Babyhagrid
Well-known member
Titan - Major sump - stemple alley - Titan
James Waite
Emma Caspers
Ned Hopes
Having planned a weekend away to the peaks, I set my eyes on the biggest jewel in the crown, Titan. Friends from Cambridge were also up and had decided to go and rig it on the Saturday, much to my delight. A few conversations later and I'd agreed to derig on the Sunday in exchange for using their permit.
Sunday came, and another Cambridge group wanted to go down Titan, so we agreed we'd both go staggered and the last group out would derig.
We set off on the lovely walk from the TSG up cave dale and across fields to arrive at the sheep guarded patch of concrete in the ground. The first pitch and we had a sorry rest and then dropped down. I used my rack on this as I thought it would be good practice. It went very successfully. Arriving at the window I started rigging my rack for descending and then troubles started. Locking it off with 80M of rope having off ended in me hung up on cowstails and being laughed at by the rest of the group. I undid my mistakes and rigged my stop (glad I took it as a spare) and set off down.
Titan is really really big, like really big. I couldn't see the back wall or the floor I was aiming at. Just lots of flowstone and rock appearing or of the mist. After a while I found my feet touching the floor of the event horizon and the bolts. And then about 5 minutes of descending later I finally unloaded my stop . The rebelay pitch went quickly and then second hang was done. It was really misty and I couldn't see the bottom at all.
I got down and whistled that the rope was free to my friends above. And then tried to keep busy whilst waiting. A very echoey and rowdy rendition of "lay me down on mendip pastures" was sung. Helped by the next person descending down. (I think you can measure the shaft distance by the amount we were out of time and the speed of sound) . Soon enough we all were down and clipped a tough tagged crab onto the rope so that the others wouldn't derig. The boulder choke and crawl made a pleasant change. And we soon got to a rope climb where I decided we should abandon SRT kits as horizontal cave is the best.
I soon found the stream and we headed up , a short diversion up a muddy inlet was fun but we decided to follow the main stream first. Down to AI passage. This was lovely and without much water. Eventually we found a wet pool that I now believe is called the "passage of a thousand banana skins" .the others in the group elected that I went ahead to scout it out. I soon found out why it was named that as I was sliding all over the shop and making nosies like a "drunken monkey" (water entered my wellies). Eventually I found the very pretty major sump and headed back. We then explored the minor sump passage which was full of nicely water sculpted sand and with a scum ring at head height. We then turned back to explore the muddy inlet and look for stemple alley.
The mud was quite wellie sucking and eventually we got to a chamber with stemples in the roof. Left led to a very long and "well" constructed ladder. I got to the top and realized I probably needed cowstails for the traverse line.
Right led to a duck with a free climb over. This was done and then another rope was found. We rued not being any SRT kits. After this we realized we probably should be getting out before we got too tired .
We swiftly got back to the boulder choke under titan and met Cambridge. Fortunately they had been faffing badly and were just coming in. No derigging for me!!.
The prussic out was quite long and seemed to drag. I must have prussiced 20Ms off the floor and I found myself still grazing my arse on the rocks. Eventually I made it past the event horizon and sat in a small nook next to the bolts. Just as I had touched my double decker to my lips I heard a blast of a whistle from above. "For fucks sake" . I decided another 5 min rest wouldn't be bad so finished the chocolate and then started the very long pitch. There were points where I couldn't see the event horizon or see the top of the ropes. It felt very lonely and long. I was marking my progress by aiming for pretties on the walls . And by watching the bolts go by from the bolt climb. I finally made it over the window and got to the bottom of the entrance.
This seemed to last an eternity but the entertaining construction was good to push off and to keep me occupied. I finally appeared in open air which was a relief. The last man out followed me up but found the pitch got a bit damp (wellie related from the top) and also had a large volume of grass falling down at one point. We all got out and started the walk back to the TSG.
Good trip well done. Next time on a ladder??
James Waite
Emma Caspers
Ned Hopes
Having planned a weekend away to the peaks, I set my eyes on the biggest jewel in the crown, Titan. Friends from Cambridge were also up and had decided to go and rig it on the Saturday, much to my delight. A few conversations later and I'd agreed to derig on the Sunday in exchange for using their permit.
Sunday came, and another Cambridge group wanted to go down Titan, so we agreed we'd both go staggered and the last group out would derig.
We set off on the lovely walk from the TSG up cave dale and across fields to arrive at the sheep guarded patch of concrete in the ground. The first pitch and we had a sorry rest and then dropped down. I used my rack on this as I thought it would be good practice. It went very successfully. Arriving at the window I started rigging my rack for descending and then troubles started. Locking it off with 80M of rope having off ended in me hung up on cowstails and being laughed at by the rest of the group. I undid my mistakes and rigged my stop (glad I took it as a spare) and set off down.
Titan is really really big, like really big. I couldn't see the back wall or the floor I was aiming at. Just lots of flowstone and rock appearing or of the mist. After a while I found my feet touching the floor of the event horizon and the bolts. And then about 5 minutes of descending later I finally unloaded my stop . The rebelay pitch went quickly and then second hang was done. It was really misty and I couldn't see the bottom at all.
I got down and whistled that the rope was free to my friends above. And then tried to keep busy whilst waiting. A very echoey and rowdy rendition of "lay me down on mendip pastures" was sung. Helped by the next person descending down. (I think you can measure the shaft distance by the amount we were out of time and the speed of sound) . Soon enough we all were down and clipped a tough tagged crab onto the rope so that the others wouldn't derig. The boulder choke and crawl made a pleasant change. And we soon got to a rope climb where I decided we should abandon SRT kits as horizontal cave is the best.
I soon found the stream and we headed up , a short diversion up a muddy inlet was fun but we decided to follow the main stream first. Down to AI passage. This was lovely and without much water. Eventually we found a wet pool that I now believe is called the "passage of a thousand banana skins" .the others in the group elected that I went ahead to scout it out. I soon found out why it was named that as I was sliding all over the shop and making nosies like a "drunken monkey" (water entered my wellies). Eventually I found the very pretty major sump and headed back. We then explored the minor sump passage which was full of nicely water sculpted sand and with a scum ring at head height. We then turned back to explore the muddy inlet and look for stemple alley.
The mud was quite wellie sucking and eventually we got to a chamber with stemples in the roof. Left led to a very long and "well" constructed ladder. I got to the top and realized I probably needed cowstails for the traverse line.
Right led to a duck with a free climb over. This was done and then another rope was found. We rued not being any SRT kits. After this we realized we probably should be getting out before we got too tired .
We swiftly got back to the boulder choke under titan and met Cambridge. Fortunately they had been faffing badly and were just coming in. No derigging for me!!.
The prussic out was quite long and seemed to drag. I must have prussiced 20Ms off the floor and I found myself still grazing my arse on the rocks. Eventually I made it past the event horizon and sat in a small nook next to the bolts. Just as I had touched my double decker to my lips I heard a blast of a whistle from above. "For fucks sake" . I decided another 5 min rest wouldn't be bad so finished the chocolate and then started the very long pitch. There were points where I couldn't see the event horizon or see the top of the ropes. It felt very lonely and long. I was marking my progress by aiming for pretties on the walls . And by watching the bolts go by from the bolt climb. I finally made it over the window and got to the bottom of the entrance.
This seemed to last an eternity but the entertaining construction was good to push off and to keep me occupied. I finally appeared in open air which was a relief. The last man out followed me up but found the pitch got a bit damp (wellie related from the top) and also had a large volume of grass falling down at one point. We all got out and started the walk back to the TSG.
Good trip well done. Next time on a ladder??
