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Alum Direct – Lower Longchurn exchange (via some small grotty cave)

Present: Al, Chris, George, Stacey, Kempton the Caving Bear

We finally set off after a record amount off faffing in the gear cupboard (even though George had dutifully packed all the rope the night before while the rest of us consumed beer!) in Al’s posh car that we weren’t allowed to get dirty or scratched.  After visiting Bernie’s, we laid in the sun trying to find the motivation to put on many layers of warm clothing in the sunshine.  We couldn’t find a valuable excuse not to cave other than “The suns shining and we’re in Yorkshire!!!!” so we finally set off for the cave.  George and Chris messed around on the surface for a while then rigged the huge pitch and descended 80 meters into the gloomy depths of Alum, while I rigged Lower Long Churn with Al bravely following, finally arriving at the bottom of Alum to the harmonious warbling of “Save the Whale” from Chris and George (which continued to prove popular for the rest of the weekend). 

The cave was fantastic, maybe because of the sun shining through the trees, making it not really like a proper cave- after all, there’s something not quite normal about caving underground in the sunshine!!! 
Ascending the pitch to the top was “interesting”, but not as hard as I expected.  There’s something quite nice about being suspended from a rope in somewhere like Alum!  It made me realise some of the joys faced by being a spider!
After derigging the big pitch, me and Al went back into L.L.Churn to meet the others coming out which gave me the delightful opportunity to complete the cheese press for the third time that day.  With the usual stupidity, Al and Chris decided to jump in some of the pools and got rather wet.

When we got out, everyone was still far too keen to keep caving so we messed around a bit in some more caves then finally went back to Bull Pot farm and had a barbecue and drank alcohol.  I can’t remember much more about the evening but a lot of cider was involved I think….  And carbide bombs….   And the moor apparently being on fire …..  (which turned out to be the moon!)  Jenny and Olly turned up later, and we all finally went to bed in the early(ish) hours of the morning.

Stacey.


Al and Stacey had elected to go through Lower Long churn so that Stacey could learn how to rig. The plan was to meet at the bottom of Alum and exchange. Al and Stacey went down Long Churn and me and George went to explore Fell Close South Cave. After the short expedition into Fell Close South Cave George and I returned to Alum Pot to start the awe-inspiring decent down the main entrance pitch. We’d already watched another group who were rigging the “nearly direct” pitch on the nearside of the pot. Neither of us was really bothered about who rigged, so George volunteered to use the method of “Bunny Ears” to rig the entrance. After about ten minutes George had decended the massive chasm via two high up rebelays. There was no sign of Al and Stacey until I heard Al shouting up to me that the rope was free (I couldn’t hear George, my ears aren’t quiet what they used to be!) Since the weather was blazing hot I thought that I’d take my time and enjoy the impressive scenary. After a few minutes I was level with the bridge, at which point I saw Al and Stacey. It’s a very odd sensation to be about 30 meters above the ground but still eye to eye with your friends! A few moments were spent with Al trying to get to a good vantage point to take some pictures of me abbing down. The weather was absolutely fantastic and the combination of the tree-dappled sunlight and fine mist from the waterfall created a distinctly Jurassic feel to the pot. After a while of slow decent I reached the bottom of the main pitch where George was waiting for me. Al and Stacey were still left with the rigging for the bridge and the final pitch of their route. After about an hour of waiting and playing all the classic air banjo rifts that me and George could, Stacey and Al popped down the rope to meet us. Due to a bit of early morning faffing with the ropes we hadn’t got enough to do the final pitch of Alum so we were left with no option other than to go out. That wasn’t too much of a problem since the weather was so nice, none of us minded. George and I took it in turns to derig the route back to Long Churn while Stacey and Al prusiked back out of Alum. By the time we’d reached the top of Long Churn, Al had run back to the start, through the cave and back to the end of Long Churn to meet us. We messed around for a bit before going back out of Long Churn via a large amount of cold water pools. When we got to the entrance we dumped the tackle sacks and went to visit Upper Long Churn. Half an hour was spent messing around in the waterfalls and pools.

Back at the car we undertook a grade 0 change in the blinding sunlight. The highlight of which was probably the look of shock on Al’s face when I pointed out that he was “hanging out” of his boxers. Luckily for him it was a grade 0 change and not a grade 5 leck fell nightmare, otherwise he could have been in serious trouble!

We drove back to Ingleton to pick up supplies for a barbeque. On the way Al decided that he couldn’t stand his wet shreddies. Screaching up the drive of White Scar Cave’s car park, he proceeded to drop his trousers, tear off his boxer shorts and perform another grade 0 change. We’re waiting for the photographic evidence to surface, but that’ll probably depend on whether or not he censors them! Much tea was then consumed back at the farm a la barbeque stylee followed by drinking!

Chris