Swinsto Hole - August 10 2003

Those Present

Paul, George, Sooty.

 

On leaving Rochdale at 8am it was a beautiful sunny morning without a cloud in the sky which gave us great pleasure as under wet conditions Swinsto becomes “sporting.” Unfortunately within ten minutes of leaving black clouds had mysteriously appeared from nowhere and we were driving through a thunderstorm. On arriving in Ingleton we went for a butty in Inglesport and enquired about how bad the rain had been locally. This was met with puzzlement as they’d only had a bit of drizzle.

 

Having consumed a suitable amount of lard we drove to the cave, changed and went into Valley Entrance to rig the exit pitch. We had a quick look at the streamway which was carrying very little water so we decided to stick to our original plan of Swinsto.

 

Having walked up the hill we had a short debate about exactly which nondescript hole in the  ground was the right one and entered the cave. We made rapid progress through the early sections of the cave as the first three pitches were rigged but the problems began on the main pitch.

 

We all easily descended to the humorously spray lashed ledge and in a hurry to get out of the water Paul immediately began to pull the rope through. Unfortunately due to concerns that the rope might not be quite long enough Paul had tied a figure of eight in the end of the rope which in our haste we forgot to remove. With the end well and truly out of reach the knot jammed, D’OH.

 

Having discussed our options and swung wildly on the rope to ensure it wasn’t going anywhere Paul bravely volunteered to climb the wrong side of the rope in order to retrieve it. We weren’t quite sure what he was going to do when he got to the knot but we had about four “half-plans” (and a few bizzare suggestions from George) one of which must work - nope.

 

It was at this point that Sooty realised that all Paul had to do was clip himself into the offending knot, remove his jammers then sooty could lower him down on a sticht-plate. Unfortunately this is not so easy to communicate to someone 30 feet above you dangling under a waterfall. After about 20 minutes in the flow of water and following some frantic shouting and waving of a sticht-plate Paul was lowered back to the ledge, cold and tired but most importantly still alive.

 

We removed the knot, retrieved the rope and exited the cave without further incident. Just enough time to stop at the Marton Arms for the obligatory pint on the way home.

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