Recent content by topcat

Very sweet :)

The footbridge is an eye sore, not an improvement. The web cams are good though .

Here's a tip based on my recovery from a broken leg....... start back with a hard cave with lots of flat out crawls. This is counter- intuitive but makes sense: you don't want to be staggering about 'easy' streamways! Lots of flat out keeps you off the injury. Don't ask how I know this ....:(

I'll.house swap! That bear has to be better than my neighbour s dog...

When done correctly there are no twists in a coiled rope. But my experience is with climbing rope; maybe semi static behaves differently? It all comes down to the roll of the thumb. However it seems to be a lost skill, perhaps because it had a narrow band of optimum technique.

I had similar problems to Josh but not his patience to work out the fix. I removed the strap which for me was an improvement.

I had to clear out the squeeze but was a bit impatient and didn't clear the stones far enough back. Some got dragged in with me .....painful and space reducing. Getting back out was okay, but until I'd done a better job I wasn't fitting through. There's a tight and technical bit just before...

Grey Wife Hole has a 'Cheesepress' kind of squeeze within sight of daylight. Don't drag any stones in with you otherwise you'll be fooked. Don't ask....

Good grief! When I read the title I was expecting to read about the sink hole / en trance having slumped because fettling a new lid has been on my to do list since my last visit just after Covid. Well done for getting that far:)

A bit worrying that a CNCC anchor jockey didn't know that. Might explain the occasional sub-optimal anchor placements!

At first sight the Freino is a great bit of kit which is why I bought one. On second sight they are much more trouble than they are worth which is why I sold it......

I think Spit and the hanger is the right shape for a Troll but I've not seen one anodized before.

In mountaineering we use overhand with long tails. However, this is in [typically] sub 9mm and soft ropes. The overhand is the least likely to snag and can be untied. Years ago the standard knot was double fisherman's but this is hard to undo after loading, especially on wet/frozen ropes with...

But you won't have to worry about it for very long .... I did consider trying a rack when I was caving a lot with a rack user. It looked much smoother than my Stop. However I decided against it on the grounds of being too ' fingery ' for my old and creaky digits.

Sounds like we did a bit of the Late Breakfast.. I'll have a look at Pugwash next time. Thanks:)