[dunnyg]

It doesn't go on for very long, but it takes a few hours to get there including a fair bit of crawling dragging a bag of rope behind you.
The squeeze is a tunnel down through boulders for 3m or so just off vertical, the tightest bit at the bottom, where you can fit your legs through, but they immediately hit a horizontal floor so have to bend them in front of you at 90 degrees ish. The space for your feet is foot size. You then shimmy forwards to get flat out and can then flat out crawl out for a bit, and eventually end at a pitch. Getting in is hard work. Getting out looks harder! I was getting wedged with my thigh pushing against one side and my arse against the other. I got a good bruise.

If you got stuck you would be waiting a while. Past the squeeze there is a pitch (abseil) and huge boulder choke which is on the unstable side. There aren't too many who have been to the other side, and a trip to the end of the cave beyond can be 10 hrs + round trip. People dived down here back on the day, which is an amazing effort, and there used to be the remains of a camp site down there.

There's still some exploring to be doing down there!

[Will Hunt]

It doesn't go on for very long, but it takes a few hours to get there including a fair bit of crawling dragging a bag of rope behind you.
The squeeze is a tunnel down through boulders for 3m or so just off vertical, the tightest bit at the bottom, where you can fit your legs through, but they immediately hit a horizontal floor so have to bend them in front of you at 90 degrees ish. The space for your feet is foot size. You then shimmy forwards to get flat out and can then flat out crawl out for a bit, and eventually end at a pitch. Getting in is hard work. Getting out looks harder! I was getting wedged with my thigh pushing against one side and my arse against the other. I got a good bruise.

May I be the first to say, "fuck that"?

[IanP]

A little bit late to this, bit of a strange year for me, got some good climbing in but things seemed to keep getting in the way of any consistency.

Best UK sport

The Diamond, Rub-a-Dub-Dub 7a, It Came from Beaneath the Sea 7b
Definitely the best 2 routes I did in the UK this year but even more just an absolutely brilliant day out.  First ever time at the Diamond on an afternoon low tide.  The approach was exciting, included being passed by a fast moving Nick Bullock, and once down there the crag is spectacular but the environment surprisingly friendly.  Got on Rub-a-Dub-Dub first, looked good but turned out to be better than that, excellent rock and great climbing probably one of the best of it's grade in the country.  Next up was It Came from Beneath the Sea, partner did it first but didn't give me any beta (and is too short and too strong for it to be helpful anyway), started without too many expectations but managed to scrabble my way through the tough start and then started to climb better, milked the rests and made it too the top.  Brilliant climb, totally my style and probably a bit soft but a great experience and pysched to get it os(ish).  Ended the day climbing out in the rapidly approaching dusk and it was dark by the time we got to the car.

Right wall of the cave, Llandulus
Pearl Necklace 7a+(7b?), Pearls from the Shell 6c+, Searching 7a, El Tigre 7b
Spent some time here in May getting fit after COVID , it's not a big sector , none of the routes are super classics but the rock is really good , all the routes are worthwhile , conditions are dependable and it was just good to ticking routes and enjoying climbing.

Moat Buttress, Lady of the Lake 7b
Objectively not even that good a route by Moat standards but another really fun day.  Met up with my daughter and one of her mates on a warm day and found Moat to be surprisingly quiet.  Dogged up Lady of the Lake and found the crux really powerful and wasn't sure it was a goer, second time up found I could do an unlikely big throw/dyno to the jug above the bulge.  Next go I went for it, got one hand on and brought the second over as both feet came off! Definitely not my normal style and the daughter even caught it on camera to prove that old men can jump.  Everyone else had a good day as well and we finished with a pint in the sun by the river at the Anglers Rest.

Best Chulilla sport

Two trips, one early, one late.

Los Franceses 7c (7b+)
One of the main targets of an early visit to Chulilla.  Onsight was never realistically going to happen and I messed up the initial slippery corner to remove any pressure.  Second go climbed  the stepped roofs badly but got to the rest and pushed on up the overhanging tufa wall, got to the penultimate bolt but no way I was clipping until the jug just above.  Very pumped I commited fully and tickled the jug but couldn't hold it, went a long way and partner ended up past the first bolt which fortunately I had left unclipped!  Returned the next day and it went more smoothly but still had to try hard (and had to get the jug before clipping).  Classic big Chulilla route, lots say 7b+.which may well be right but no pushover for me.

Richer Line 7a
Just superb involving wall climbing with a big feel, mainly on corals so no real problems with polish but not particularly sharp either,

Long Dong John 6b+
Second visit to Chulilla, did this as first route.  What an adventure, world class for the grade and must feel pretty epic if you don't have a good bit in hand.

El Chachalote 7b+
Was planning to stick to getting some mileage on this trip but Ant was insistent that this route would suit me perfectly and he was right.  Lovely technical climbing with a steeper crux in the middle and and an exciting airy traverse to finish.  Had a decent flash attempt and then got it second go, probably soft but my style and excellent conditions, well worth 3 stars for me.

Best spankings

Everything else!  Covid, minor injuries, more major injuries (ruptured long head bicep tendon, which fortunately turned out to be lot less significant than you might expect), mum breaking her hip, shit immune system (post COVID?) and what felt lke a constant stream of colds and viral infections.  And the weather of course! Though to be honest compared to plenty of other people none of it really stopped me for a long time so can count myself fairly lucky in the end (other than the weather which really was shit!)

Climbing wise on both Spanish trips against my better judgement I managed to get caught up with harder projects in the second half and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in both cases.  Particularly Cap I Cua, 7c in November when on the last day I fell at literally 39.5m of 40 eyeballing the belay.

Always enjoy reading this thread, here's to a good 2024 for everybody.

[cheque]

I’m late posting this year! 

I’ve really enjoyed reading this as ever. Always impressive what people have been up to! I particularly love that one of Haydn’s “spankings” was not having done quite as many 8s as Steve Mac.  Hold tight everyone who’s had mental/ physical/ family issues.

Last year I had all sorts of stories from the Wild West, this year, while I’ve had loads of fun climbing and improved massively I hardly left the Peak. My life’s had a feeling of limbo for more than five years with my accident and recovery, the pandemic, my other half’s accident and recovery and my parents both being at the end of their lives and theoretically about to check out any moment. This year, as I mentioned in the aims thread, that was kicked up a notch by twiddling our thumbs all year waiting for expensive legal house-move stuff to be resolved, not conducive to making exciting plans at all!

As ever I did go trad climbing loads though so hopefully there’s some entertainment value in here…

Top routes, Peak

Leaf Buttress, Laddow Rocks I love moorland crags and I love crags that were more popular in the past than they are now, so Laddow ticks both boxes. Part of my affection for these two crag types is down to my perverted attraction to routes that, while far from impossible, are a struggle way beyond their lowly grade and Laddow ticks that box too. On the face of it it’s a friendly crag but while almost everything there should be easy, loads of them are scary shit like this, the hardest route in the 1948 guide  , a tall VS with an odd off-balance corner to start followed by an exposed crux step off a ledge onto a hanging slab with no worthwhile gear nearby, barely any handholds and no indication that there’s any more gear coming up  .

In recent years I would have reversed off at this point (I know this for sure as it’s exactly what I did in 2021) but this time out of the blue the absurd instruction “Mike, if you can do this you will be a legend in you own mind”  came clearly and unexpectedly into my head and I committed. What a daft business rock climbing is. My partner that day did not share my love of the crag and appears not to have been climbing since.

Scimitar, Tintwistle Knarr Quarry I clean some routes every year. Give something back, etc. but it’s usually stuff on the eastern edges that no one realised was overgrown. This year I decided to sort out the Knarr so I could persuade people to go and climb there with me. The Old Triangle was the route I wanted to do as it’s a Joe Brown route and pictured in On Peak Rock but I couldn’t clean it up in three separate visits so ended up doing other things like this which it turns out are much better.

Everything up there seems tough for the grade even when spotless and this felt more like E1 than that HVS the guides give it- what looks like traversing a hand crack is actually a wild teeter with your tips in a seam and a slap at the end. It was years since I’d yelled at a belayer in stress.

Herford’s Route, The Pagoda, Kinder Scout Me and my road dog Gazzy B had been talking about how we’d barely climbed on any of the crags in the Jacob’s Ladder corner of Kinder so this June we went up there and did a route on each of them in a cool little tour. This banger is another one that was the hardest in the guide in the distant past and is also the highest climb in altitude terms in the Peak  . It’s one of those grit routes where you progress up a series of rounded breaks via mantels and each time you get to the next one you find it’s far more flaring than you thought and takes the size of cam you’ve already run out of. Fuck knows what Herford was playing at when he did it with no gear whatsoever.

If you read the comments on UKC you’ll learn that there’s a flaring crack at the top that baffles lots of people who decide it’s not part of the route and just traverse off. What those cheats don’t realise is that the crux is after it. A passing walker was so impressed by our ascent that she scrambled up the back of the buttress to take our photo, much to her boyfriend’s bemusement.

Ashop Crack, Ashop Edge, Kinder Scout This side of Kinder is the biggest and arguably best day out in the Peak. Ashop Crack must be unique in that it’s had every grade from Severe to E2 in its history. The three current guides all give it a different grade! Basically it’s fairly easy climbing at the beginning, a little harder at the end but with a hanging #5-sized offwidth (knee jam/ hand-fist stacks sort of width) crux section inbetween. I was winched up this bit by Graeme “I don’t remember why I insisted that it wasn’t given more than HVS in the BMC book” Hammond in 2020 but had loads of confidence this time as I’ve far more wide crack experience, strength and range of motion now, plus you always have that “I’ll just push the big cam up above me” feeling with offwidths .

Upon throwing myself into it it became immediately clear that moving the big cam up with me was not going to happen and a good few minutes of grunting, cursing, dry-heaving and scrabbling for unseen foot ripples ensued with Reeve doing that thing where your belayer’s encouraging you but you can hear in their voice that they expect you to fall off any second  . Topped-out into the blinding sunshine and belayed in a very cheerful mood looking out across to Bleaklow.

Top routes, not Peak

Herford’s Crack, Clogwyn y Tarw, Ogwen Another Herford route, done a few weeks after the Kinder one by both him and me. It’s a splitter of the type you don’t find many of in Britain and gets HVS but that probably takes into account that Eryri-based climbers don’t have many pure cracks to practice on and hardly any Brits have more than one of any size of cam. Fuck knows what Herford was playing at when he did it with no gear whatsoever. I took tons  .

It’s really really good and not every climb has to be high in the grade. I did this with my other half belaying on an amazing day in June (in a wet year we had dry weather on both of our booked-long-in-advance weeks in the mountains!) before we scrambled up Tryfan.

Front Line, St. Govan’s Head, Pembroke Sea Cliffs just felt like a workplace to me after making The Seaside (I think you’re supposed to feel jealous when people post shots of lovely places on social media with the caption “today’s office” but that’s not the effect it has on me) and the thought of climbing somewhere like Pembroke filled me with terror after injury made me a timid and useless climber, so this was my first trip to the coast for climbing since 2015 and we headed to St. Govan’s as soon as we got down there.

Although I’m alright at it again now the Pembroke style is still a bit outside my comfort zone but this one (crawl onto a ledge, climb a corner crack, traverse into a longer corner crack then chimney out of the top) was within my “wheelhouse” and it was great, even though I puttered it up by climbing in a sweatshirt, getting really sweaty and taking ages repeatedly working out which wires would fit  . After leading this and seconding a couple of harder routes I was pretty much done for the whole trip!

Top spankings

The Bulger, Roaches Lower Tier In 2022 I got my arse handed to me every time I climbed in Staffordshire and I ended my entry in this section of that thread with “2023 will be my year over there”. As it turned out I only climbed there a few times and did have success (Delstree would be in the Best Of bit if I had a story to tell about it) but I also failed on this for the second year running. Like a lot of the Lower Tier this is firmly in the category of lower grade sandbags that I just said that I enjoy and is a style I feel at home on usually but the Roaches Lower is just such a cruel mistress Back on for another “warm up” on it at some point this year no doubt though.

Hollow Earth, Trowbarrow Got PTSD from this whole wall because it has lots in common with the wall I had my accident on but particularly melted down on this one for some reason  .

The Whistler, Gowbarrow Stayed in the north east Lakes in September at a cottage with no Wi-Fi and very little phone signal which was great. I started climbing with my other half in the mountains this year which was also unexpectedly good but required seeking out single-pitch routes as she belays me but doesn’t second. Turns out quite a few of the crags in the region we were in fit this criteria which was ideal. This little crag has a high quality HS too that was fun even in the very humid conditions and a beautiful view of Ullswater from the top.

So far, so not-a-spanking. But wait! Where’s the upper tier with the three star E1? Seems the approach details in the book are out of date and a rockfall has destroyed the scramble approach meaning a non-Rache-friendly abseil in is the only option. This story would be way better if I’d have made her do it and second the pitch anyway but I’m not like that so instead I tried my hand at this dreadful route that neighbours the HS. Starts with an awkward, chossy unprotected roof above a big bramble pit  . Did that, got some gear in ready for the moves up and out of the groove that guards the amble to the belay tree. Fuck me they’re hard. Also soily. If I weight the rope I’ll have to do the bottom again but it can’t be as hard as it looks. It is as hard as it looks. Lowered off ready to strip it but got that “I was pathetic, I just needed to try harder” feeling so did the horrible start again and committed FULLY to the move. Fell off. Fuck this. On abseil found that there’d been some sort sort of rockfall and while the move I couldn’t do (even off the ab rope) was indeed the last hard one, above was a groove of pure soil with pieces of unattached rock wedged in it. Not going back.

Birch Tree Wall Variant/ Lean Man’s Superdirect, Black Rocks I got what my possibly expired Covid tests told me wasn’t Covid but certainly felt like it in July and it took it right out of me right when I was climbing really well. I was keen to get back into it and did what I always chide others for doing- went climbing when I wasn’t really recovered. We ended up at Black Rocks for some reason, a crag where I’ve done literally everything that’s gentle loads of times so I attempted these
two and had an absolute ‘mare on both, terrified, out of breath, coughing fits mid-route etc. I am not a naturally confident climber and tend towards thinking I’m too rubbish to do the routes I want to do. This set my head back for long after my health had recovered.

[Fiend]

It’s one of those grit routes where you progress up a series of rounded breaks via mantels and each time you get to the next one you find it’s far more flaring than you thought and takes the size of cam you’ve already run out of. Fuck knows what Herford was playing at when he did it with no gear whatsoever.

Indeed. I seem to remember some very precarious bit at the top with some ledgy stuff to hit and thinking "Benchmark E0".

[Hydraulic Man]

Went to climb one of the Avens down there with Accy Nez about 92…went to the end and used the camp to try and sleep…Not sure i would have the mental capacity to go through that squeeze anymore as you are basically in the stream with moving boulders…

Good effort going in there…Biggest prize in the Dales under there….

It doesn't go on for very long, but it takes a few hours to get there including a fair bit of crawling dragging a bag of rope behind you.
The squeeze is a tunnel down through boulders for 3m or so just off vertical, the tightest bit at the bottom, where you can fit your legs through, but they immediately hit a horizontal floor so have to bend them in front of you at 90 degrees ish. The space for your feet is foot size. You then shimmy forwards to get flat out and can then flat out crawl out for a bit, and eventually end at a pitch. Getting in is hard work. Getting out looks harder! I was getting wedged with my thigh pushing against one side and my arse against the other. I got a good bruise.

May I be the first to say, "fuck that"?

[cheque]

The Whistler, Gowbarrow

Made a mistake here. The Whistler is the good HS, Whistle Away is the shit HVS I got spanked by. It has a star on UKC!

[andy popp]

Herford’s Route, The Pagoda, Kinder Scout ... Fuck knows what Herford was playing at when he did it with no gear whatsoever.

1910, aged 19! Such an amazing route. Sadly killed in action in 1916.

I had a lot of affection for the moorland crags and so particularly enjoyed this post Cheque. One climbing regret is that I never made it to Laddow.

[andy popp]

1910, aged 19! Such an amazing route. Sadly killed in action in 1916.

I went down a bit of rabbit hole last night when I realised Herford's middle name was Wedgwood - wondering if he was in some way related to the great potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, in whom I have a very strong interest. This is not implausible as Wedgwood had many descendants, quite a few of them very distinguished (Charles Darwin was Wedgwood's grandson). Anyway, X/Twitter provided a possible answer this morning: the Herford's, like Wedgwood, were prominent north-west Unitarians, so the middle name may have been some form of tribute. I also found that after Herford's early death friends commissioned a stained glass window of him climbing, originally located in Platt Chapel, Manchester, and subsequently Eskdale Outward Bound Centre. I wonder if this is the world's only stained glass window depicting climbing?

[slab_happy]

It doesn't go on for very long, but it takes a few hours to get there including a fair bit of crawling dragging a bag of rope behind you.
The squeeze is a tunnel down through boulders for 3m or so just off vertical, the tightest bit at the bottom, where you can fit your legs through, but they immediately hit a horizontal floor so have to bend them in front of you at 90 degrees ish. The space for your feet is foot size. You then shimmy forwards to get flat out and can then flat out crawl out for a bit, and eventually end at a pitch. Getting in is hard work. Getting out looks harder! I was getting wedged with my thigh pushing against one side and my arse against the other. I got a good bruise.

May I be the first to say, "fuck that"?

I did a quick Google and this post has a photo of the opening of the squeeze: https://northall.me.uk/posts/langcliffe-pot/

There's also this video, featuring someone having a tough time getting back through it:

As a card-carrying claustrophobe, it gives me the horrors just to watch. I respect all you cavers from a safe distance.

[mark20]

I love reading all these write ups every year.

RE: Herford.
Mike your write up is great, and I still vividly remember that route from years ago having got the train up to Edale

Interesting stuff Andy. A few years ago I was involved, in a very minor way, in a film about the life of Siegfried Herford. A chap who's name I forget from the Lakes had filmed most of it with 'Herford' including the scary Central Buttress pitch with the rope around his waist etc. They were down at Castle Naze, Herford's stomping ground during his Manc Uni days (mech engineering I think), and we messed around on the scoop buttress in plimsoles, experimenting with socks over our big boots, and re-created one of the earliest recorded crag girdle traverses. Mountain Heritage trust provided all the gear of the era, and I still feel dreadful about spilling a bottle of red wine over a nice hessian rucksack. Then we went to Crich Railway Museum which just happened to have an Edwardian themed day, complete with protesting suffragists. It was an absolutely great day, and he must have got some good footage for his film but sadly it never got finished and hasn't seen the light of day
Stick that on my Best of 2016 list 

[andy popp]

Thanks Mark, it's a shame the film was never finished (and that somehow I also never went to Castle Naze). It sounds like a fun day. Yes, Herford did engineering at Manchester and then postgrad work in aeronautics, according to his Wikipedia, which also claims he was denied a commission because of his German background (his mother was German). I don't know if that is true but another interesting personal connection for as my paternal grandfather also had a German parent and served in the British army during WWI. Anyway, it seems likely the connection to the Wedgwoods was one of friendship, not family. Sorry, enough ...

[dunnyg]

I think the photo of "the squeeze" is of the bit before the squeeze. You drop down in there and then drop down further. Mantling out after sitting in there for an hour was nails.

I imagine I'd have been as unhappy trying to get back through! There is a strong motivation though.

I'd like to point out that loads of caves are just big cool passages and you can avoid small passages and squeezes and still see some amazing things underground.

[cheque]

You need this book Andy

makes it sound like the film was finished. 

[seankenny]

It doesn't go on for very long, but it takes a few hours to get there including a fair bit of crawling dragging a bag of rope behind you.
The squeeze is a tunnel down through boulders for 3m or so just off vertical, the tightest bit at the bottom, where you can fit your legs through, but they immediately hit a horizontal floor so have to bend them in front of you at 90 degrees ish. The space for your feet is foot size. You then shimmy forwards to get flat out and can then flat out crawl out for a bit, and eventually end at a pitch. Getting in is hard work. Getting out looks harder! I was getting wedged with my thigh pushing against one side and my arse against the other. I got a good bruise.

If you got stuck you would be waiting a while. Past the squeeze there is a pitch (abseil) and huge boulder choke which is on the unstable side. There aren't too many who have been to the other side, and a trip to the end of the cave beyond can be 10 hrs + round trip. People dived down here back on the day, which is an amazing effort, and there used to be the remains of a camp site down there.

There's still some exploring to be doing down there!

Thanks! That was interesting but did make me feel physically sick.

[andy popp]

You need this book Andy

makes it sound like the film was finished. 

Thanks Mike!

[Fultonius]

May I be the first to say, "fuck that"?


I did a quick Google and this post has a photo of the opening of the squeeze: https://northall.me.uk/posts/langcliffe-pot/

As a card-carrying claustrophobe, it gives me the horrors just to watch. I respect all you cavers from a safe distance.

I had to stop watching that halfway through - was getting PTSD like symptoms just observing. FUCK THAT SHIT.

[cheque]

Sorry, screwed up that last post. The book doesn’t mention the film as it was published 14 years before the film was made It’s a good book, detailed (gives his families roots and Methodist connection good coverage- I think the author is religious) but feels more succinct than the similar books about Menlove Edwards & Colin Kirkus and a world better than the disappointing “Memories of Dolphin” whose author did all the research but didn’t edit it or flesh it out into a readable biography. There’s a Puttrell book out there too but I’ve yet to find a copy at a reasonable price. There’s twice the demand for that one I guess as he was a caver too!

What I meant to put is this article makes it sound like the film was finished. I’ve never seen it though.

[slab_happy]

I think the photo of "the squeeze" is of the bit before the squeeze. You drop down in there and then drop down further. Mantling out after sitting in there for an hour was nails.

I imagine I'd have been as unhappy trying to get back through! There is a strong motivation though.

I'd like to point out that loads of caves are just big cool passages and you can avoid small passages and squeezes and still see some amazing things underground.

Personally, I've decided that Lockwood's Chimney (okay, and my compulsion to wedge myself in offwidths, and my failed attempt at Paping About Like A Man With No Arms at Stanage -- I stuck at the pelvis and had to retreat) is as far as I ever want to go in terms of being inside the rock. I need to be able to see daylight, at least!

I'm sure caving is wonderful and you do see amazing things; it's just something i will never be able to do or want to do. There are mental limits I want to push, and that's not one of them.

[spidermonkey09]

This is giving me flashbacks to when I got stuck in Mr Chicken at Arapiles and had to be pulled out by my feet. I was keyed into a slot facing straight down. Horrific.

[remus]

There's a route called Patch's Shorts on Skomar Arch in Pembroke where you climb under the arch then navigate your way back to the top via an increasingly tight chimney. I literally had both hands on top of the crag but couldn't squeeze past those last crucial inches, so instead I had to down climb to the bottom of the slot and jump in to the sea.

I think the route gets it's name because the FA found themselves in a similar spot, but fortunately had some understanding friends to hoist them out, bar their shorts which didn't quite make it through.

[Will Hunt]

Great stained glass, Andy.

Dunny, I'm sure I've asked this before but I've forgotten, what's the ethics in caving with blasting a squeeze to make it wider? I know it happens to open up new systems where a gap is impassable. Is the rule that it has to be minimised (presumably logistics/expense also dictate this) and once something has been passed any blasting would be considered "chipping"?

[moose]

Caving is my nightmare activity. I absolutely hate anything squeezy. I'm long and bony - some part of me would be bound to get jammed. One of the most difficult and unpleasant things I've ever done was an off-width / squeeze chimney in Yosemite - I think it was a 5.6 i.e. around Hard Severe. I didn't really climb it - more writhed for around an hour until I got to the top - like a climbing experiment on the "Brazil nut effect" or a slightly biased random walk. Then my partner refused to second it...

[dunnyg]

I need to get back on some proper offwidths... Not sure yosemite is top of the list though, everything about them screams struggle!

I'm not that up on the ethics to be honest. From my limited understanding, yes, the ethic is to minimise any impact (bolts/chipping/tat etc.). As well as logistical issues, i'd also be wary of smacking boulders in a boulder choke too hard! I've read arguments both ways about this particular squeeze on ukcaving, but nothing has been done to it recently, and people harder and more talented (and probably thinner) than me have been through this year. My current opinion is if someone can be bothered to drag the gear down to that squeeze and put the time in, then all power to them. I'm new to the underground stuff really though, and there are plenty of people with opinions.

It also all goes out of the window in a rescue and you see widening of many things so you can fit a stretcher through, and there examples like Swan Dike pot where tight "cruxes" were widened to get people out.

[Paul B]

Caving is my nightmare activity. I absolutely hate anything squeezy. I'm long and bony - some part of me would be bound to get jammed. One of the most difficult and unpleasant things I've ever done was an off-width / squeeze chimney in Yosemite - I think it was a 5.6 i.e. around Hard Severe. I didn't really climb it - more writhed for around an hour until I got to the top - like a climbing experiment on the "Brazil nut effect" or a slightly biased random walk. Then my partner refused to second it...

I too share your opinion. The worst parts of my 2012/13 trip were the unavoidable squeeze chimney pitches. I had to remove my helmet on one and lower the majority of the rack back to Nat before hauling it on the outside of the chimney.

I had to chuckle at a wake for a climber turned caver when the cavers present had recently been on a stag do to Wales and had decided that the planned MTBing was too dangerous so had gone caving instead! This also reminds me of a conversation with a base jumper in Riglos that came over to warn us that if we heard a loud noise later that day it would be him jumping. I looked at him like he was nuts and and he then told us we were crazy trusting "those thin ropes".