“I’m not averse to P8, even in the wet. I may have been there loads of times. It’s Derbyshire’s safe bet.”
But when studying the rigging guide, I saw something I’d never seen in person: a pitch above Idiots Leap “the boney pitch” and an alternate, higher first pitch from somewhere in the ceiling.
So armed with the little information I could scrounge about these things from @UKCaving forum and the DCA route description, me and Judith headed to the wet hole in the field (last year, in the autumn – we also live together).
Finding the Boney Pitch was pretty easy. Right where the stream turns into a very elegant chute, a climb above it leads to a large chamber. A way on through/down the boulders leaders to a bit of pleasant height passage with a pitch at the far end.
I rigged this for a pull through and we dropped into the streamway again, bypassing idiots leap.
We headed down the streamway. This is the section I found the least information about and I’m not sure where the best place to climb up is. I feel like it might be shortly after Idiots Leap but we continued as calcite curtains closed in on the rift above.
At one point, we stopped and I climbed the rift. I belayed Judith up the rift-climb. The top of the rift was someway similar to some of the top of the Giants Crabwalk, though possibly with a slightly wider crack.
Judith moved across part of the rift to a safe bridge section where she found an insitu rope sling round a natural. I followed, and protected myself off the rope as I headed through a calcite eyehole over an awkward wide section of rift and found a very secure natural anchor on the otherside to rig a traverse line for Judith to come through.
At this point, I realised there are some trips for some days, some groups and this traverse really needs to be done without ropes by a group that accepts the risk. Doing it roped made it feel alpine in nature and since we weren’t well equipped with lots of slings (and there were only limited naturals) maybe it wasn’t the right decision to continue.
(Continued in the first comment)
Originally posted on Instagram
