Team: Sam P, Jim T
With an impending Eldon monthly meet and more bodies than you could shake a stick at, I decided it was time Sam took a look at the magnificent east side of Cussey, through Timewarp and into Rocky Horror whilst the Awesome lot went to have a chat between Black Draught and RAT.
This direction was my first taste of the cave, and although, having just returned from a lengthy hiatus, I found it really hard and the squeezes desperate, I’d been absolutely mesmerised by the scale of the place with clean washed walls adorned everywhere with antlers of chert. Progress had been slow as I had to remove and re-don my SRT kit every time the going got a tad snug.
This time there was no such faff. We shot downwards and were soon at the vertical squeeze above the NCA pitch. I slid through, SRT kit and all, and soon enough I was once again admiring Timewarp. It felt a lot smaller than last time but nonetheless I was still in love with the ambience of the space. Sam joined me and we had no trouble finding the way down over a big hole thanks to Jon’s description of the route before we parted ways.
A big stretch is needed to get on the Rocky Horror rope but it’s easy enough and I headed down. Sam went first through the squeeze into Gloom Room and I followed, finding it really rather awkward so progress was incremental to say the least. Before I committed to the final push Sam announced how filthy the remainder was and started on his return. Slightly relieved I squirmed back out.
Climbing back over the big hole provided a heart stopping moment when I carelessly used a chert nodule as a foothold and it immediately detached itself in protest. I managed to hold myself up, arms at an angle they shouldn’t really be at, and get my dangling legs onto something more suitable for feet.
Jon caught us at the entrance pitch and seemed to freeclimb it in the time it took to get my jammers off the rope and out of the hatch, although hatch egress may have been longer than necessary as he was ‘hilariously’ hanging off my footloop. The gimp.
