New anchors and chains for Simpson and Swinsto
Back in 2023, work was performed to improve the anchors in Swinsto Hole in Kingsdale. This pot was originally anchored in the 1990s with only limited consideration given to ensuring the placements were fit for pull-through trips to Valley Entrance, which today accounts for a large number of visitors. Since then, several anchors had been reported to be loose or defective in some way, particularly owing to resin shrinkage.
Reports of stuck ropes in Swinsto, and adjoining Simpson Pot were frequent, and at several pitches various ‘tat’ had proliferated where groups had tried to used slings or ropes to compensate for the poor pull-through provisions.
The work aimed to replace defective anchors and reposition others to make them more suitably positioned and angled for both hard rigging and pull-through trips, and remove the unsafe and abandoned tat.
With work complete by the end of the year, attention for 2024 then turned to Simpson Pot, with the same aims.
Simpson Pot has a long final descent to join Swinsto Hole, which may be tacked by a choice of three pitches:
- Slit Pot (traditional tight pitch)
- Slit Pot overhead/alternative
- Swinsto Great Aven
At each of these three pitches, our installer felt that pull-through using the anchors was less desirable. With these being longer pitches, the risks of the rope snagging, rubbing or having too much friction was higher. A better option would be chains spanning two anchors with a central belay ring, as used in some other regions for pull-throughs.
The CNCC has never supported chains as a fixed installation in a cave, so this and needed some discussion at our October 2024 Committee meeting. Ahead of this we also raised a discussion on UKCaving, which attracted participation from at least 100 cavers. Despite passionate arguements for and against, this discussion and the Committee meeting were very friendly and well-informed. We're delighted with how this engagement with the caving community went. There was strong majority support for the installations, and some good points to consider.
Working with a few individuals who had expressed concerns, the design of the chain system was amended, from a single central ring (which would be a single point of failure during the descent) to a double-maillon, with the entire system being stainless steel and appropriately rated.
The chains were installed in the w/c 14th April, and we have added some information to our rigging topos for both pots, which is intended to provide recommendations but is not a substitute for experience and knowledge.
The chains span two anchors and have two central maillons through which the rope should be passed to ensure no single point of failure. The anchors have one higher than the other and are well-angled so that the most efficient pull-through is achieved from the anchor closest to the approach. See the image in this article.
Thank you for all your engagement… we now look forward to caver feedback on the end result.