4th July 2008
People present - Rob Santus, Pete Dale

Weather - mainly sunny and warm

Trip time - 3½ hours

The weather allowed us a window for a quick trip to Knacker Trapper (my last trip -  5 days for baby's due date). I had to ascend part way up Park Fell to get a phone reception to check that my wife hadn't gone into labour before we descended.

The entrance is a small barrel, leading to crawling and rifts to the first pitch (awkward with tackle). This pitch is a free climb, followed by the second pitch (4 metres). We handlined this for the way out. Straight after this is Bosch Rift which looks harder than it is (as per usual). Floor level crawling is followed by a squeeze, then a further sideways shuffle up a diagonal rift to a sharp right hand bend. The key here is to face the right hand wall, but Pete decided to throw all conventional wisdom out the window and face the left hand side. Trouble was, he totally shagged himself out trying to turn this way and that, eventually getting round the bend, sweating profusely.

After a little rest, we carried on the short distance to the 3rd pitch. We didn't like the rigging flake that much, so i looked around for an alternative. I touched a large rock wedged overhead, which then just collapsed like an avalanche, clipping the right side of my helmet and my right knee. No real damage was done, but it could have been a lot worse. Why the rock was postioned there, God only knows because it was very precarious and could really have fallen at any time. Well this really did for Pete, who decided enough was enough and called it a day at that point. So taking over the mantle of 'Cavegod', i rigged the pitch (with another rope because the massive rock had damaged the other one) and went down, bidding farewell to Pete. Armed with the NFTFH guide and only 2 ropes for 4 pitches off I headed to University Challenge.

The rigging here baffled Pete on a previous visit, but there is an ominous looking flake to rig off (all 1 anchor stuff in here). Here onwards is a massive rift all the way, with traversing and climbing being the order of the day. If you don't like free climbing, then don't come here. The 5th pitch is soon reached and rigged off a massive knob of rock, followed again by traversing in the rift. The 6th pitch can be bypassed, involving a careful traverse down to the left and climbing down an obvious route to the rift continuation. Again more rift, with another climb down to stream level brings you to the 7th pitch. This should be rigged off an obvious knob of rock, but as i didn't have a rope, I decided to free climb it, following the water (without SRT gear as it was tight). If I couldn't get out again I was buggered, but I thought 'what the hell', I'll go anyway. Slipping down was like the collar in Hangmans (Executioner), but it was only 4 metres thankfully. A short distance from the bottom I arrived at the sump (horrible looking) and quickly turned back.

I thrutched back up the 7th pitch, re-kitted and headed out. With a pretty heavy kit bag containing 4 ropes and an SRT kit I arrived back at Bosch rift. This isn't really a problem, but lugging tackle through makes it awkward. Back through the entrance crawls/rifts, I soon saw daylight and Pete was there to meet and greet and haul my tackle sack out. He also proclaimed that Bosch Rift was easy on the exit, which begs the question, why did he make it look so difficult on the way in.

On the walk back down the hill, we had a quick recce to Hardrawkin for Pete and then a quick change (with 3 young ladies bizarrely standing next to us watching our bare arses). I had a lovely pint of Dent Aviator, courtesy of Pete, in the Hill Inn to reflect on a good afternoon's activity. 

Rob Santus