Thoughts whilst ascending · AditNow Community

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Hattlebags
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

8 years ago

Does anyone else ever find themselves dangling half way up a 160 foot long rope, in a wide and seemingly endless vertical stope, above a completely collapsed level, reflecting on just how small the teeth are on your chest and hand ascenders ?

To take my mind off that thought, whilst I rested on the rope hoping to summon up the energy required to complete the climb, I looked around at the extraordinary false floors and stemples in here and tried to create a mental picture of who originally worked this huge vertical vein and how they did it.

Finally getting back to day to rest and recover in glorious sunshine was very special indeed. People who haven't visited these places will never understand why 😉

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J25GTi
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

Try to avoid stopping..... :thumbup:

I usually have a thought somewhere along the lines of why the he'll am I here and not in the pub like a normal person would be?

lozz
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

"jeeze, when I get outa here I've got to take the wife to Tesco's" :)

Lozz.

Mr Mike
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

"Hattlebags" wrote:
reflecting on just how small the teeth are on your chest and hand ascenders ?

D

All the time... + thin line of a rope heading up into a even thinner looking thread... hanging on this thin thing. Trust the gear.

Mr Mike www.mineexplorer.org.uk

Pinzgauer
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

Taking up stamp collecting suddenly has an appeal !! 😉

Who threw the overalls in Mrs Murphy''s Chowder ??

agricola
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

In my younger days, ropewalking or even running up 200ft, didn't really seem to have to time to think, it was a case of get to the top as quickly as possible. Indeed one race evening in a Cornish mine a number of us ascended at 60-80ft/min.

However in my latter years, the last time I ascended say only 50-60ft it was a case of thinking have I got the energy to get to the top and how long it might take.

PS never really worried about the ropes etc, as I was always the lightest so everyone else had tightened knots etc ;D

Going down, I always needed extra ballast to assist my descents otherwise the rope wouldn't pass through my rack lol

If it can't be grown it has to be mined.

sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

Without doubt the best point of any ascent is the point where you have climbed far enough up to have sufficient rope below you so that it's own weight tensions it, thus allowing it to run smoothly through your jammers without you having to pinch it between your feet!
There must be a word or phrase to describe that moment.... like "turning a corner" or "brow of a hill" type of thing!

Yma O Hyd....

agricola
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

"sinker" wrote:
Without doubt the best point of any ascent is the point where you have climbed far enough up to have sufficient rope below you so that it's own weight tensions it, thus allowing it to run smoothly through your jammers without you having to pinch it between your feet!
There must be a word or phrase to describe that moment.... like "turning a corner" or "brow of a hill" type of thing!

We used to tie a rope bag or bags to achieve this, but I know exactly what you mean, then if you are using a ropewalking rig everything becomes so much easier.

If it can't be grown it has to be mined.

gNick
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

Ah the sweet middle of the pitch feeling, between the annoying having to pull the rope through the Croll beginning and the fighting to get the hand jammer up the rope when it's tightly against the pitch head end, interspersed with the occasional sickening crunch as your shoulder crashes into an air pipe hook you didn't notice.
See also, 'what do you mean the rope's got snagged and I'm going to have to go all the way back down to untangle it?'

Don't look so embarrassed, it's a family trait...

Peter Burgess
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#10

I don't think you can be normal if you don't get feelings of exposure and vulnerability while attached to a long thin rope with a yuge drop below you.

Hattlebags
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

8 years ago

#11

Initially just getting back off the ground when trying to ascend a 160 ft rope is quite tricky. The stretch of a semi static that long is probably around 10ft, so taking up that stretch and finally just getting off the ground feels good. Particularly when the ground you are standing on isn't solid. After that, a pantin is a great tool, together with a Camp chest jammer, to make the rope flow well. They don't turn off gravity, but they do help.

Wormster
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#12

Halfway up a pitch:

"Will that mars bar be enough to get me through this?"

"Feck me that's a dogy bit of hanging death, didn't notice THAT on the way down!"

Or as my G/F once said:

"OOHHHH those wild boar sausages are beginning to rebel!" - Me "FFS!! get up here quick then - I don't want to be in here when you puke!"

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

Pete Monkhouse
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#13

My perpetual ascending nightmare is to be able to hear / feel / sense the rope breaking, and to just have time to grab a vertical rib of rock in a pinch grip as the end of the rope whistles through your ascenders (somehow) and plummets a couple of hundred feet to the bottom of the pitch. And then you desperately hold on to the slippery rock until you can't any more.....

Just thought I'd share that one with you 🙂

D.Send
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#14

Hi,
Lucky bluewater put braided nylon ropes on the market...ropewalking on former ulstron twisted triple-strands had you spinning like a top in not time... yeuch!
As for abseiling on hemp without descenders... it could rip the skin off your arms.
And climbing 350 foot shafts with a wet, gritty lifeline dangling around your neck was not too comfortable either.
As for waist-deep adits without wetsuits...brrr!
Those were the days...I don't regret! Long live progress underground.
D.Send.

Tamarmole
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#15

Whenever I find myself pondering mid rope I am always thankful that I rigged the pitch rather than J25GTi :tongue::tongue::tongue:

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#16

It was just that sort of mid pitch stop that had me sitting back and looking about, as you do, when I noticed my D maillon open 😮 and the connecting loop of my (Bat products) harness covering the threads :o:o:o
Oh deep and wondrous joy! :lol:

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#17

"Roy Morton" wrote:

.....I noticed my D maillon open 😮.....

:lol: We've all been there!

Yma O Hyd....

ant89
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#18

"Who talked me into doing this"
"Why am I doing this"
"At least I'm on the way out"
"Can this rope of dubious history really withstand the force of a induvidual of my size bouncing about on it? Can the equiptment?.."

JonK
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#19

Resting on the rope, whatever next!

Roy Morton
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#20

Stray goats! 😮

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"