UKC

I'm going to try and descend Piers Gill.

Has anybody been up/down it?

What should I expect?

Piers Gill (MS)

Even from the accounts on the climbs log here you can get quite a vivid sense of what the experience might be like, with assorted bits of gear and possibly dead bodies of various species decorating the Gill.  Worth bearing in  mind the tale told by Gwen Moffat of Mr Crump (happily appropriate name) who fell into the Gill in June 1921.  With an injured leg, he was unable to extract himself and survived on water alone for 20 days till quite fortuitously a descending party came across him and extricated him.

Have fun.

Never been down or up it but i have been told about it from someone who has climbed up it, apparently its grim with very limited options for belays, I believe the words "every man for himself" was used to describe the upper parts of the Gill. 

Its also a notorious accident black spot as people tend to fall down it from the path above. 

Been up first bit and tried to escape below the pitch as didn't have a rope. The vertical grass was probably worse than the pitch.

I can second that!!! You would need a period of dry weather as I’ve seen the amount of water flowing from it when it’s been bucketing down and you wouldn’t want to go anywhere near it. Definitely want to do it with ropes and rack in the future. Hope this helps 

We did this route Pilgrims Progress (VD) . The reason was it is apparently the longest climb in England, how true that is I do not care.
It was a great Esoteric day out with a mate, but there was more walking and scrambling than climbing.
At one point on a belay someone walked past us, so its not exactly inescapable.

We did see a walker try and descend as we climbed up, and as its a know MRT blackspot we thought we maybe about to be involved in a rescue.
Apparently walkers keep dropping down ledges, until they get to a point they cannot drop down any further, BUT they then find they cannot climb back up. There is a story of some bloke being stuck there for a week or something, living off a packet of buscuits IIRC.

I'm very interested in this. I've always been strangely compelled to enter this particular rift. Not sure why, I'm no gully afficiando.

I'm starting to change my mind about this endeavour