Yorkshire II
Ben Honan, Fiona Hartley, James Wilson, Rebecca Diss, Shivani Gangadia, Shiva Pingle, Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Lamya Adam, Soya Shinkura, Thomas Pearson, Rian Austin, Robbie James, Etienne Naude
Saturday
Gaping Gilling: James Wilson, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Lamya Adam, Thomas Pearson, Robbie James, Etienne Naude
Editor
Easegill traversing: Ben Honan, Shiva Pingle, Chris Hayes, Rian Austin
No reports yet.
Shuttleworth: Soya Shinkura and various DUSA people
One of the Durham humans rolled their ankle on the loose slope below the main pitch. This explained their later-than-expected return to the NPC in the evening.
Fiona
Sunday
Alum Pot: Shivani Gangadia, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Thomas Pearson
Valley: Chris Hayes, Soya Shinkura, Rian Austin, Robbie James
Shuttleworth derig: Fiona Hartley, Rebecca Diss
Diss and I had arranged to be at the NPC for the weekend (Una planned to join but was sadly ill when the time came) and coincided with an Imperial trip. We had grand delusions of not being involved, which were of course destroyed by us both forgetting our keys for the NPC tackle store. Durham had also forgotten most of their ropes. Forgetting all your gear knows no age limit. We were graciously allowed to borrow some ropes for our planned cave on Saturday (Dome route in Lost Johns', very chill) even though nobody opted to join us - thank you guys.
On Sunday morning indecision paralysis was setting in when Diss heard DUSA muttering that somebody needed to derig Imperial's rope in Shuttleworth. As the sands of enthusiasm were running through our fingers, we volunteered and set off to Leck with the aim of visiting a couple of parts of the cave that Diss hadn't yet seen.
The Saturday team had told us that the sump was noisy the previous day so I wondered if the water levels would be higher given the overnight rain; in fact it was lower than I've seen in ages. We went across the sump for a look at the Exercise Yard. I forgot there's another passage up here called Zig Zag that I've never been in, so I'll be going to Shuttleworth again someday (like that was ever in doubt). We headed back across and up to the main drag to the straws, where we lamented our lost caving fitness and our old knees. We were sweatily entertained in descending and then escaping from a muddy tube for a little while (if you know you know). Diss derigged and then we lamented the uphill walk back to the car.
Off the hill the wind died down and sun came out and it was actually quite lovely at the NPC come 3pm. We even washed the two ropes before leaving. So heroic. Unfortunately DUSA had left so their rope and karabiners have been rehomed with IC for a while.
I'll be honest, I wrote this report to reward myself with a trip number for website work.