Gingling Hole - 18th September
This was a Black Rose trip really, but since we're both YSS members, I'm putting it here.
After a fairly wet week and some potential heavy rain forecast for the day, we were fairly sceptical about getting down the Big Pitch, but pitches aren't everything and Gingling certainly has lots of other attractions, so we set off eagerly.
Down to Stalagmite Chamber, for Alex to show where he set off a collapse on his last visit. Somewhat stupidly, given what he'd just shown me, I dropped down the next section in front of him. Fortunately for me he obviously wasn't in the mood for a collapse today, and we both arrived unscathed in Fools' Paradise. After we'd taken some photos and admired the pretties, we set off again and soon found ourselves at the top of the Big Pitch. Having only been to Gingling in the dry before, I was expecting the stream here to be flowing quite well, but was surprised to see it was similar to my previous visits.
However, we sensibly decided that the bottom of a deep pitch with nowhere to hide at the bottom, was probably not the best place to be with heavy rain forecast, so we turned around. After a quick look down the Big Rift route - where I turned around when I was going to get unpleasantly wet - we were soon back at the scene of Alex's previous collapsing escapade. Obviously feeling the need to compete with him, it seems it was my turn this time to kick a rock down ... sorry Alex!
A few pitches and climbs later and we were back on the surface and enjoying a gentle stroll back to the cars with clear views in most directions. Very nice!
Party: Alex R & Damian W
Time: 5hrs??
