Hi all , having just read a guide which mentions the shaft being 35 m with a ledge 5 metres down -  the cncc rigging says 55m rope but can anyone tell me if a 35m rope will reach the bottom if rigged from the ledge 5m down ?  Any info greatly appreciated  :-\

The CNCC guide is normally pretty good, so if you're not familliar with the rigging I wouldn't try to skimp out on rope lengths. That said I would normally use a 50m rope for Lancaster Hole, which is fine the way I rig it, but you have loads of options with the rigging in there now!

If you don't have a long enough rope, you could always put in a knot pass, or just be prepared to get most of the way down then come back up, just don't forget to put in a good stopper knot in the end if you're not sure it will reach! 

Alternatively, if you don't have enough rope, why not go in one of the many other entrances that don't need so much, if any rigging?

todcaver said:

Hi all , having just read a guide which mentions the shaft being 35 m with a ledge 5 metres down -  the cncc rigging says 55m rope but can anyone tell me if a 35m rope will reach the bottom if rigged from the ledge 5m down ?  Any info greatly appreciated  :-\

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Yes - it will. It's a straight Y-hang from the ledge.

- but you will of course need a rope to get to the ledge.  8-10 m should be ok

I rigged the whole thing (1 surface, 1 rebelay anchor and y-hang) with a 39, which just got me to the bottom. I think the depth under 30m, one day I am going to bring my disto and measure just how deep it really is.

Ok thanks very much for that 

In the days when ladders were the norm, I seem to remember that 4 x 25 ft ladders were just slightly short. (That was when there was a big steel ring right on the lip of the previous entrance lid to belay to.) So my guess is that the true depth of the entrance pitch is between 32 m and 33 m.

I reckon if you use a separate rope for the surface rigging and connect your 35 m rope on at surface, you should reach the bottom OK.

In old money it was always quoted as 110 feet which is 33.5 metres.

Back in the late 90s  I rigged it thus:  Main hang off a boulder at surface, rebelay with fig 8 knot off eco hanger in the narrow section at top, deviation off a second eco hanger just below the narrows giving a nice free hang.  As we always had some rope over I suspect we used a 40m.