Had a spot of bother with pulling the rope through Slit Pot in Simpson's on Saturday - not an uncommon problem it seems. It'll be collected this weekend. Sorry if it gets in anyone's way in the meantime.

Anyone got any top tips for free-flowing pull through rigging on Slit Pot?

No tips but ? the last time I did the Simpson's pull-through trip our rope jammed on the Slit Pot alternative (over the top), so as I was the lightest person present I was 'volunteered' to climb back up to try to release it; my friends belayed the rope to themselves to (more than) counterbalance my weight. Anyway, I got to a point where I was shouting instructions to the two people down below, but they couldn't hear me, and they set off towards me ? up the 'steps' at the bottom of the pitch; as they came up, the rope freed itself . . . . . and I went down . . . a very disconcerting experience!

We had a similar experience when doing the Diau a few years ago via the 3B entrance. Our pull-through rope got stuck on the plastic rope protectors that had been fixed to the cave wall on the biggest pitch. The plastic sheet had curled up at the edges and the rope had caught behind it.

Like Fulk, I had to re-climb the rope with the other end belayed to Dave Cowley and sort out the problem. We had taken 1 set of up gear just in case of such an eventuality.

Without knowing what caused the snagging or where exactly it snagged its hard to give advice on how to do it better other than always make sure the stopper knot in the end of the rope has been removed before you pull the ropes down.

Leaving a snagged pull-through rope is not the best idea, although there may be no choice if the end is out of reach, as somebody else could come along and accidentally descend the wrong side of the pull-through rope. This happened in Top Sink many years ago and resulted in a fatality!!

Mark

The first time it snagged, I managed to reach the end of the rope and climbed back up to sort it out. The ropes were badly twisted at the top so I re-rigged and descended holding both ropes apart thinking that would solve it. I was then very disappointed (and confused) to find that it snagged again and the end of the rope was just out of reach.

Always a concern to me that on pulling a rope through on a larger pitch that it may get behind a flake once released from the top anchor. Is the safe answer to carry two ropes to do the biggest pitch on any route?

Over the Hill said:

Always a concern to me that on pulling a rope through on a larger pitch that it may get behind a flake once released from the top anchor. Is the safe answer to carry two ropes to do the biggest pitch on any route?

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Yes any pull-through trip should be done with two ropes, if one gets stuck hopefully you can always get out of the cave on the other.

Consider the angles of the p-bolts when rigging. Normally the safe descent side is towards the pitch-head and the pull down side furthest out. However if this means that you're pulling against a smooth rope run, it might be better to rig it alternatively. (and yes check for knots!)