This trip was at my request. David had done it last year and it sounded “fun”. The alternative was Cow Pot, which David was definitely not doing and I was certainly not keen. Fortunately Mike Smith wanted to join the roof traverse trip, which relieved me of the necessity to carry a bag.
We packed the bags, 160m of rope and about 60 carabiners. One bag was heavy, the other I could only just lift! David took the ridiculously heavy bag and I handed the other one to Mike.
Mike had not done Valley Entrance at all before, so the walk to the pitch interesting. David pointed out where the passage to Toyland and Carrot Passage started and very soon we were at the pitch and the start of the high level traverse (and the bags getting lighter).
David rigged the first section, which was fairly straightforward, then before the end of the first rope he handed over to Mike to rig (I think he knew what was coming). Before long we came to a section with nothing to stand on, just a slippery, undercut wall. Rigging became hard work.
After a few sections like this there was a ledge at the level of the bolts, so I climbed into the ledge (it was quite snug) and wriggled along until there were some footholds below. I then slithered out and down until my feet came to a narrow ledge.
David and Mike had continued the aid traverse. The view down to the stream passage was fabulous.
The next hazard was a short Tyrolean to cross the stream passage. I found this hard work. I had used both long cowstails to attach myself. David had not mentioned it would have been easier using a long and a short. Having a training in science I should have worked this out for myself.
The riggers swapped again and we moved onto the last rope. The rest was easy. We had a brief pause where we met the route down from Swinsto, then returned with the riggers swapping as on the way in.
I offered to take some of the crabs to reduce the weight in the bags, but David decided this would be too much faff. The ropes were now wet so manoeuvring the bags whilst de-rigging was not fun as it kept swinging the de-rigger off balance.
I had an easy time, hanging around waiting for the others (in both directions).
We were soon at the pitch with feet on solid ground.
The heavier bag ended up with Mike who did not enjoy all the stooping on the way out.
As we emerged Mike commented that he was expecting an easy trip, but he had enjoyed it. His first trip with YSS! David was pleased he had someone to share the rigging.
Time : about 3.5 hours
Team : David Chadwick, Mike Smith and Ros
