GLENROCK SRA – 24 March 2019
Daniel B had organised a Single Rope Techniches (SRT) field day for Newcastle Hunter Speleos, so Marcia K and I (as associate members) thought we’d go along to get some SRT practice. Marcia had tried it once before, and I sort of knew what I was doing, but found out heaps that I was not doing right!
And when you think that I’d prusiked 80m out of The Big Hole, that’s kind of scary!
We started out with the basics – Marcia getting some expert instruction from Garry on prusiking.
Marcia changing from prusiking up to her descender to abseil down.
Abseiling down without incident, always a relief to touch terra firma.
The top of the cliffs, plenty of trees for anchors and an easy walk up.
Abseiling down, trying out the 4-bar rack (Photo: Garry K Smith).
Marcia trying out climbing the cave ladder, she’d had a go at Abercrombie, but it’s different when the ladder is hanging in mid air like this. (Photo: Garry K Smith)
Cathi H-H, not sure whether she’s going up or down, but she looks like she knows what she’s doing. (Photo: Garry K Smith)
Me after prusiking up the rope changing over to my descender and then abseiling down. (Photo Garry K Smith)
Me, prusiking up to the rebelay with Marcia keeping the tension on the rope for me (Photo: Garry K Smith)
Me crossing a re-belay, not sure if I was going up or down here! Whilst I’d done a re-belay before, I’d had something to stand on so didn’t have to use the SRT gear, this time though, I was hanging in mid air so had to use my foot and chest ascenders to take the weight off my second point of contact, and change my descender from one rope to the other, takes a while to get your head around it.
Me, after getting past the rebelay, definitely going up. I’ve got to practice prusiking more!
Both Marcia and I came away from the field day with a determination to get better at this whole SRT stuff. As I said, can’t believe I prusiked 80m and really didn’t know what the hell I was doing AND I had 12 other people following my lead!
Banner: Top of the pitches
Thumbnail: Marcia prusiking
Hi M, Sounds like an amazing day. Thank you for the photos!
Thanks Jen.