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Present: Mssr Leech, Ian W, Dom/Tom (BUSS)

“Once you’ve done the sumps from the bottom, it’s just abseiling practise” – Ralph.

Whilst practising the sumps from the Valley side, we replaced the line on the 8.2m sump with some of Tom’s 10-year-old tat. Ralph and Dom had wetsuits on but I was just wearing my furry and oversuit. 25 minutes in the water was a bit much and I was shivering on the way out. Sumps: tick.

We then headed straight up the hill to do the pull-through. We went in by ‘the eyehole’ entrance (the normal SRT route) which in hindsight didn’t add to the trip – should’ve gone in the other entrance. We followed the ‘Not for the Faint Hearted’ route from here (very good as ever). The main pitch was a delight as ever, especially on Dom’s shiny new 9mm but there was inexplicable stone-fall once at the bottom (scary!). I liked the route out of the main chamber. We pulled the tackle bags through the sumps on the 70m rope – our backup rope – by tying a knot in the middle and dragging the sacks though one by one.

Got out sharpish and rang callout a half-hour hour before due! Then had a nice bowl of soup and cup of tea with our callout in The Wheatsheaf in Ingleton and a happy cheerio before heading home.

A quite enjoyable trip. Strangely not all we had hoped, but still a grand day out.

Notes: Furries are not as good as wetsuits. Masks and hoods make things nicer.

Figure 3: Ane (pictured) and Han went on the waterfalls walk.