Devil’s Hole VR Practice

It has been a while since we touched the lightweight gear so this practice was welcome! 

We set off to Devil’s Hole: the first challenge was finding the anchor… We headed off in the general direction, walked around a pagoda (a bit dodgy so a handline was installed). Eventually we reached some old rusty but solid chains. I was the first one to abseil and the Devil did his deeds! I descended to a small ledge: the ropes were definitively not on the ground but I could not see how far! A 60 m rope was installed at the top and I transferred to it and descended to the chockstone.: the ropes had been five metre short! 

To make a long story short, the first anchor was re-rigged with two joined 60 m ropes (we have to abseil on two ropes). The next abseiler brought a 30 m rope down. The joined two 60 m did not reach the bottom of Devil’s Hole – thanks to the tourists for letting us know! However the 30 m rope did from the chockstone anchor! We waited for the third abseiler to bring the second 30 m rope and two of us left the crowded chockstone. To add insult to injury, the two 60 m ropes got stuck: eventually everybody and all the ropes made it to the bottom! 

We left the Devil to its devices and went to Wall of Africa. By that time the wind had picked up: the ropes were flying… We lowered the first abseiler and then we all abseiled down: no problem! As none of us had done Out of Africa, we decided to give it a go. This time we used some releasable anchors using a Munter hitch and we all descended with no further problems!

A few lessons were learnt! And it was an enjoyable day and we all agreed that we should do it again!