Afew things to post that have happened over the years. But before that a bit about the croll:
Having the croll on your D ring is important for a number of reasons not just efficeancy it also insure the rope runs smoothly through the jammer, keeps you in closer to the rope making it easier to prusic and less likley you will end up topaling over. it should be more comfortable to have it atached directly onto your croll as on a another mailon its going to twist into your body you might as well use a normal jammer
I too attach my croll to the d-ring with a maillon. It doesnt' twist - although it does require you to thread your chest strap correctly (ie it can twist with the chest strap threaded wrongly). For those of use with proportionally longer bodies having the croll slightly higher helps keep your torso more upright. Yes it reduces the prussic 'stroke' but this is countereacted by a more comfortable position. Having the cheat strap properly tight means that you are still completely close to the rope. I've tried it both ways when setting up my gear, and this is definetly the right option for me.
Scares: prussicking up and catching my croll handle with the knot on the handjammer's saftey cord. Croll pops open. Argh. flick back on rope, resume breathing. NO idea how it happened, only the once, on the exact same rig I've been using for years.
Falling - Cuallam 2 (I think) in Claire. bimble down with a few friends. Free climb the 10 m waterfall to the sump. It's an easy climb in low water, done it before, no bother. Climb back up. I'm last and just as I get my head over the lip I slip. No idea whether it was hands or foot, but just whump. Gone. (this is 10 m up remember) Fortunatelty for me the grab somethign reflex kicks in well. I've fallen maybe a foot or two and am wedged in a crack catching my breath. Frieds are really quite concerned, lot of shouting. It takes me a minute or two to reassure them that I'm fine and I'll climb that last metre in a bit. No injuries at all.
Dropping things - Diccon Pot, Friend is rigging I'm lying in the crawl. chatting to mates. Nothing special .... BANG .... silence. We start shouting! finally "f*** f*** f*** f***" starts echoing back up the shaft. Phew. Friend is OK. He'd swung out for the deviation grabbed the wall, and had part of it (" a on tonne flake") just peel away in his hand, which dropped some distance, quite noisally. Luckily no-one else was at the bottom. We retreated, Haven't been back, although I do want to at some stage. Friend doesn't.
Getting Lost - OFD. And this is really :-[ I was leading, we'd had a good trip round Top, can't remember where, but had gone smoothly. Wasn't really concentrating on the exit, got to the main passage by Big Chamber, and decided this was Gnome instead (there are a few similar ish stals, honest) turned around and headed back into the cave. repeat. More than once. Finally I got myself sorted out. But spent at least 30mins no more than 100m from the easy exit, unable to find it.
Flooding - Otter. I'm sure this in a trip report on here somewhere. Over the tides trip, long and tiring. Got back to the sump to find instead of low tide ankle deep water it was nearly full and rising - 2" of airspace (ie well over 6 foot of water) as the first (guide) person arrived 0" by the time the last one got there! Fortunately we had time to climb through the Eyehole (maybe another two foot higher) and escape, damp but safe - it was still rising, and close to the bottom of the eyehole by the time I was through. It had started raining almost as soon as we went unground. Sump didn't re-open for another 3 weeks! Which would have been a long time to wait.
You live and learn. No Harm, no foul.
Makes you think though. I don't freeclimb so 'freely' anymore.
better to look sillly than flat...
