Apparently the rope on Bitch pitch is in a dangerous condition. It's continued use in not advisable.
RJ

Confirmed. The rope has cored and the offending piece of rope has been tied out. It is now very awkward to pass, as the rope is now too short between the y-hang and deviation / rebelay.
Passable but sporting!
S

Thanks Ralph.

Any clue as to cause: falling rock or just rub?

Definitely rub. When I went down about midday saturday it was in a pretty bad way, but not completely cored. The sheath obveously has failed when one of the people above me passed it. The tied out section is just above the very first deviation.

I advice anybody going down JH take their own rope for at least the top hang of Bitch pitch.

Do people not take their own rope for the entire trip??  fixed lines usually only get left where it'd be difficult to get to the top!  Remove the rope permanently = no problem!
Or have i joined some private permanently rigged dig project forum?
Loki

The lower Leviathan rope was placed to facilitate work on The Boulder Piles. This work is ongoing but the rope will be remove soon, possibly as early as tomorrow (Thursday). The other ropes were placed to speed up access to a dig.

These ropes do seem to have caused a considerable increase in traffic, possibly due to the fact that cavers don't have to rig/derig when visiting some of the further reaches of this system such as FSE.
The damage to this rope emphasises the need to be ultra cautious when using in-situ ropes. I am surprised to learn how many cavers used this rope AFTER it was seen to be damaged. It does demonstrate that modern ropes are incredibly strong even when only the core remains. I don't recommend assuming this will always be the case, on the other hand DCRO could do with a few more shouts if only to keep them on their toes!
RJ

The damaged rope was removed today (Thursday) by a small group of "Coffin Dodgers". It is expected that all ropes in JH will be removed within the next seven days.
Apparently the key to the entrance shaft went missing last weekend- if you are guilty can you return it to the farm.
RJ

Looking at the damaged rope yesterday, it looked as though the abrasion might have been less destructive if the pitch had been rigged with a rebelay, as indicated in Crewe's Rigging Guide, rather than a deviation. On a narrow pitch like Bitch, rubbing is always going to be an issue, and rebelays do reduce the amount of movement that the rope can make across the rock.

And, obviously, leaving such a pitch rigged for a long period will subject the rope to much more of this potential damage.

JH was well and truly derigged today (3 coffin dodgers and a young assistant!). Not before time looking at the state of a couple of the ropes.
RJ.

Thanks for the update Ralph 
must find a rope carrier to join 'Jon & I
O. G

[/img]

"Following my previous posting re the inadvisability of descent on a damaged rope I thought readers might be interested in viewing the rope in question recovered from JH ".

"Photo courtesy of Bob Meyhew"?

RJ
If pasting in this photo works it will be a miracle!