I remember this being very wet, the flat out crawl into the mainstream was okay downstream, but upstream I remember it being really scarey and the water flowing overme as I struggled through the crawl to reach the pitch.
I wrote at the time: Originally we had acquired a permit for White Scar Caves, however the rain put a stop for that
so the the plan was to do Rift but after reading a description that the crawl became impassable when there is just moderate rain and considering the considerable amount of rain falling and forecasted to fall we decided it was probably a
bad idea.
Ideas were shot around and each in turn was shot down for a different reasons so eventually we settled down on Yordas, rather then doing a through trip we decided a down and up trip would be better rather then a through trip to
make the trip a little longer. (We also didn’t want to risk a pull through in-case water made things
impassable). We took a 25 and 35 metres rope as the pitches were only small where the first pitch
was around 20 metres and the second was a little smaller then that (We had a longer rope but it was
decided we wouldn’t need it).
We set off up to Kingsdale and as soon as we parked up, the heavens opened none of us felt like
leaving the protection of the boots of our cars. But we managed to pluck up the will to enter the
rain. We first popped into the old show cave bottom entrance to see if the trip was even possible.
The roar in there was tremendous and the amount of water coming down the waterfall was like an
avalanche. We saw a deviation above us to avoid the waterfall so we decided to give it a go. We left
the old Show Cave and climbed up the hill to the upper entrance to start the trip proper. The first
pitch was passed with ease and the deviation was of course used which is well placed so you can
wedge yourself in as you pass it. Landing in the washing machine of the lower chamber Chris and
me waited for the others.
Chris went off to rig the next pitch down stream while I waited for Roz & Mike to descend. With
everyone safely down we went through the crawl though there wasn’t much crawling as the amount
of water pushed us down the passage all we had to do was float. We had to traverse the last bit once
the roof got higher for fear of being washed over the pitch.
Mike went to help Chris rig the traverse, there was many anchor points to rig much more then we
thought and after the 6th or 7th anchor was rigged on the traverse, the realisation was made that the
35 metre rope wasn't going to make it all the way down the pitch. So Mike de-rigged again and we
had to turn back.
Going back through the crawl was a lot harder than it was going downstream, especially towards
the end where as you try to push through the last bit of crawl which is quite flat-out the water rushes
over your head. Very disconcerting I was completely under water for about 10 seconds as my chest
ascender decided to jam on the rock. With a tremendous push I pushed my way out and popped out
at the bottom of the pitch.
We all got up the pitch again with no trouble and I did my first little bit of de-rigging (I de-rigged
the deviation) and I didn’t drop the crab despite how cold my hands were.
All out we headed off to the pub after our attempt with the view to try the traverse again some time
when it was a bit dryer and of course bring the longer rope down the cave.
