Bagshawe Lower Series Slither

tdobson

Member
"I want to do some more SRT" Jonathan told me.
"Let's do Bagshawe lower series" I said, "it'll be fun!"

And off the Caving Crew went! Siobhan, Monika and Judith dropping the Dungeon like Zip. Zoop. Zeep. Jonathan being more of a "wee" and me more a "thunk".

SRT'd up with false achievement, we stumbled through the cave in our SRT kits - with me pausing to show the team the climbing link to Agony Crawl in the upper series.

Soon we were at the climb to straw chamber. The least fun climb. The climb with no handholds and only footholds.
I whacked an italian hitched lifeline of a sling on a metal stake and belayed everyone up - whilst encouraging Judith onwards through the low bit ahead with her SRT kit on. Scrraay. Scruut. SCREECH!

"Timmy Tim Tim" cried my mumsie.
"Timmy Tim Tim, I think I'm stucky wuck".
(She didn't actually say that, but one has to paraphase.)

I leapt into action and shot into the slot like oiled weasel into a drainpipe. Except it was more like a weasel wearing a huge amount of bling, no oil, and a drainpipe that had been hammered flat.

I found the floundering damsel. Stuck between the rock and a hard place.
I tried pushing. Progress appeared slow.
I tried pulling. Progress was better.
I slid in by her side to overtake her.

Some people, at this point, might say it didn't work. Some people might say that rather than one person being in a tight bit, there were now two people.
Those people at face value, would be correct, were it not for the fact I was mentally carrying out a detailed dynamic risk assessment of the paradigm-changing-shift within which the cave synergies aligned.

After Jon had pulled us both out by the wellies, we dropped our egos, SRT kits and excuses and easily slid through the constriction. Lesson learned.
Being too tired to enjoy the pretties, we ventured down the Slide of Doom and into The Lake which Judithexpertly surveyed for us.

Onwards we powered, onto boulders, through passages, over broken rocks - where Monika attempted to use her helmet to make the passage a bit taller - and to the gorgeous crawly sand of salvation.

Eventually, we reached the fun hole in the floor.
Siobhan volunteered to explore Claustrophobia first, whilst Jon took off his SRT kit he'd brought with him in the hope of finding rogue pitch that had got a bit lost and needed seeing to.
As Siobhan's slender form slithered into the hole in the gravel, the shouts began. "You've got to be kidding", "it's wet", "it goes HOW FAR?!"

Jon, sensing that this was, in fact, not the splendid plan that his dear leader had sold to him, and that, possibly, "searching for rogue SRT pitches looking for help" could be a more enjoyable, decided that he would not go down that hole, and started putting his SRT kit back on.
On the other hand, I could see opportunity, and dived into the gravelly opening like a rabbit into a cheese grater.

Siobhan had decided that the beyond the entrance hall, the main section of Claustrophobia was too scary to look at, so embracing the art of Pantomine, she had put it behind her and slowly backed into the offending crawl, on her front, legs first.

At this point, Jonathan, hearing my hysterical laughter at Siobhan's predicament, lost control of his curiosity and launched himself into the Claustrophobia entrance hole, full SRT kit on.

This resulted in a series of yelps, twangs and occasional screams as Jon rearranged the metalwork, the cave and his plans to reproduce anytime soon.

Eventually, everyone struggled back into the main passage and started the sprint back to the surface.
Rather than return through The Vice of Doom that had nearly claimed me and Mumsie on the way in, we decided to take the bypass through "the lake".

Paradoxically, the lake is a very dry area... HAHA NOPE. It's a wet, cold, nipple-depth lake. Or so my mummy told me.
The Crew passed through without a word of complaint, in complete silence - apart from the shrieks, cries, and cursing of my existence.

When we returned to the pitch, Jon came up second, but immediately had some issues with his new SRT kit - the chest jammer - kept "jamming".
In due course, once Jon had got 40% up the shaft, it emerged that Jon's footloop was connected directly to his D-ring, as was his hand jammer. This super safe configuration is designed to reduce the risk of you getting off the ground unless you really enjoy pullups.

Once up, I left Siobhan to project manage and coach everyone in SRT, which she did brilliantly - whilst I took up acrobatics on my cowstails.
Monika shot up the shaft under Siobhan's supervision, starting out saying "I'm gonna hate this bit" and ending saying "that was much easier than I expected".
Mummy Mum Mums was surprisingly unappreciative of my heartfelt rendition of Rostam's "SRT" song:

    How can I get up that dungeon pitch, 13 metres above me?
    I?ve slowly got to prussik, SRT.
    Even though I will be sweaty, it?s something which we can agree.
    It?s better than a ladder, SRT.

So for Siobhan's 20second prussik, I sang less, and shouted messages of courage, hope and joy to all the world.
And that was it!

Photos here
 
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