Rigging practice location

[Pete K]

There is no far pitch any more. We crowbarred off the bit of wall that had one of the Y hang bolts in it. The rest of the anchors were cut off.
Suicide cave has the short pitch near the entrance (free climbable underneath so you can do circuits) and the bigger pitch on the other side of the same space. To get to this, go along from base of 1st drop, down a hole and under some jammed blocks. Then turn around and climb back up over where you just came from. Eventually you reach a ledge overlooking the 1st pitch. Straight drops, rebelays and deviations are all possible here.

Castleton : Suicide Cave : Details

Locations: Peak District, Location: Derbyshire, Location: Staffordshire, Caves, Mines, Potholes, Caving, Potholing, Guides, Surveys, Speleology, Hydrology

www.peakdistrictcaving.info

Peak District Rigging Guide - Suicide Cave

www.ccpc.org.uk

Where it says loose rocks on the above guide is where the far pitch used to be. There are more anchors in the cave than the guide shows, but many will need 8mm hangers and bolts bringing.

I've got to echo the above comments about big pitches on dynamic rope being not recommended. It'll be bouncy as hell on the big hangs in Eldon, and you'll have tonnes of stretch to deal with at rebelays. Crack on by all means, but that's gonna be hard work on big free-hangs. Take a very fit and able team. With that much bounce, make sure your rigging is spot on and the rope can't touch rock anywhere at all.

Have you considered somewhere like Snelslow Swallet? Your 80m rope would reach from the first pitch to the bottom of the main chamber pitch and the largest single hang is about 20m. Still bouncy, but far less so than Eldon. You can have a rebelay or deviation (or both) on the big pitch.

 

[wellyjen]

Have you considered somewhere like Snelslow Swallet? Your 80m rope would reach from the first pitch to the bottom of the main chamber pitch and the largest single hang is about 20m. Still bouncy, but far less so than Eldon. You can have a rebelay or deviation (or both) on the big pitch.

I was also going to recommend Snelslow over Eldon. Apart from anything else, SRT is much less scary in the dark. 😰
The distances between pitches are short, so your long piece of string will do the lot in to the main chamber, as Pete K says.

 

[LarryFatcat]

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.

The intial pitch (easily free climbable) is a 3-4 bolt traverse with a straight drop- the pitch with a rebelay is opposite but reached by proceeding bearing left and then finding one of a couple of ways of climbing up and coming back on yourself. There's that rig opposite the initial drop with a rebelay and options of a deviation and further back a straight drop- these are all on fixed hangers/naturals- there's also a traverse and pitch up there on 8mm spits so hangers needed for that one. I've not noticed any collapses in there but not been there for a couple of months.

 

[alastairgott]

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

Hi rikaaay1, if you’re going at a weekend and want someone to pop over to keep watch on you while you practice underground, more than happy to. You’ve been provided with some bomber options there, Merlins mine in stoney Middleton would perhaps be my favourite of all options for beginner riggers. Rigging in daylight (if a daytime trip) and dropping into a crawl which can be exited by crawling in 20-30metres.

Plenty more to have a go at around there including dropping down eyam dale shaft into carlswark for a lovely through trip on easy rigging.

You want something nice to whet your appetite and make you want to come back. These two would be my top shouts!