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Langthwaite Pot
Guest
'They Think It's All Over' in Trapdoor Pot was the one that sprung to mind when I saw this thread too - it must get considerably shorter each time somebody goes down it!
Scariest Pitch Head in the UK?
- Thread starter LarryFatcat
- Start date
Charlie
New member
personally what makes a pitch head scary for me is a combination of some of the following [1] Exposure, this doesnt have to be the same as height - nasty hanging traverse clinging to the ceiling with your fingertips counts as well. [2] Anchors, 2 or more P-bolts and I am a very happy bunny, tying every available spit, rawlbolt, coach bolt, piton and dubious natural you can find together in the hope that they might when all combined take your weight - not happy. [3] Something happens, I.E. at the top of titan when 2 tackle bags of wet rope slip off the ledge and jerk to a halt on the end of the donkey dicks, that jolt was a nasty shock, I retained sphincter control but that is about all the credit I can claim.
Subterranean
New member
Admitedly I did do the gaping gill main chamber earlier on in my caving career, before having done many other impressive pitch heads, which will have certainly had an impact. I have also done Trapdoor to the bottom, though not rigging it, and even being somewhat hungover while doing it, I don't remember anything particularly scary (perhaps because of being somewhat hungover 
).
I would conclude that if I went back to gaping gill MC I would have no worries with it, and that I'm probably further along enough with my caving that, like SamT, It would take something particularly worrying to get me scared from the top now-a-days.
). I would conclude that if I went back to gaping gill MC I would have no worries with it, and that I'm probably further along enough with my caving that, like SamT, It would take something particularly worrying to get me scared from the top now-a-days.
footleg
New member
Regardless of the actual pitch head in each case, I have found the following factors kept upping the ante during my caving career to date. In order of increasing scariness:
1) First big pitch on a ladder (Bar Pot 90ft hang)
2) First big pitch on SRT (Alum Pot 140ft hang)
3) First pitch on a dodgy looking belay (piece of wood wedged across pitch head in Swinstos)
4) First pitch where I rigged it myself (can't remember where, but I remember trusting the hangers a lot less when I had just screwed them into the spits myself!)
5) First flood pulse while on rope (half way down the main hang in Rowten during a Summer thunder shower)
6) First big multi-pull through pitch with hanging bolt belays (Ecouge 1 Gorge in the Vercor)
7) Moulin Marquis in the Vercor (1500ft multi pull through waterfall abseil in the Vercor. Awesome!)
There are more experiences to have for me yet:
8) First pitch where I drilled and placed the spits myself
9) First pitch I fall down because I didn't notice it!
10) First pitch with cannibalistic creatures lurking at the bottom of it (like in the film The Descent!)
1) First big pitch on a ladder (Bar Pot 90ft hang)
2) First big pitch on SRT (Alum Pot 140ft hang)
3) First pitch on a dodgy looking belay (piece of wood wedged across pitch head in Swinstos)
4) First pitch where I rigged it myself (can't remember where, but I remember trusting the hangers a lot less when I had just screwed them into the spits myself!)
5) First flood pulse while on rope (half way down the main hang in Rowten during a Summer thunder shower)
6) First big multi-pull through pitch with hanging bolt belays (Ecouge 1 Gorge in the Vercor)
7) Moulin Marquis in the Vercor (1500ft multi pull through waterfall abseil in the Vercor. Awesome!)
There are more experiences to have for me yet:
8) First pitch where I drilled and placed the spits myself
9) First pitch I fall down because I didn't notice it!
10) First pitch with cannibalistic creatures lurking at the bottom of it (like in the film The Descent!)
ian mckenzie
New member
I'll stick in my oar for Canada...
...scariest pitch head has got to be the 254m entrance pitch in Close To The Edge. It's on a cliff face near the top of a modest (by our standards) mountain, and is daylit most of the way down. The pitch edge is littered with frost-shattered debris and the far face of the shaft usually has a gigantic icicle hanging off it, which gets quite rotten late in the season.
In Britain, I felt uneasy getting winched down GG, didn't like my fate in the hands of a machine and its operator.
...scariest pitch head has got to be the 254m entrance pitch in Close To The Edge. It's on a cliff face near the top of a modest (by our standards) mountain, and is daylit most of the way down. The pitch edge is littered with frost-shattered debris and the far face of the shaft usually has a gigantic icicle hanging off it, which gets quite rotten late in the season.
In Britain, I felt uneasy getting winched down GG, didn't like my fate in the hands of a machine and its operator.
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Langthwaite Pot
Guest
Subterranean said:I have also done Trapdoor to the bottom, though not rigging it, and even being somewhat hungover while doing it, I don't remember anything particularly scary (perhaps because of being somewhat hungover
You have to make a special effort to get to 'They Think It's All Over' by penduluming into a side passage half way down the penultimate pitch. If this was the way you went then my hat comes off to you!
gus horsley
New member
I've also got a nomination for my personal scariest pitch foot, which is in Bellan Mine. I explored an adit and came across a rope hanging down a rise. The top looked about only 25ft or so but I couldn't see what the rope was tied to so I gave it a tenuous pull, then had to leap out of the way when about a ton of rubble and timbers crashed into the space I had occupied a split second before. Miraculously the rope still remained in place but I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to give it a second go.
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LoneRanger
Guest
On a solo trip down Nick Pot, I'd just got started descending the big pitch when the end of the rope suddenly appeared out of the bag below my hand. Needless to say, I stopped very quickly.
It was an eerie and rather unnerving feeling, hanging above 200ft of blackness at the end of a 9mm rope.
It was an eerie and rather unnerving feeling, hanging above 200ft of blackness at the end of a 9mm rope.
LarryFatcat
Active member
LoneRanger said:
Knot in the end?
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LoneRanger
Guest
LarryFatcat said:
Yes, there was a knot.
After I regained my composure, I tied the big rope onto the end of the little rope and completed the trip.
The little rope was supposed to be used on the traverse, which had an in-situ rope, so I hadn't needed it.
I rationalised that one error had been compensated by two safety backups: (a) the knot (b) watching the rope feed out of the bag. I actually stopped before hitting the knot.
Since this event, I've been extra diligent about knots in the end of ropes, including ropes not intended for pitches.
Andy
New member
For me I think it's go to be the very top of Titan - not the new way in, but the original 'top' which appeared to be rigged with a massive y-hang on shite snap-gates and dubious looking spits. That felt like quite a lonely place to be.
Dihedral has a certain 'air' to it.
Scariest on the Continent so far has be the top of the 90m pitch in Palanca in the Picos de Europa. Again, crap rigging didn't help, however the scariest bit was the petrol drill hanging from my harness which for some reason was only suspended by the 'tooth' of the (for some unknown reason) open snap-gate!
Dihedral has a certain 'air' to it.
Scariest on the Continent so far has be the top of the 90m pitch in Palanca in the Picos de Europa. Again, crap rigging didn't help, however the scariest bit was the petrol drill hanging from my harness which for some reason was only suspended by the 'tooth' of the (for some unknown reason) open snap-gate!
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starlessriver
Guest
The final pitch in Vesper - the long step over to the opposite wall to reach the spits with 150' of nothing below which leaves you at a 45? angle.
...mind you, you can't beat the Malaterre in France for exposure when you removed the middle section of the bridge an there's 110m of nothing....
Matthew
...mind you, you can't beat the Malaterre in France for exposure when you removed the middle section of the bridge an there's 110m of nothing....
Matthew
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ColinA
Guest
There can only be one "Vulcan"