Topic

14 YSS cavers descended on Leck Fell and spread out on various trips. My party went down Big Meanie exchanged with Paul and Cat and went back out Death's Head.

Party 1: Nigel, Mike, me
Party 2: Paul & Cat
Time: ~3.5hrs

Yes I'd opted for the exchange in via BM and out via DH after listening to an account of Damian's near death experience on a previous trip

Then, whilst following Damian in, the person in front of me got stuck in the squeeze at the top of the first pitch and after a few abortive attempts we all had to retreat out. Then it was my turn to have a go. I'd never abseiled with my stop extended on my cowstail before (as recommended by Damian to get through the squeeze) and in the process of doing so I discovered that it's difficult to use the locking handle (I know! Later I was shown how to disable it.) and I also forgot to release my other cowstail and got firmly wedged in the squeeze . Fortunately Nigel was able to release the cowstail and I was then able to wriggle and slide through with only slight bruising to my ribs

It was another great day's caving and my SRT rat was well and truly fed for the weekend.

if you got slight bruising to the ribs im glad i didnt force my way through , there was no way i would have got down

I think my problem was mainly as a result of getting hung up on my cowstail. I was wriggling and struggling to get back up in order to try and unhook myself. Fortunately Nigel was behind me and was able to release the carabiner for me.

I did not hear Damiens account concerning his near death experience and can only assume it had something to do with the tight pitch. I enjoyed the challenge going through that but feel, with hindsight, that we should have used that as an exit route and gained valuable 'strans gill experience'

The mud crawl was a most enjoyable experience:silly: it rekindled memories of 'the font' in GG's Whitsun series, although if memory serves me well, Big Meanie's is much longer;)