I'm planning on having a day soon with a few people to practice technical cave rigging and srt. Was looking at going to a crag somewhere in the peak District. I've got all the trad climbing gear, so building anchors isn't an issue, just want a good location to drop a rope down, stick a rebelay in ect. Anyone got any suggestions?
Rigging practice location
- Thread starter Rikaaay1
- Start date
Babyhagrid
Well-known member
Yordas and bull pot of the witches are cavers favourites. The long route round jingling works well for practice too.
Unless you don't want to go underground
Unless you don't want to go underground
Thanks, we were planning to practice everything above ground, then going to Eldon hole the next day
Babyhagrid
Well-known member
Could always try and use the set up in the TSG? For some basic rigging. Have been able to fit rebelays in the past
Not in the Peak District, sadly. Does Pindale Farm still have it's SRT practice set up? Or, what about Suicide Cave, Winnats Pass?
wellyjen
Well-known member
Suicide Cave in Winnats Pass is good. I've used it to train folk. Also consider Devonshire Cavern in Matlock Bath. Both within yards of the entrance and where you can instruct from close by. Both set up for SRT practice.
https://www.ccpc.org.uk/rigging-guide/suicide.html
https://www.ccpc.org.uk/rigging-guide/devonshire.html
https://www.ccpc.org.uk/rigging-guide/suicide.html
https://www.ccpc.org.uk/rigging-guide/devonshire.html
thanks, I'll have a look into those, might be good for a future trip, but would prefer to stay above ground for this time
yeah, did think about horseshoe, but I think there's a good chance there'll be climbers there and don't want to block the wall if people are using it, if we end up in the area, might be worth a look though
wellyjen
Well-known member
Having a cave/mine roof over your head is an advantage this time of year. Out of the wind and rain and less getting cold for those standing around.
that's a fair point, its due to be dry when we're going, but it may be cold
LarryFatcat
Active member
In the Peak District- there's an easy practice rig at the Upper East passage in Giants, 3 mins in, easy walking and as said Devonshire 2 mins in easy walking and there are some outdoor rigs at Horseshoe Quarry, Stoney Middleton. Suicide has 5 easy to rig drops and again, a couple of mins in. Merlins upper entrance is practically outside and a nice rig. We generally use trees, Devonshire, Suicide and Merlins for SRT training.
Cantclimbtom
Well-known member
From my highly limited experience and *assuming* from the wording of your question you'll be heavily leaning to rock climbing methods and equipment..
Don't think of this like climbing anchor building, you won't be linking nuts, friends, etc for anchors like climbing. The majority of vertical caves, especially! the popular srt ones will have bolts for anchors, so don't turn up with trad climbing gear.
Also make sure your ropes are semi static not dynamic climbing ropes. A bunch of screwgate locking krabs are good (try to avoid twist lock style ones as they don't self close when dirt gets into them). Also, you can use GriGri as a descender but they can twist the rope on descent a bit, not a problem when ab'ing off a crag but when there's a rebelay below you there might be a bunch of twisty tangle. I rigged on descent once (with a stop as my descender) and a mate followed me using a GriGri and found it a pain as he had a load of twists to negotiate at rebelays. Also GriGri is very drop-able so I don't recommend them
Cantclimbtom
Well-known member
Also.. I personally did make my first cave srt trips in places that would raise eyebrows as first caving, but that was more on the basis of mine exploring and a few years roped access in my background, the climbing/mountaineering experience I had wasn't really as relevant as you'd hope. It's all helpful but not as much overlap as you might expect. So I'd echo the suggestion to try it out somewhere more "tame" than Eldon hole. If it all goes well maybe consider Eldon as a second trip? But not first!
Your jumaring skills, ability to change over from ascent to abseil while free hanging on rope and vice versa, passing knots on ascent and descent and passing rebelay and deviations should all be practised somewhere low stress/low consequence until you are really comfortable.
All of the above can be practiced with rope thrown over high tree branches (throw line and throw bag).
Derek Bristol has some good YouTube videos on srt "how to"
Enjoy.. stay safe!
Your jumaring skills, ability to change over from ascent to abseil while free hanging on rope and vice versa, passing knots on ascent and descent and passing rebelay and deviations should all be practised somewhere low stress/low consequence until you are really comfortable.
All of the above can be practiced with rope thrown over high tree branches (throw line and throw bag).
Derek Bristol has some good YouTube videos on srt "how to"
Enjoy.. stay safe!
Thanks, I'll have a look into these.
Planning on just using srt. Everyone going is pretty competent on rope work, and have experience descending and ascending, but the changeovers at rebelays are pretty new, which is why I'm planning on going somewhere else before Eldon to practice all of that and make sure everyone is happy.
Yeah, I know it's different in caves and won't need the trad gear, my only real reson for wanting to practice above ground was there is more space and better visibility. As far as the rope goes, it's an 80m dynamic, but I've used this for descending and ascending before, as well as some practice with srt and rebelays, and have been pretty happy with that so far. I intend to get a semi static at some point, but not got one yet. I do have a grigri, altho I've been looking at some other descenders, I can't say I had a problem with twisting when I've had a practice, but I like the panic function of mine so there is no risk of grabbing the handle and plummeting like with a stop. I was a bit concerned about dropping it however so I've added a thin teather to help avoid this, I am also keeping an eye out for an ID to hopefully upgrade to at some point.
Definitely want to practice everything before a trip to Eldon and make sure everyone is happy, but not wanting to put it off too long as one of us will be out of the country soon, and we have limited chances to do it.
Looking a bit further into suicide cave, can anyone advice where the "far pitch" that had some instability is? Most of the information I can find is quite old, and I'm not sure if its talking about the 3m pitch near the hillside entrance or one of the pitches near the main entrance.