ropes up the far flat. However, I am confused with the down pitch before the "freeze squeeze". The DCA rigging guide doesn't mention anything about this.

So, my question is, do I need a rope / ropes for this pitch before "freeze squeeze" ? If so, What rope length do I need ?

Cheers,
Thom

I've a note to get this pitch added in the next edition of the Crewe rigging guide, as it's also omitted from there. Not 100% sure of the rope length required but COTPD says it's an 11m pitch, so it would be worth taking 15-18m.

If you're doing this fairly soon, please can you confirm the rope length and type of bolts on this pitch. It would be very useful.

Its been a while,  I think our 10m ladder came up a bit short so 11-12 meters sound about right for the depth of the pitch.  I also recall it wasn't P bolts either.  However, that situation may have changed since I was last there!

al, I will check it out and post the info here.

SamT, thanks for the advice.

The pitch immediately before the Freeze Squeeze has resin anchors. I can't remember how much rope it needs but 20m should be loads.

Cheers,
Jules.

Last time i was there (~2years ago) all the far flats had in-situ (muddy!) ropes down to Freeze.

A bit of update after the group did a successful trip to Derbyshire Hall and out of the mud hole...

The two "pull-through" pitches are still rigged with fixed rope, so as the short traverse before that. However, no rope was on the downward pitch right before "freeze squeeze", five bolts were there - a pair of resin anchors, a single rusty bolt with a rotten rope on it, also another pair of anchors. The pitch is at least 16 meters. I used a 20 meter rope as suggested, and about 1.5 meters left in the bag, and let's say 1 m for the rigging.

Hope this will help further visitor cavers.

It's worth noting that this pitch is backed up to a natural in the ceiling about 5m from the bolts at the pitch-head, this protects the traverse over the pitch.

I was down there yesterday and remember the bolts on the pitch down to Freeze Squeeze as being three eco hangers (we rigged off these) then two rusty bolts (I think spits with twist hangers but wasn't looking that closely), one with a bit of rotten tat on. All pretty close together on the same side of the pitch and couldn't see any handy deviations so we got a little bit of rub near the top (but rock was fairly smooth looking and there were only two of us...). Didn't notice the backup in the ceiling! As for the rope, we used a 20 and that was definitely more than enough - pitch didn't seem thaaat big? But again not paying particular attention.

The in-situ rope for the smaller pull-through pitch looked extremely fat so I thought I might not need my braking krab. I thought wrong - turns out Nettle mud is a particularly excellent lubricant!