Swinsto Hole 20/1/23 Phil, Caiti, Tom, Niel and Rob.
A Friday evening trip was planned by Phil, Caiti and Tom. Tom is returning to caving after a few years, so we decided Swinsto would make for an exciting trip.
Upon arriving to the YSS I (Caiti) bumped into Rob and Neil who were getting ready to head out caving, however they decided to sack that off and come to Swinsto instead, Neil having not done it since 1997, they said they had been looking to go again.
We set off with fabulous weather, sun, clear blue sky and some snow still on the ground. Phil and I went to rig valley entrance and then met everyone else back at the cars. It was a quick slog up the snowy hill, the sun setting beautifully, and after a look in every shakehole up there, we finally found the hole after a bit of back-tracking. My feet already like blocks of ice I was bracing myself for the watery journey to come.
The journey began with a short, wet crawl to the first pitch and after a bit of dancing around by myself at the top I was down swiftly followed by the others. Phil led us on through the long crawl. Despite its name I vaguely remember the long crawl being only about 5 minutes and I was filled with a false hope. After 10 minutes I had accepted my fate.
The ominous rumbling noise of the next pitch grew louder and louder, I imagined water gushing through the crawl and washing us all down. My thinking about the odds of survival ended abruptly as I arrived. Phil had the ropes in place and Rob was on his way down. Curtain pitch was next and soon after we came to pool pitch, which was gushing, I enjoyed a bit of shelter sitting on the little perch as I watched Phil rig. A good soaking was had by all and left us shivering with me chattering my teeth under my buff.
The big split pitch gave us another hammering particularly the first half and we were glad to get away from the thundering noise as we headed down stream. I noticed some huge fossils just after one of the little climb downs which I was very impressed by. After spout pitch I was feeling a false sense of security in that we had done all the waterfall pitches, my ears pricked up at the sound of water and the horrifying realisation, a memory coming back to me clear as day, the last pitch.
A tiny pitch but if you get your footing wrong you will end up having one last icy water-boarding experience. I was spared this time and at the bottom went wandering off up a rope lured up by lovely dry looking climb before realising this was not the way and turning back.
The way on was following the water through the boulders into a short, wet crawl. Phil pointed out a dry bypass for the last bit (thank you Phil) which Neil and I took. Everyone else ploughed on through the water (I honestly do not know how, you are all mental, it was freezing!).
Lastly it was the ever pleasant walk downstream to the little prussik up and out via valley entrance into a very crisp clear night, where I was devastated to find I had forgotten my dry trousers!
A fun evening trip about 4 hours, thank you Phil for rigging. Neil said it was just how he remembered it and Tom enjoyed his return to caving.
