Scariest Pitch Head in the UK?

[gus horsley]

Ah, if we're also talking about surface pitches...I had to abseil off a climb in North Wales when the weather suddenly turned to hail.  The only belay was a dead tree which looked unsubstantial to me.  The other guy I was climbing with set off down and said it was ok, which wasn't a huge amount of comfort as I was probably 7 stones heavier than him.  When I started my descent I was sure the tree moved and, to make matters worse, a sheep plummeted past me and bounced nastily on the scree below.  When I got to the bottom I was feeling so emotional my legs crumpled under me and I sobbed with relief.

 

[potholer]

The darkness in the caves really is our friend when it comes to exposed situations.

That's one thing that does rather take away from Titan, even compared to other cave pitches. Mist and dark-ish rock does mean that it's not actually easy to see much of it at once, and the nature of the pitchhead does make it particularly hard to look down from the top until you're on the rope.

 

[SamT]

I can hand on heart say that I dont really find any pitch heads scary. They just dont seem to bother me. 15 years climbing and falling onto poxy RP's etc has somewhat numbed me. Besides - your clipped into a fecking great rope tied to fecking great bolts.

The closest I've been to tears was on Positron on Gogarth. Pumped out of my box I'd reached the end of the traverse and had run it out about 15 or 20 feet from a crappy Friend 2.5.
All the wire placements in the overlap already had stuck wires in them, with rusty snapped wire. after clinging on for an eternity, I managed to place a blind Alian zero and had to commit my weight to it. It held, but it took me about 20 mins to de-pump enough to try and carry on, The ground above this is a bit loose in a goove cum chimney. I was faced with a large peddle bin sized block leaning out of the groove. I managed to get a nut in the crack behind this block (not touching the block itself which was clearly loose) and tried to climb past it without touching it. For one reason or another - I ended up standing up on it, and the wire behind it fell out.

At that point - I may have wimpered and shed a tear.

Absolutly the worst state I've ever been in. Thankfully my partner was able to lead an escape pitch and get us off the damn crag.

Not sure I'll ever be fit enough to go back and lead it in fine style 

 

[GemmaJones]

(Yes I am a wuss.)

Wolverhampton Uni? 

Ha ha!  Do they even have a caving club...or even a Uni?

Outdoors pitches, have to agree Malham takes the biscuit - I definitely went over on my belly.  Seeing isn't always a good thing!  I had the same feeling abseiling off the Tyne bridge - very scary being able to see the floor!

 

[Brains]

On a trip last year to Titan we were helping with a film for Dave Webb, using really bright lights. We could see the whole shaft and some felt a bit twitchy at that...
On the surface I had a bad experience on Gogarth seconding the traverse pitches on Dream of White Horses. A rescue chopper flew into the zawn under me looking for an injured climber elsewhere on the crag. The rotor draft lifted all the runners off, so I had to traverse across to the finish with a huge loop of slack with all the gear in it, and the zawn below me...
Then again in mid Wales on Cader we did a VS mountain route, where most of the belays, and the crag itself, was loose. As we had the place to ourselves we gardened a "bit" of the route  :doubt:
Dont really want to talk of Scottish ice - not had an epic yet (=missing the pub).
As this has already wandered from below ground to the surface, lets move to the Alps:
For me though the worst was retreating from the Frendo spur after a warm (no frost  ) bivvy, listening to the couloirs avalanche down both sides of us. Next day we waded through the slush fields downhill, abbing off any tatty looking boulder we could find... I was so glad to get onto the moraine and away from the avalanche tracks in the soft wet sugar...

 

[paul]

Abseiling off this:

Aguille de Dibona.

Actually, it wasn't that bad! After a long multi-pitch climb on lovely solid granite with well-spaced bolts, you traversed the razor-edge summit and make one long abseil off the back to walk down a path eventually reaching the large hut at the bottom.

I would rather see the bottom, black voids like Titan always give me the willies...

 

[LarryFatcat]

Ah, if we're also talking about surface pitches...I had to abseil off a climb in North Wales when the weather suddenly turned to hail.  The only belay was a dead tree which looked unsubstantial to me.  The other guy I was climbing with set off down and said it was ok, which wasn't a huge amount of comfort as I was probably 7 stones heavier than him.  When I started my descent I was sure the tree moved and, to make matters worse, a sheep plummeted past me and bounced nastily on the scree below.  When I got to the bottom I was feeling so emotional my legs crumpled under me and I sobbed with relief.

bonus sheep..  nice!

 

[Christian_Chourot]

Abseiling off this:

Aguille de Dibona.

Is that in the UK?  :tease:

 

[Deek]

yes, i think we've got a bit off thread here.

 

[Frog2]

yes, i think we've got a bit off thread here.

That'll make a change then!

 

[spikey]

I've posted this picture from Cwmystwyth before on a different thread, but how about that for a confidence-inspiring belay 

(Theres nothing else about, and the rock was generally too "shaley" to bolt. Using a flat tape, there was less tendency for it to "roll")

 

[Andy L]

Try the full height Atlas Pot in Thrupe Lane Swallet. Go down Chimney Pot then down though a nasty little squeeze. This will bring you out directly over a sixty metre hole. When I did it back in 1995, there were no bolts (there might not be now, I don't know) and I had to absail from a metal bar jam across the top of the pitch, very well backed up I will admit, to the top of Wuthering Heights pitch, up through the squeeze I had just come though. All on a solo trip. Then abseil down five metres and try to get into the Solstice passage. As someone once said, five points of contact, two hands, two feet and the cheeks of my ass wrapped around the rope to help.

 

[LarryFatcat]

This one is as tight as it looks.
There's a 73m pitch in that hole.


http://flickr.com/photos/26111121@N08/2604564994/
http://flickr.com/photos/26111121@N08/2604565632/
http://flickr.com/photos/26111121@N08/2603737781/

The waiting females had to help us out.

The take off was unnerving but the bombardment from the shaft, waiting at the bottom and on the way up was also interesting.

 

[Subterranean]

I would have to go with Gaping Gill main chamber, on rope (obviously, not the winch) with the water going down its usual course. The fact that the large descent starts from p-bolts in the ceiling having very little shear force coupled with the huge roaring waterfall just out of sight below leads to an intimidating release from the ledge when ready to descend.

Titan is an awesome bit of cave, but even rigging the main pitch head, it never seemed particularly scary.

 

[Les W]

The fact that the large descent starts from p-bolts in the ceiling having very little shear force

 

[Charlie]

The fact that the large descent starts from p-bolts in the ceiling having very little shear force

you mean the fact that you have a y-hang off p-bolts that are under axis load? like the way they are loaded in the routine pull tests where they each take a minimum 6KN?

 

[damian]

you mean the fact that you have a y-hang off p-bolts that are being axially loaded, like the way they are loaded in the routine pull tests where they each take a minimum 6KN?

and eventually fail at somewhere around 40Kn ... I know what you mean though, Subterranean!

 

[LarryFatcat]

The fact that the large descent starts from p-bolts in the ceiling having very little shear force

Ok, but if your talking about the main 85m pitch, your already on a daisy chain of at least 6 points before you rig the Y.  The rig is standard nothing like T with the dodgy step out, on initially one point, where your not supported by the rope, creating a fall factor, with 140m of exposure, and the bolts hidden somewhere above your head.

 

[martinb]

.....is likely to be the first one you ever did!!! 

 

[LarryFatcat]

.....is likely to be the first one you ever did!!!   

explain?