Advice on Bath Swallet - Rods throught Trip

[ArchaeoScott]

Hi Duncan, in principle that sounds OK.  Dingley Dell and I have never done the through trip before ourselves, but have done Rod's Pot before. If there are any parts that you and your friend are not happy doing you will need to be able to get yourselves back out the way we came in (I assume you are both competent cavers?).  Our plan is to rig Shower Pot with a ladder and rope (we only have a single 10m ladder and 30m of rope) and head in through Rod's Pot, make the connection through Purple Pot into Bath Swallet and climb out of Shower Pot.  Obviously the lower stages of Shower Pot will be an unassisted free climb, due to the lack of ladders. If this sounds OK to you then you are welcome to come along.  We will be meeting outside the entrance to the UBSS caving hut for 9.30am.

 

[hornbydd]

ArchaeoScott,

Hmm... 9.30am is a bit early for me. Thats about the time the Hunters hangover stops... Good luck!

Duncan

 

[ArchaeoScott]

Well that was a supremely enjoyable through trip  Dingley Dell and myself rigged Shower Pot with a ladder and rope, then proceeded into Rod's Pot and headed straight for the Purple Pot. Slid down that on the hand line and went through the connection in Bath Swallet.  We had a good look around in Bath Swallet, then free climbed the lower extent of Shower Pot until we reached the ladder and headed on up and out, awesome! As we finished changing out of our filthy muddy kit we met Duncan and friend on their way up to the caves., it was great meeting them and I hope they had as good a trip as we did.

 

[Dingley Dell]

Yeah, really satisfying and fun trip that was....all the more satisfying that we did it with minimal kit (although I'm sure some do it with less!).  I don't think I'd ever be up for free-climbing that entire shower pot though, the top would be a bit interesting. 

Things are a bit slippery going down the Purple Pot, using Angel Wings helps give some friction though.  Just for 'fun', I did climb out the Purple Pot, the bottom half is fine, but anyone with short legs might find it challenging at the top as it's very smooth mud and the rope is fairly muddied up and you need to be able to brace your legs against the opposite wall.  We'd added a second handline with alpine loops on our way in just in case we'd had to retreat from the connection (i.e. if flooded) and this makes all the difference if you're not strong enough to grip the rope or pull yourself up.

Can anyone tell me where the climb just beyond the bottom of Purple Pot goes? i.e. you get to the bottom of the pot, crawl through into the little chamber (connection to Bath being the lower option), and then there's a climb up a sloping tube (the flood marks were well up into this, sobering!)

Does the tube to the left of the bottom of the Shower Pot (i.e. to the left as you look at the pot), with rope in it, just lead to a dig, or is that a connection to somewhere else?

Duncan and co, how did you get on?

Oh, and thanks to everyone for the good advice on here 

 

[hornbydd]

All,

We we did it! Great trip and it was good to bump into Scott and "dingley dell". I rigged the Bath swallet pitch with a single 30m rope and abseiled it.  There are 2 bolts at the top of the pitch one is very loose and spins around! So went natural!  There is an obvious eye hole for a small sling immediate above the pitch head which I back up to a flake about 2m up and behind.

I would agree 100% that it would be a bad idea to leave you kit (harness etc) in a bag tied to the end of the rope to pull up later as there are a million places for it to get snagged. So I took all that through with me. Eventually popped out into Rods and then threw myself down the so called bear pit, thankfully I was carrying a spare rope as I would not have gotten out of that!

Thanks everyone for all your advice, made for a good, safe trip.

Duncan

 

[ollismark]

Rigged with P bolts now.

 

[Andy Sparrow]

Rigged with P bolts now.

Configured for pull-through.  Two Ps at the top and two more just over halfway down.  20 metre rope required.  Fixed handline on Purple Pot  for self-lining.