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Short Drop & Gavel Pot (30 March 2025) 02 Apr 2025 19:30 #21860
- Topic Author
- dchadwick
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There were 3 teams heading into the system on Sunday.
The first team (Paul, Ros, Martin & Andreas) were only intending to go as far as the third pitch in Gavel and have a quick look at the formations.
The second team (Dave, James, Klaudia & Matt) were intending to go to the bottom of the cave.
The third team (Dave) was going to rig Gavel Pot and then meet the first team for the rest of their trip.
Dave rigged & descended the pitch into Gavel and continued the rope down to the traverse, which is the way in from Short Drop.
Having got to the traverse, it was not rigged and there was still plenty of rope, so he gathered all the spare karabinas and rigged the traverse.
Having got to the end of the traverse, the climb from the Short Drop streamway was also not rigged. Another karabina was found to botch the rigging on this pitch.
He then went up the Short Drop streamway to the pitch, the other teams had not reached this point.
There was a lot of water in the streamway, so it was possible that the Short Drop entrance was sumped, so he returned to the Gavel end of the traverse from where he could see people coming from both directions.
A short while later, Paul appeared from the Short Drop side followed by the rest of that team.
After a small amount of faff climbing up to the traverse, they were soon in Gavel Pot.
Martin had to depart for the long drive back to Cornwall.
Paul & Andreas went through to the main Gavel shakehole and then returned to the pitch out of Gavel.
Dave went up the pitch first, followed by Andreas. Andreas was struggling with his SRT kit part way up the pitch. Fortunately Matt was passing at the time and was able to improve the situation.
There was more faff at the deviation. We eventually left it off after Andreas had passed it and Dave went back down to re-instate it.
Ros & Paul arrived at the top in quick succession and we headed out of the shakehole & back to the cars.
The second group were last seen heading down the second Gavel pitch.
Team 1 time: About 3 hours
Team 2 time: About 5 hours
Team 3 time: About 3 hours
The first team (Paul, Ros, Martin & Andreas) were only intending to go as far as the third pitch in Gavel and have a quick look at the formations.
The second team (Dave, James, Klaudia & Matt) were intending to go to the bottom of the cave.
The third team (Dave) was going to rig Gavel Pot and then meet the first team for the rest of their trip.
Dave rigged & descended the pitch into Gavel and continued the rope down to the traverse, which is the way in from Short Drop.
Having got to the traverse, it was not rigged and there was still plenty of rope, so he gathered all the spare karabinas and rigged the traverse.
Having got to the end of the traverse, the climb from the Short Drop streamway was also not rigged. Another karabina was found to botch the rigging on this pitch.
He then went up the Short Drop streamway to the pitch, the other teams had not reached this point.
There was a lot of water in the streamway, so it was possible that the Short Drop entrance was sumped, so he returned to the Gavel end of the traverse from where he could see people coming from both directions.
A short while later, Paul appeared from the Short Drop side followed by the rest of that team.
After a small amount of faff climbing up to the traverse, they were soon in Gavel Pot.
Martin had to depart for the long drive back to Cornwall.
Paul & Andreas went through to the main Gavel shakehole and then returned to the pitch out of Gavel.
Dave went up the pitch first, followed by Andreas. Andreas was struggling with his SRT kit part way up the pitch. Fortunately Matt was passing at the time and was able to improve the situation.
There was more faff at the deviation. We eventually left it off after Andreas had passed it and Dave went back down to re-instate it.
Ros & Paul arrived at the top in quick succession and we headed out of the shakehole & back to the cars.
The second group were last seen heading down the second Gavel pitch.
Team 1 time: About 3 hours
Team 2 time: About 5 hours
Team 3 time: About 3 hours
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