Great trip report.
I don’t know I recall at least 3 bits you could stand up in :)
“and before long we were at the Backbreaker” Really? I thought it took ages to get there I kept saying to myself in a 10 year old’s voice “are we there yet”?
Its been a while since I have been a bit nervous on a caving trip but this was certainly one, everything had a serious feel to it. I was particularly nervous heading towards that rift with a tight squeeze over a 6m drop. Thankfully the squeeze mentioned in the book turned out not to exist. All we had to worry about from there was rigging the pitches from the end big mean porridge machine (thankfully was rigged already) and bastard crawl.
On the trip, Chris remarked this was the hardest trip he has done, but I think he has forgotten Hangman’s! (Although that trip is short we had quite a few mishaps and both got quite badly stuck on the last pitch).
Personally I rate this 5th on the hardest Yorkshire trips I have done, ranked on effort/fear factor/squalidness (I am looking at you Echo) top 10 are:
1) Hammer Pot,
2) Hangman’s
3) Echo
4) Ease gill traverse, coming out pip.
5) This trip
6) Mossdale
7) Yokenthwaite, solo
8) Swandike
9) Penyghent pot
10) Cupcake to Lost johns
