Alum Pot / Diccan Pot exchange
August 2013
Visited with - Andy, Mike, Tim, Tony and Vikki.
I had arranged with Vikki for her to pick me up from home, with the intention of meeting the others at Inglesport for 10am. Vikki texted me at 8.10 telling me she was running late, but not to worry as the others heading from wales were also running late as they had waited for Tom from DCC who hadn't turned up as he had overslept. Vikki eventually turned up at 8.40, i loaded my gear into her car and off we went.
Due to vikki now having 11 and a half points on her driving licence, the drive up was at normal speeds not her normal warp 7 speed, it was nice not feeling like i was on the star-ship enterprise. after a quick pit stop we eventually got to ingleton for 10.08, which wasn't bad going, but we had been beaten there by everyone else.
we got into inglesport to find Mike reading Andy's brand new caving guide book, he must of been on a spending spree, not only did he have a new book, but also a new undersuit. we had breakfast before spending money we didn't need to on shiny stuff. we got in the cars and headed over to selside.
We got our gear sorted out and walked up to alum pot, on the walk up we decided to dump the gear and have a look through the churns first, this basically turned into a who could soak vikki the most competition.
We got as far as the waterfall and exited the cave to get SRT kits and collect ropes, vikki decided I had won the competition and decided my prize was to sneak up behind me and empty her wellies over my head... Not cool Vikki, Not cool....
here we split into 2 groups, Myself, Tim and tony headed back into the churns to make our way into Alum pot, while Andy, Mike and Vikki headed down Diccan.
Our trip was fairly uneventful, we did have a couple of minor dramas working out which rope was for which pitch and which hangers we were supposed to be using for the ropes we had, but it all worked it's self out quite quickly.
We eventually arrived at the sumps to find Mike just coming down the last pitch, the timing was perfect, next down was Vikki who was struggling to swing the massive distance to the deviation, she shouted down the pitch "I cant reach the deviation" we all replied with "whayyyyy..." cos in actual fact, we had no idea what she was shouting, after her 4th or 5th swing we worked out what was going on and this was quickly rectified with a tug on the bottom of the rope.
Andy was down next who had the same problem, Me and Tim both agreed the ballast we carry around with us was in fact needed to be a good caver, it helps with the angle on the dangle when swinging on the rope, and as Les once told us, thin is just a state of mind.
Andy was soon down which meant it was time for us to go up, i looked at the pitch, and the amount of water coming down it and i wasn't looking forward to going up, it was decided i would go first, I CLIPPED THE ROPE BAG TO ME AND OFF I WENT, WITH THE ROPE BAG THAT I TOOK UP THE PITCH..
The up was not very enjoyable, I remembered why i was supposed to be giving up caving, but slow and steady and was the plan and i stuck to it. i left the bag, THE BAG I HAD JUST TAKEN UP THE ROPE at the top of the first rope and headed up the second, i waited for a while for the others expecting them to pass the full bag forward, but they were so slow i got board and thought sod it, first up best dressed and all that, and on this day i decided i didn't want to wear a rope bag with ropes in it, never mind wet ropes in it. so up i went up the last pitch.
This was the longest pitch of the trip and it was in water all the way, i was swinging about like tarzen on acid and i'll be honest, i was knackered, i'll go as far as saying that if i had of had the rope bag i wouldn't of got up, it was horrid.
I got to the top of the pitch and set off out, it took everything i had to do that 100m hands and knees crawl out, but i was out and the first of the 2 teams, i was so thankful to see the sunlight, i was just loosening my SRT kit when Mike came out from the other hole, shortly followed by Vikki and Andy.
Eventually Tony came out telling us how he had just dunked his camera in the water, i gathered Tim wouldn't be far behind, i headed back in to assist with the bags, he was just de-rigging the last pitch, i took the big rope bag and headed out. If you do the math, i took the bag up the first 30m pitch, then along the 100m passage, so i had the bag for 130m, meaning tim only had it for 70m, so for most of the trip, i had the bag... and that is an actual fact, so if he tells you other wise, he's clearly confused.
total trip time was probably 4.5 hours underground.
we then headed to the station inn for a werll deserved beer, before heading home.
all in all a superb trip to the dales.
big thanks to everyone who came and helped to make it a day to remember.
special thanks to mike and tim for rigging / de-rigging and vikki for driving.
I didn't take my camera in, but i did take 2 hours worth of video, i've kind of managed to edit it down to 10 mins in a fashion, so here you go. all shot on a helmet camera so it's not the best.
take note of the ucet male voice choir at 3.30
http://youtu.be/2RYLnbvk8ZY
Brill report, Brill video, Brill trip, Brill day, Brill company.