Topic

Following a protracted discussion on the start time for caving (the extremes being James for midday & Dave for 08:00), we eventually settled for 09:30 and managed to get away slightly before that.
We wandered down to the OFD1 entrance and quickly descended the ladders into the cave.
James led as he was keen(ish) to learn the way. With only a small amount of navigational faff (the turning at the end of the Connection & the climb up from the large chamber) we got to the Letterbox.
The Letterbox is negotiated by posting yourself feet first into a sitting position then sliding down onto your back. The produced some faff, but eventually we were all through.
James then started heading round to the right instead of going straight to the window and the abseil down. Having retrieved James, we descended the pitch.
Due to a communication error, the pull down rope was brought (still bagged) to the bottom of the pitch and needed to be returned to enable the pull through.
We then headed towards Piccadilly and the way into Cwm Dwr. Passing this, the Jameses took the lead in the streamway.
Stefan was beginning to flag, making progress up the streamway quite slow. To speed things up a little, people took it in turns to carry his (heavy) bag.
Everyone had a least one swim on the way up the stream, but Stefan seemed keen to swim in every pool (possibly to cool down).
We were overtaken by another group in the oxbow before dropping back down to the streamway and heading up to Maypole Inlet.
The Jameses and Phil passed the climb and made it to Top Waterfall before anyone could stop them! Matt chased them and dragged them back to the climb out of the streamway.
Maypole Inlet went on for longer than I remembered. We eventually got to the climb up onto the chock stone. There was a bit of faff here (including some rope work).
After a quick look at the Judge & Trident, we headed up Salubrious to the Corkscrew, the Wedding Cake & Gnome Passage.
The with a small amount of navigational faff on my part we got to entrance chamber and the exit, where Ros was waiting for us in the sunshine.

Team A: Dave, Dave, Lynn, Matt & Caiti
Team B: James, James, Phil & Stefan
Time: About 7h 30m

Did you abseil the 'true' Diver's Pitch as opposed to the 12m free climb alternative (with the big fat rope) that everybody uses? I didn't even know there were still usable anchors at the original Diver's Pitch (although I've never looked) and not heard of anyone doing it. I've belayed people down the 12m climb before, but never abseiled it although I guess that makes sense.

We abseiled down the side without the big fat rope.
We rigged it as a pull through. The bolts are connected with a bit of tatt & the bolts & tatt seemed fine.