EASE GILL TRAVERSE

The classic traverse from Top Sink to Pippikin Pot through Northern England's pre-eminent cave system.


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From Andy Rumming (DSS) - 9/7/08
After buying the NFTFH book, three of us from Devon Speleological Society (plus one from Chelsea SS) decided to have a go at the full Ease Gill Traverse. We had done various trips in the system before but nothing beyond Link. We rigged Pip on the Friday and found the location instructions great. We soon dropped down to two people as the squeeze above the Second Pitch put my mate and his wife off. Tom and myself carried on and particularly enjoyed the stemple tricks above the Fourth Pitch. We did it feet first, but apparently head first is best so we've been told! Taking SRT kit off for every pitch was a bit tiresome, but for me that was the only option. The rope lengths were spot on and the rigging info, even though we thought it was a bit minimal on the surface, turned out to be fine. We exited via Mistral in 3 hours 45 to find our mates had rigged Link and Echo Aven and deposited a picnic at the base of Echo Aven. On the Saturday three of us started the full traverse (one out due to injury). We took two 9mm ropes (25m & 27m), each in a small bag for the pull throughs which worked a treat. I thought the description of Bradshaw's Passage to Bridge of Sighs was very easy to follow and better than the previous route I had used. We had a faff getting down into the Assembly Hall, but actually the description is right, it's an easy free climb. The Stake Pot description was also clear and straight forward and a little different to the way I went previously. Even though our rope was at least 3m shorter than the 55m recommended, we bottomed the 88ft Pitch with rope to spare (thankfully). The Wormway was great as ever and we were then quickly on to the picnic and up Echo Aven where we dropped all spare kit into bags and tied them onto the bottom of the Link rope to haul up later. The next section was completely new and again a good description. Simon exited via Mistral whilst Tom and I went up Pip which wasn't as bad as we had thought. Handling bags entailed a bit of pre-planning through the squeezes and next time I would use fewer bigger bags in Pip. Overall the trip took 9 hours 15 and went very smoothly. Next time we are going to take in the main streamway. Overall from a sport caving point of view NFTFH handed everything to us on a plate! This is very helpful when travelling up from a long way off (Exeter) for a single weekend. I found the description spot on, enough detail to know where you are, but not too much. I also feel 'calibrated' in that I think I now know what the descriptions mean by "exposed" and "squeeze". I also notice the word "tight" doesn't feature in the Pip description …