THE HEATON DYKE FLYING CIRCUS - Roger Dyke
By Roger Dyke
I gather stories about this have done the rounds, so I thought those who have only heard 3rd hand [wake up in Vancouver there!] might like to know what really happened at Nether Tor?.
Rucksac is only S, but fortunately overhanging. I put my 2nd piece of gear, a Rock 5, in about ¾ the way up, and then a Rockcentric 4 on the other rope just above it, immediately below the little overhang at the top. I was feeling stressed at the time, and was not too careful about the run of the ropes. I swung up over the overhang with no problem, but things were starting to drag and Martin & Neville called to me to go back and sort the ropes. Reversing my last move seemed a bit impractical; I was on the last move of the route and not in a restful place, so I ignored them and started to move up against the drag. It needed a lot of push. Next I knew I was going down the crag head first. Air and rock rushing past and all that. I hit Martin, who was belaying me, and sent his helmet flying. Fortunately he didn't let go. My own helmet hit the side of a boulder and my fingers hit the ground, breaking a couple of fingernails. A bit close, that. The top runner came down the rope after me, a bit the worse for wear.
Great advert for A having an ace belayer, and B wearing a helmet.
There really shouldn't have been a problem in the first place, because I went back up, put a Friend with good extension below the little overhang, had no drag at all, and using the hidden foothold that Wavey now told me about, topped out with ease. Then twisted my ankle walking down.
My own rope had been thro the top runner, and was permanently stretched a couple of feet before the Rockcentric had popped: Neville's had taken most of the strain, had 4 ft of permanent stretch, and had the pattern on the sheath smudged for a few inches where it had melted going thro the krab of the Rock 5. He has converted it into several shorter lengths, and produced in its place a black horror that he claims is indestructible. I'm working on that, but it feels like it has a steel core.
Neville reckons I had somehow got the ropes and krabs into a freak configuration that worked like a karabiner brake. We tried to reproduce it in Cheshire the following weekend, but failed. It was difficult without being back at the actual route. To give Martin more practice at flight control, I also fell off the next route we did at Nether Tor: another S, but a bit mucky. I ran out of steam while cleaning the crux and knew I was coming off; the top runner held, so did Martin, and there was no problem.
Five weeks later, on a sunny Monday at Stanage, after Martin & I had knocked off several HS's I decided to have a go at Via Media [VS 4c, on Rusty Wall]. Alley appeared. A few years ago, at the Roaches on his birthday, he told me that the way other people make New Year Resolutions, he had made a Birthday Resolution: now he was 70, he wasn't going to solo anything harder than E1. Before I set off up Via Media he told us he had just soloed that, and it was very polished. Then he stayed to watch the fun. He knows my (in)ability. The first time I came off my feet just touched the ground gently. The second time I was higher up with more gear and Martin was able to keep me in the air altogether. I thought "We've really got this flying business cracked now". Alley called something about the next bit being easier and less polished and wandered off chuckling. He was right, and I finished it OK. Then Martin came up and lost most of his newly-acquired Brownie Points by saying "Can't think why you kept coming off that - it wasn't hard.".
A big Thank You to Martin - he did a grand job on all 4 occasions, especially as the only time he had any warning was during the gardening - the other 3 times I had no idea myself I was about to peel. Which is the one thing that worries me about this.
