[Xandar]

Good to see you writing trip reports for once, seems like you had fun. Glad you beat your demons from last time.

Sorry I was not in to give you your hangers. I was planning to just lie in bed and feel sorry for myself but with the brilliant blue sunshine I felt well enough for a trip. Not knowing what you were doing (I had not checked) I went on for a guaranteed easier trip with YSS which turned out to be a pool sink pull through to Lanc Hole. When I got underground I perked up massively so I could actually have easily come on your trip after-all.

We noticed that you could bypass the Dry Pitch through a crawl/squeeze or an exposed traverse.

Err you should have remembered that one Chriss, we went that way last time we were there, or at least I did so you would have seen the way. What are you like lol? The exposed traverse though is avoidable by that squeeze through the bedding plane. I was not daft enough to try the actual traverse lol.

The 2nd – was the chimney free climbable? Probably, if you were desperate, but neither of us were tempted to try it.

I can confirm the chimney is free-climbable I climbed it upwards my first time down there, its rather tight at the top. The trick is to traverse from the bottom of the pitch on narrow ledges so your already a couple of meters up, then thrutch your way up to the top. You know I am not the best climber so it can’t be too hard.

By the way then if you had not rigged it and had not climbed it, how did you get up?

[Xandar]

Neither have I.

[Xandar]

Aye I know and I have two now, thinking I am partially retiring my old one, as the helmet is battered and the light is starting to get un-reliable.

P.s. Not found any of your mallons. Nothing was on the ropes, so I hope you have them all.

[Xandar]

Yeh meant Boxhead, I got the names mixed up both ‘head’ and big pitches hehe.

[Xandar]

I think you are getting me confused with someone else!

[Xandar]

Yes Chris, you just repeated what I said hehe.

[Xandar]

To be fair to Chris he did not kick it down he leant on it, it broke, then it fell down.

[Xandar]

Who said he blocked the entrance? I said he broke it. BPC then would not let anyone down. I did not notice anything loose on the entrance pitch, I guess Shaman was climbing it where as we just used the rope so we would not have stepped on anything.

[Xandar]

Aye it was about a 2 and half hr round trip from there. Took us about an hour and a half to get there due to route finding, only 45 minutes to return. (all guesses though).

[Xandar]

Oh and Shaman told me it was he who broke the ent.

[Xandar]

Ahh good you wrote something, it would have been a short entry for me. Not all of us had frozen hands at the bottom, but my gloves are already starting to wear after 2 (long trips) is it worth the cost for warm usable hands?

[Xandar]

Nice, you have added bits I forgot about such as dragging the bag with me through the crawl to Hope.

I assume “svelter” means slim, can’t say I heard that term before and Google suggests similar names but not that one.

Anyway accurate report. Should we post something on UKcaving, or would we get told off?

[Xandar]

Tidied the report up a bit.

[Xandar]

‘Chris will be writing his own version of events, its important to get two points of view for trips like these.’

What do you mean?

Well on such epic trips (even-though we failed to bottom it, due to lack of rigging options). This was a very difficult trip, more than I expected it to be. Very tight for me, it is one of the tightest in the Dales. We both agreed we should write something due to the sort of trip.

Bloody hell. Do you know where the boulder came from?

The rock came from what appeared to a solid wall above me in the middle of the Y-hang. What I think happened was the jammed rock that formed part of the Y-hang, put pressure on a hidden crack in the “solid” wall which caused it to peel off and whack me. All my anchors were still in and fine, but even if it had missed me, I would have ended the trip there, as it was obviously not safe.

[Xandar]

I was about to comment that your photographs are really improving Alex…

You cheeky sod, provided my lense is clean I do take some good photos. What about those from my solo trip recently?

Alex, why is there a bright light coming out of your ass? Was someone giving you a rectal exam?

I think you will find that is called back lighting. The reason are not in these photos is you did not hang about to have your photos taken, though you are on the bench but Alas the photo Ales took is big for me to upload and I don’t have any compression software. Oh wait you are in the first photo.

[Author]

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