Replacing the loose anchors in 2021
Caves with exposed rigging/traverses?
- Thread starter porgzilla
- Start date
Steve Clark
Well-known member
There's no traverse, and it's easy rigging, but the fence post, rotten tree, slippery slope and a single bolt re-belay at Death's Head Hole did nothing to help with the exposure! All now much improved with the CNCC extra stakes & bolts.
Steve Clark
Well-known member
Looking down the hole at Jingling :
rm128
Well-known member
Stunning photo. Nice one Steve
langcliffe
Well-known member
Another vote for Rat hole. The traverse with the pendulum swing is something else..that leaves you wondering HTF it was rigged and more to the point, what it's attached to. Langcliffe knows exactly how it was rigged and by who.
A little off topic, I'm afraid, but it may be worthwhile recording how the pendulum rope was originally fixed.
Mike Wooding and I originally developed a route down Rat Hole in 1984. On that original route there was a tensioned traverse down the rift between the main Rat Hole shaft and Mousehole, reaching a very precarious stance overlooking Mousehole about 15 metres below the current one. We returned some 20 years later to find that the spits were in poor condition, so we set about rebolting it with P-hangers (although Mike finished up doing the lower section on his tod). The route was totally redesigned, and shared litle of the original
At the stance at the start of the rift leading to Mousehole we could see a further stance a few metres away that was perfect for a couple of bolts, but the rift was too wide to get to it. I went back up the first pitch to a small chamber on the true left, where there was a small gap in the back wall. I hung a rope through that and Mike was able to use it to pendulum across and reach the stance. Later, Mike climbed the pendulum rope, and fixed a new 10.5 mm rope to a P-hanger to make it a feature of the route.
The rope had now been in place for 20 years. It is it probably due for replacing, and maybe adding a second attachment bolt.
If anyone is interested, one can traverse over the top of Mousehole to reach a respectfully-sized inlet with a couple of avens, and a passage emitting a howling draught that with a little bit of work will probably enter Motley Pot. We meant to go back, but Mike died soon after.
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Ali Express
New member
Hurnell moss is a great rigging trip, a pretty exposed traverse with not many footholds
Cantclimbtom
Well-known member
They wanted adrenaline and you replaced the loose anchors? You halved that adrenaline
(Just kidding, IIRC.. in 2021 you did a lot of loose anchors such as dihedral mentioned already. Thank you)
Chocolate fireguard
Active member
Especially if you go right to the end.
langcliffe
Well-known member
I didn't know that bit was optional until a caving colleague told me that the first time in he went more-or-less straight down by mistake, and that it was a very pleasant route. Mind you, it needs dry weather.
Chocolate fireguard
Active member
I mean beyond the narrowing.
I second (third?) Gavel Pot. The last two pitches are entertaining in a variety of ways. There’s an exposed traverse at the top of the second to last that is interesting if you don’t have very long arms and lacking in footholds. The deviation on the last pitch requires some proper spider man climbing.
Loki
Well-known member
. Same happened to me in meregill. I’d not looked at the topo beforehand and set off rigging. I carried a very full bag of rope some way down the final streamway looking for the rest of the pitches before abandoning it and later realising I’d not rigged any of the traverses. Was very dry.
langcliffe
Well-known member
Aah, I seem to have a vague memory of seeing hangers disappearing along the rift. I assumed that they were thwarted exploration hangers.
dougle89
Member
Think this is one of the most exposed set of pitches I've done so far
Chocolate fireguard
Active member
They lead to a hang at the end that drops onto the takeoff for the last section of the big pitch.
The footholds are a bit sketchier than along the first bit (which isn't that bad really) and at the end there is a small alcove that I thought should have a hanger or a natural in it, but it doesn't - I spent several minutes looking. That means that people like me have to rig the Y hang on the end wall at full stretch, sometimes working with one hand.
I asked a younger, taller person to derig, but it wouldn't have been as bad as I had thought.
I've only done the full thing once and that was well over 10 years ago, but the memory is fresh.
tobyk
Member
Agree as mentioned before that the Kendal Flyover route in Boxhead is a very Airy place, particularly with the big descent.
The traverse in Jingling feels friendly to me.
How about the traverse which goes off part way down dihedral? No idea where it goes, but always think it looks scary.
The traverse in Jingling feels friendly to me.
How about the traverse which goes off part way down dihedral? No idea where it goes, but always think it looks scary.
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