Topic

Another joint CCCC/YSS trip.

Dolly Tubs route into Alum and down to the sump. Again all very dry. YSS numbers were swelled when we met Rob and Mel Dalby at the bottom pitch after they descended the Southeast route.

Thanks to Alex for helping Neil with the alternative bimble round the Upper and Lower Long Churns with two novice CCCC members.

Jane (YSS/CCCC), Mike (YSS/CCCC; rigging), Susan (YSS), Bill Buxton (CCCC, SWCC)

Again this was the first time I had rigged Alum, although I have descended it a couple of times before. At first I found rigging the Dolly Tubs pitch to be somewhat intimidating For my height it seemed to be quite a long stretch out into the void in order to reach the second P-hanger for the Y-hang whilst balanced on the edge of one of the pools. Eventually I decided to back my rope up to the stal about about 3 metres back from the first hanger and then I felt more secure about the belay. Having then bridged out I rigged the Y-hang with no further quibbles and the rest of the descent went fine. At the bottom pitch I was just about to start my rigging when another caver introduced himself as Rob Dalby so it would have been churlish not to invite him to follow down our rope

One annoying thing was that I discovered I had forgotten to bring my Pantin for the long ascent

A great weekend of SRT!