caving_fox
Active member
Attending: Bill, Mark, Adam and Me all RDCC.
Adam and I managed to make Sunday morning trains to Preston where Mark collected us and drove onto Clapham to rendevous with Bill. A plesant change in the sunshine and everyone admired my brand new and very shiney green P7. Even on full power you can only just see it when the sun shines 8) (oh yes this icon will be used a lot).
The walk up wasn't so bad, even in full gear, with a nice breeze cooling us down. The forecast for the day was for afternoon rain, so we decided against doing a main shaft/dihedral exchange, and stuck to just dihedral. It's the first time I've done GG except for many many years ago as a tourist on the winch. Peering in the top of dihedral to the sunlight coming through below was very odd. The wideangle of the P7 gives off a LOT of light 8) in small areas so you can see extremities without shifting your head, having been on an FX3 for 10 years this is a novel experiance.
Bill's cry of 'rope free' drifted up the pitch and I could just about see his light in the distance below. The downside of the wideangle light is that it's very good at illuminating spray/fog. So details weren't that clear. Whiz. down we go. Through the deviations. And gasp as GG main shaft becomes visible. I was enjoying the descent too much to pay lots of attention to it though. Plenty of time to do that on the way back up. Pause on the ledge. Play with light some more. 8) Look at the rest of the chamber etc. Annoyingly tight deviation, two remarkably easy rebelays given the absense of many footholds. (a sling tied into the P hanger for the 2nd helps a lot). And more whizz to the bottom.
Shine light around a lot 8) from one end of GG main chamber I can just about illuminate the far wall with the pot on max. But again the wide angel catches a lot do spray. 8) Work out how to talk to people without blinding them. This means turnignt he light down. Boo. A bit of experimentation shows that just caving on the wideangle is very convenient. Although I don't quite have the ability to judge depth as well will. I'm not sure why - something to do with the colour of the light maybe?
All too soon such games end and it is time to start the prussicking. Up we go, nice and steady. It's not a race, and there 's a long way to go.. Are we nearly there yet. No. finally, rebelays and the ledge. breather. chcoclote. Drink and on. take the streeetttccchhh out of the next section of rope. Prussick. bounce prussick bounce etc. Admiring the main shaft I prussick my head against the rock wall. Oh well that will be the first scratch on the battery pack then. I also manage to nudge the brightness knob against the rope a couple of times. Good excuse to stop and fiddle with if for a while and enjoy the view. Finally the top arrives. A bit of an awkward sramble off the rope and back out into the sunlight and glare of the Ramblers. Doesn't look like it rained at all we could have done the main shaft. Hindsight is perfect. And the p7 comes pretty close 8)
thanks to Bill for ropes and rigging Mark for driving and de-rigging and Adam for the company. Time for
Adam and I managed to make Sunday morning trains to Preston where Mark collected us and drove onto Clapham to rendevous with Bill. A plesant change in the sunshine and everyone admired my brand new and very shiney green P7. Even on full power you can only just see it when the sun shines 8) (oh yes this icon will be used a lot).
The walk up wasn't so bad, even in full gear, with a nice breeze cooling us down. The forecast for the day was for afternoon rain, so we decided against doing a main shaft/dihedral exchange, and stuck to just dihedral. It's the first time I've done GG except for many many years ago as a tourist on the winch. Peering in the top of dihedral to the sunlight coming through below was very odd. The wideangle of the P7 gives off a LOT of light 8) in small areas so you can see extremities without shifting your head, having been on an FX3 for 10 years this is a novel experiance.
Bill's cry of 'rope free' drifted up the pitch and I could just about see his light in the distance below. The downside of the wideangle light is that it's very good at illuminating spray/fog. So details weren't that clear. Whiz. down we go. Through the deviations. And gasp as GG main shaft becomes visible. I was enjoying the descent too much to pay lots of attention to it though. Plenty of time to do that on the way back up. Pause on the ledge. Play with light some more. 8) Look at the rest of the chamber etc. Annoyingly tight deviation, two remarkably easy rebelays given the absense of many footholds. (a sling tied into the P hanger for the 2nd helps a lot). And more whizz to the bottom.
Shine light around a lot 8) from one end of GG main chamber I can just about illuminate the far wall with the pot on max. But again the wide angel catches a lot do spray. 8) Work out how to talk to people without blinding them. This means turnignt he light down. Boo. A bit of experimentation shows that just caving on the wideangle is very convenient. Although I don't quite have the ability to judge depth as well will. I'm not sure why - something to do with the colour of the light maybe?
All too soon such games end and it is time to start the prussicking. Up we go, nice and steady. It's not a race, and there 's a long way to go.. Are we nearly there yet. No. finally, rebelays and the ledge. breather. chcoclote. Drink and on. take the streeetttccchhh out of the next section of rope. Prussick. bounce prussick bounce etc. Admiring the main shaft I prussick my head against the rock wall. Oh well that will be the first scratch on the battery pack then. I also manage to nudge the brightness knob against the rope a couple of times. Good excuse to stop and fiddle with if for a while and enjoy the view. Finally the top arrives. A bit of an awkward sramble off the rope and back out into the sunlight and glare of the Ramblers. Doesn't look like it rained at all we could have done the main shaft. Hindsight is perfect. And the p7 comes pretty close 8)
thanks to Bill for ropes and rigging Mark for driving and de-rigging and Adam for the company. Time for
