Present: Lydia Miller, Tom Green-Plumb, Abi Manning, Oliver Bosworth, Stanley Marshall, Charlotte Chow
Duration: 4 hours
Having spent the entirety of the previous day training up our new fresh at the SRT wall, it was time to put them to the test underground!! After our pan and slinging shenanigans until past 1 in the morning (because introduction to caving games is also a very important part of training), it was honestly surprising that we made it out of bed and into the kitchen to start cooking breakfast at a very reasonable 8am, but I am proud to say DUSA continued to surprise the Craven members by being students and also waking up early.
Large amounts of porridge and questionable sausage was consumed, then we headed out to begin the trek up to Sell Gill. It was incredibly rude to have the pub right next to the beginning of the path up to the entrance, as with the rain threatening to start coming down, a nice warm pub would have been welcome. But alas, SRT is more important than a cozy pint 🙁
We hiked the 2.5 km up the hill (also passed a very excited dog) and got to the entrance, which I began rigging as Tom gave our trainees a pep talk. I started rigging the next pitch while Tom coached everyone through the first pitch, and everyone made it through the rebelay with no issues. Having not been to Sell Gill since my own SRT weekend over two years ago, I was not prepared for the number of bolts that led up to the second pitch; I swear it was more bolt than rock at that point.
As we wanted to throw in a deviation somewhere for the trainees, we decided the best place to do that would be the second pitch, so I rigged the traverse and y-hang on the left wall with an immediate deviation on the opposite wall. By that point, most people were down the first pitch, so I just had to wait for a few minutes before descending. Trainees followed me, all making to the bottom smoothly, followed by Tom, who had decided to test out his upside-down descending skills underground !!
It would be mean for me to hog all the rigging, so Tom rigged up the next pitch while I stayed at the top to coach everyone through the rebelay. The most notable part of this pitch was the beautifully sized rebelay loop that Tom had rigged up—it was the perfect length to step into to unclip your short cowstail. Stanley was even shouted at when he tried to use his hand jammer and foot loop instead of the rebelay loop Tom was so proud of.
I also took my turn with the upside-down descending, then we were all safely at the bottom of Sell Gill!! Onwards we went, venturing to find the duck we had read about. We waved to the people going up Goblin Route (who apparently looked completely dry), then made our way through the big passage until we reached all the calcite obstructions. The way on was a fun little hole in the floor which dropped right into a knee deep puddle, and just around the corner from that was the duck. Abi was really keen to do the duck, so she came through to have a look. In the end, everyone but Charlotte agreed to do it (even Tom, though he looked extremely unhappy about it).
Through the duck, we found… a crowbar!! and that’s about it.
Thoroughly soaked, it was time to turn around. Going back up the three pitches took slightly longer than it took to get down them, and waiting at the bottom of the second pitch with Oliver and Stanley, I had to lead an impromptu dance session with my (totally hype) caving playlist in order to stay warm. After getting everyone else up, I ascended to the calming sounds of Minecraft music and derigged the pitch, at the top of which I was so kindly informed by Tom that it had begun to rain. This meant that we’d now also be sitting in the rain while waiting at the top of the pitch, hooray!!
I went ahead to ascend the pitch first and waited at the top in case anyone needed help. It was nice and windy and wet, but no one had any issues coming up the pitch. Tom derigged, and we were outta there.
Abi and I legged it back to the hut because we were cold, and the other four weren’t too far behind us. We had a nice dry rope washing room to change in, then settled in for a nice cup of hot chocolate / tea before our drive back to Durham (which involved more fog, a singular headlight, and a less than intact mudguard…)
All in all, a very successful SRT weekend I’d say.
Lydia Miller