Chocolate fireguard
Active member
I don't think there are many pitches big enough to make it worthwhile.Fulk said:Hi, Chocolate fireguard, I noticed that you mentioned tandemming on here (in passing). I wonder how many cavers do, in fact, tandem pitches in Britain (I believe that it's not uncommon in the USA)?
(Maybe this should be a new thread.)
I have done it a couple of times on the top half of Titan and once on the entrance pitch, but both times it was really so 2 people could warm up a bit!
Once on a Whalfe trip we had somebody who insisted on going out up the engine shaft, although she wasn't really up to it (feet swinging wildly out at each step, making only a few inches progress each time, it took ages for her even to get into the shaft proper) so I went up and arranged her footloop between her and the pitch rope with one foot each side of the rope, and then the tensioned rope kept her feet in the right position. Getting off at the top was the hard bit.
I was told that when they do it in the USA only one person climbs while the other rests.