tdobson
Member
A few days ago Alan, Siobhan, Samantha and me headed to Giants.
This was Samantha's first, long-anticipated trip to Giants. For a long time she'd complained about me saying negative things, but with lockdown looming, we decided it was an appropriate trip.
Sam: "I'd prefer to do the entire rest of the cave than the crabwalk again"
We took the SRT kits through the crabwalk, and put them on and made the trip across the traverse to Geology Pot - a stunning large pitch that Siobhan
enjoyed on her shiny new Stop 2019.
Alan and me had been this far in Giants before, but with lower water levels and different levels of warmness, when we reached Far Curtain, it was looking particularly unappealing.
Siobhan and Alan pushed through to look at the free climb on the far side whilst me and Sam got a head start on the singsong in Geology Pot - which has incredible acoustics.
Fully warmed up from the SRT, we cooled down in the waterfall coming down the 3 metre free climb, joy!
From here, it was walking/scrambling passage to Ghost Rift where the Giants Windpipe starts - and this was Sam's first time through it.
"I actually really liked it. I could do it again, a few times" - Samantha
I should point out I dragged two bags through it so Sam could traverse it unencumbered.
From here it was pretties pretties everywhere, but as usual, no motivation to admire them because Siobhan had already realised her favourite part was coming up and was projecting doom about it.
"maybe I can abseil here? Stop saying encouraging things Tim" she said as she delicately placed her feet each side of the chasm and walked along the passage with the slice in the floor.
Eventually we got to the jolly fun walk to the eyehole and the eyehole itself, where I sherpa'd bags through the rift of doom and guided the team from one side whilst Alan offered support from the other. Siobhan loved this bit and later commented that she wants to come back and do it again and again and again.
After a fun in the sun downclimb, we sprinted up the last of the crabwalk to gtf-up Garlands like someone had said there was a prize for speed.... or like it was really cold at the bottom.
We derigged and made our way out, 30 mins before our callout and enjoyed a tot of Glenfidditch and Brownie before the slog across country 'home'.
Random thoughts:
The trip took 7h40min
If we do a long East Canal trip, the callout should be about 12 hours
Trips past Far Curtain should take into account rainfall - and ideally none should be forecast. Most of the cave before that point is probably passable in bad weather with caution.
As we were getting changed, a lot of rain hit and there was lots driving back. I'm glad we were out before that.
We recovered the bilge pump from St Valentines Sump so engineering works there can continue!
Trips below Geology Pot are probably the coldest type I've done - more cold than Peak Ink Sump duck trips - because the water is moving, and there's lots of spray and air movement. Undersuit, oversuit and thermals probably isn't enough.
Photos on fb - in closed group, but all welcome to join it
This was Samantha's first, long-anticipated trip to Giants. For a long time she'd complained about me saying negative things, but with lockdown looming, we decided it was an appropriate trip.
Sam: "I'd prefer to do the entire rest of the cave than the crabwalk again"
We took the SRT kits through the crabwalk, and put them on and made the trip across the traverse to Geology Pot - a stunning large pitch that Siobhan
enjoyed on her shiny new Stop 2019.
Alan and me had been this far in Giants before, but with lower water levels and different levels of warmness, when we reached Far Curtain, it was looking particularly unappealing.
Siobhan and Alan pushed through to look at the free climb on the far side whilst me and Sam got a head start on the singsong in Geology Pot - which has incredible acoustics.
Fully warmed up from the SRT, we cooled down in the waterfall coming down the 3 metre free climb, joy!
From here, it was walking/scrambling passage to Ghost Rift where the Giants Windpipe starts - and this was Sam's first time through it.
"I actually really liked it. I could do it again, a few times" - Samantha
I should point out I dragged two bags through it so Sam could traverse it unencumbered.
From here it was pretties pretties everywhere, but as usual, no motivation to admire them because Siobhan had already realised her favourite part was coming up and was projecting doom about it.
"maybe I can abseil here? Stop saying encouraging things Tim" she said as she delicately placed her feet each side of the chasm and walked along the passage with the slice in the floor.
Eventually we got to the jolly fun walk to the eyehole and the eyehole itself, where I sherpa'd bags through the rift of doom and guided the team from one side whilst Alan offered support from the other. Siobhan loved this bit and later commented that she wants to come back and do it again and again and again.
After a fun in the sun downclimb, we sprinted up the last of the crabwalk to gtf-up Garlands like someone had said there was a prize for speed.... or like it was really cold at the bottom.
We derigged and made our way out, 30 mins before our callout and enjoyed a tot of Glenfidditch and Brownie before the slog across country 'home'.
Random thoughts:
The trip took 7h40min
If we do a long East Canal trip, the callout should be about 12 hours
Trips past Far Curtain should take into account rainfall - and ideally none should be forecast. Most of the cave before that point is probably passable in bad weather with caution.
As we were getting changed, a lot of rain hit and there was lots driving back. I'm glad we were out before that.
We recovered the bilge pump from St Valentines Sump so engineering works there can continue!
Trips below Geology Pot are probably the coldest type I've done - more cold than Peak Ink Sump duck trips - because the water is moving, and there's lots of spray and air movement. Undersuit, oversuit and thermals probably isn't enough.
Photos on fb - in closed group, but all welcome to join it
