CavingPig
New member
Dihedral, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rope
Anyone who has done a vertical cave with me knows that I don't mind heights at all. Abseil off a tall building? Yes please. Rope bridge across raging seas far below? Bring it on. Depths, on the other hand, are a whole 'nother story. As soon as I can't see what's below me, I imagine the worst (and I have a very good imagination), which has led to me whimpering in terror at the top of pitches that turned out to be absolutely tiny.
So when we heard that Dihedral would be rigged for Eurospeleo, I jumped at the chance. You can see all the way down to the floor? Perfect! Off up Ingleborough we trotted, and soon we were all clipped to the rope in Jib Tunnel. Elliott went first. His cries of OH MY ******* GOD did not reassure me, and so when the very faint "ROPE FREEEEE" floated up, it was with a familiar sense of trepidation that I attached my stop and tested the damn thing three times before swinging out into the abyss. I looked down. I saw the floor 104 metres below. And then my fear evaporated. This was bloody amazing! Such spectacularly well-lit views are not often accorded in our sport (especially if you bought the cheapest light you could find, being a tight-arsed student and all), and I drank in every second, landing on the floor feeling like I could do ANYTHING.
Full marks if you can spot all three cavers in this image
Once the two others touched down, we headed off for a look at Mud Hall and to navigate our way out. Long story short: Avalanche Inlet is not Corky's, and we should have known that Bar Pot would feature heavy traffic. Flood Entrance proved third time lucky, and by the time we got to the surface, the chap who'd been firmly wedged at the Bar entrance had been freed and the Sheffield novice stuck with a broken footloop on the Bar big pitch had also managed to make upward progress, so our rescue skills were no longer needed and we also managed not to miss our call-out.
Michael in Not-Corky's
Huge thanks to the Eurospeleo rigging teams for making everyone?s trips really easy! Since August I've only done trips with relatively short pitches, so I'm keen to see how I fare next time I'm faced with an underground behemoth. Lights on full seems to be the way forward for me.
Anyone who has done a vertical cave with me knows that I don't mind heights at all. Abseil off a tall building? Yes please. Rope bridge across raging seas far below? Bring it on. Depths, on the other hand, are a whole 'nother story. As soon as I can't see what's below me, I imagine the worst (and I have a very good imagination), which has led to me whimpering in terror at the top of pitches that turned out to be absolutely tiny.
So when we heard that Dihedral would be rigged for Eurospeleo, I jumped at the chance. You can see all the way down to the floor? Perfect! Off up Ingleborough we trotted, and soon we were all clipped to the rope in Jib Tunnel. Elliott went first. His cries of OH MY ******* GOD did not reassure me, and so when the very faint "ROPE FREEEEE" floated up, it was with a familiar sense of trepidation that I attached my stop and tested the damn thing three times before swinging out into the abyss. I looked down. I saw the floor 104 metres below. And then my fear evaporated. This was bloody amazing! Such spectacularly well-lit views are not often accorded in our sport (especially if you bought the cheapest light you could find, being a tight-arsed student and all), and I drank in every second, landing on the floor feeling like I could do ANYTHING.
Full marks if you can spot all three cavers in this image
Once the two others touched down, we headed off for a look at Mud Hall and to navigate our way out. Long story short: Avalanche Inlet is not Corky's, and we should have known that Bar Pot would feature heavy traffic. Flood Entrance proved third time lucky, and by the time we got to the surface, the chap who'd been firmly wedged at the Bar entrance had been freed and the Sheffield novice stuck with a broken footloop on the Bar big pitch had also managed to make upward progress, so our rescue skills were no longer needed and we also managed not to miss our call-out.
Michael in Not-Corky's
Huge thanks to the Eurospeleo rigging teams for making everyone?s trips really easy! Since August I've only done trips with relatively short pitches, so I'm keen to see how I fare next time I'm faced with an underground behemoth. Lights on full seems to be the way forward for me.
