Alum Pot - Long Churn Dolly Tubs Exchange

Sunday August 18th 2013

Members present: Jonathan Booth,  Matt Gosling,  Toby Buxton

A good trip. On approaching the churns we noticed that water levels were high. The forecasts were uncertain and contradictory but the sky looked ok. To be on the safe side, while the others did the usual Dolly Tubs route I rigged the direct route into Alum in case the weather worsened. Standing on the 6 inch ledge above the rebelay I say a broken spectre (your own shadow surrounded by a rainbow halo) on the south wall of the shaft. This made my day as they're meant to be once in a lifetime occurences (although I've seen two already) which are only usually seen in the mountains in winter. The view was amazing, a lot of water was going down the north gully of the shaft and a column of spray and steam rose gently into the air and highlighted teh sunbeams coming in through the trees. I waited for the others to appear on the balcony ledge before I made my descent. Abbing down to just below the ledge I threw the end of the rope to Matt who joined it to the traverse line and pulled me in, a fun way to get down Alum. Our flood escape route meant that we didnt have the rope to get to the bottom so we crossed the rock bridge before turning back. Toby went up the direct route while I joined Matt and David on the way out of Dolly Tubs.