A quick write-up on the Marble Steps trip earlier this year where Andy, Ian, Alasdair and I went down Marble Steps on Leck Fell, North Yorkshire
We got to the cave entrance just before 11am and Alasdair started by rigging the opening pitches of the Gully Route which we were all going down
I followed down and I spotted a bat hanging on a flake. I don't think anyone disturbed his/her snooze
We continued down the main chamber and into Stink Pot where we split up. Andy & Ian going down the Ninety, Alasdair and I going down the Intestines.
On my previous trip in 2015 I'd come up the Intestines and de-rigged it, remembering a particularly interesting position hanging over the pitch-head; questioning my life-choices up that point; wondering what my non-caving friends & family would think if they saw me at that moment! With this memory in mind, I wanted to rig it to see if it was as interesting as I remembered it
It was.
There aren't any pictures of the odd contortions I had to do to rig the pitch, but I eventually figured out it was a blind feet first over the pitch head
Alasdair and I eventually got to the bottom, and didn't find Andy or Ian (they said they might wait for us). We crawled to the bottom of the Ninety and found no Andy, no Ian, and no rope. They'd gone back, which made us sad...
...but we did get to the bottom, which made us happy
What it did mean was we had to go back up the Intestines! Alasdair offered to de-rig so we both got some crazy technical caving done that day.
We found Andy near the Gully route. They hadn't quite made it to the bottom as the rope length was too short which was unfortunate. By the time we got to the surface (around 5pm) Ian had already made his way out and headed down to the cars, so just the 3 of us for the end-of-day shot
