Month: December 2024

By Scott Nixon In Day Trips

Cape Kennedy, Lancaster Hole

Jason, James, Connor, Scott 

Cape Kennedy is one of those bits of Easegill that I’ve been meaning to go and see for ages. The photos promise abundant straws, towering columns and even (hushed tones) a calcited bat skeleton. But more of that later.
It was a bit drizzly on the way to Lancaster Hole, but Connor made short work of rigging the pitch, and soon we were following the familiar route to Montague East. Some scruffy abseils took us all down the Stake Pot slope, and we were quickly reunited at the top. Here, instead of following the large open tunnel towards Bob’s Boss, we turned right into the smaller passages of The Rabbit Warren.
The next hour or so involves a bit of route finding, but nothing too difficult. The description from NFTFH is great for this, with just the right amount of detail. We followed sandy passages, traversed a narrow rift, ascended an old ladder at Canuck Climb, and then followed a series of larger chambers – Breakthrough, Bridge and Brew respectively. At some point we managed to bypass The Pit completely by keeping left, which is worth remembering for future forays.
At the Long Gallery the way on is through a narrow gap to the left, which leads to some higher traversing as a canyon develops below. We climbed down into Rat Pit Chamber, where there are some impressive calcite curtains. The last time Connor and I were here, we had turned left after this chamber to drop the 88 Foot Pitch, but this time we kept right and followed a small stream to Maple Leaf Junction. A bedding crawl to the left passes a crystal pool, and then a slit in the roof leads up a boulder slope into Cape Kennedy.
This chamber is really something to see, with stalagmites and some taller formations which wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Colonnades. After some photography we moved on to Fire Hydrant Chamber, where we began a fruitless search for the preserved bat skeleton. No sign! A bit of reading later confirmed that the bat is within the calcite of the actual Fire Hydrant formation, but we certainly struggled to find it.
The next chamber up is densely hung with straws, and is certainly worth a look. Perhaps still with bats on his mind, Connor suggested viewing it upside down, and it was indeed pretty surreal.
Jason led the way back through the decorated sections and, just as were were leaving Cape Kennedy, Connor spotted an actual living bat in a small alcove on the wall. Did it come from Link Pot, Lancaster Hole, or some undiscovered fissure in the roof? Anyway, this discovery went some way towards easing the anguish of not finding its celebrated, crunchy ancestor.
Back we went through the EPC ’71 Series, with all of its twists and turns. James found an alternative rift climb above Rat Pit Chamber, and later Jason found a way over an awkward muddy squeeze in Brew Chamber by climbing up a dripping crack onto a ledge and following it. Eventually we ended up at Stake Pot again, though Jason may have Explored Caverns Measureless To Man for a bit while the rest of us got our harnesses back on.
I was quite keen to take the stream route back to the Fall Pot boulders, but after climbing down to water level it quickly became apparent that the stream was having a bit too much fun with itself today, so we retraced our muddy steps along Montague East. Whilst there are some obvious pits in the floor in this passage, I’d never before noticed a small gap between two boulders. It drew my eyes, then my torch… It turns out that the floor of Montague East is very thin indeed in places, and the void below quite large…:)
I had the rare treat of being first up the Lancaster Hole entrance pitch, pleading a full bladder (must remember this for next time!). Jason set off back to the cars while James did a great job of derigging. It was good to be back on the surface after 6 hours underground, and the walk back must have been pleasant because Jason even found some time to Explore Moors Measureless To Man on the way.
Thanks to James, Jason and Connor for yet another grand day out!

Photos courtesy of Jason

 

By Tom C In Day Trips

Rowten Pot

Dave, James, Louie, Maz, Scott, Steve, Tom – Report by Steve

Loaded up with around 250M of rope, all the krabs from the hut and a few emergency maillons, we set off up the hill.

Ray’s sales pitch for the trip and other peoples previous recollections meant the Eyehole route was discounted fairly early on in the walk up to the entrance so we set off for the Big Gully route.

After the little rain we’d had, the entrance was rather noisy and we were surprised to find a bit of water around but not enough to put us off.

Managed the slippery first pitch down with a 50m to cross the water and crouch in the shelter of the overhang to keep out of the water running off the far wall. This was a good theory, but only served to allow the water running off the wall to go straight down the back of your neck.  The spray from the waterfall in front making sure your legs, arms and front were not left out resulting in a rather damp draughty start.

A swap of riggers took place as I was struggling to find the entrance pitch bolts without my contacts in!  Tom took us down into streamway across a long deep ish  puddle that was easy enough to avoid. The two small slings were just about right for the deviation.

In the confines of the rift we swapped riggers back again and proceeded towards the main shaft. With my limited views down the main shaft due to the darkness and lack of contact lenses I was not too concerned. Dave & Tom then started eroding my confidence by adding sound effects suggesting the view was not a bit daunting, however onward we went.

With more spray from the main waterfall to keep an eye on, good progress was made straight past the bolts for the re-belay traverse. A quick changeover and I was soon back up after a 10m detour. The traverse seemed to take ages with multiple rebelays most requiring adjusting to make sure the loop was long enough but eventually reached the bottom of the main shaft with Dave not far behind.

The way down at the bottom of this route looked dry & OK as opposed to plenty of spray on the opposite side if heading for the direct route. However, it was immaterial as an earlier decision was made in a moment of weakness to leave the final bag of ropes, so we had reached the end of our trip.

Over a boiled sweet and a quick look around we found that we were on our own, so began the ascent. It seemed to go very well, the rebelay working OK and Dave methodically de-rigging the whole lot, even the bag hauling didn’t seem too bad. We were soon in sight of the entrance pitches.

A swing on the rope across the long deepish streamway puddle, resulted in a wet arse which at this point was probably the only dry bit left.

Tom’s light shining down the final pitch was welcoming, as was the full team stood waiting at the top. Another round of boiled sweets or rock hard toffees and that was it, back to the cars.

Another good trip in my view, cold and wet enough for me to re-think doing Crystal next week (TBC) but not too cold to stop us having a good trip. A bit of something for everyone.

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By Ami S In Day Trips

Small Mammal to Gaping Gill Main Chamber

Sophie, Darren, Scott, Jasmine, Jason, Pete and Ami (report by Ami, pics by Darren)

After nearly cancelling the Christmas party due to small numbers, seven intrepid travellers met in Clapham in the middle of storm Darragh ready to take on a big trip before the more traditional pub-based evening do.

Setting off for the long walk-in in high winds drew even more quizzical (or downright horrified) looks than usual from passers-by, especially the families visiting Ingleborough show cave to see Father Christmas. Between loo stops and cold we didn’t arrive at Small Mammal until 1pm, and couldn’t wait to get inside out of the wind.

We huddled in the tiny entrance way while Sophie (PHD) rigged the rather exposed first pitch. After this we referred to the description, as Scott had not been able to find the way on in a previous trip, and no surprise why! The cave provided some fun combos of scrambling and extremely tight bits which certainly didn’t look like promising routes at first glance.

Thanks to Scott we found our way to the greasy slab without too much trouble, passing a spectacular rock bridge and joining the Bar Pot route. We decided on the Direct route down, which was one of the most impressive pitches I have done for a while, despite the especially slippery rope. Darren and Jason aced some cave photography whilst waiting at the bottom.

After this was a short and soggy traverse, then a LOT of crawling, but the chilly draft both kept us moving and told us we were nearly there.

Entering into the main chamber for the first time was even more spectacular than I expected, with huge falls roaring from the storm on the surface, making the light above dim and blue and extremely atmospheric. We had a good explore and stopped for pictures, as well as testing a slot in the west wall that seemed to lead down a promising rift (another time perhaps).

We then settled on the western boulder slope for our Christmas treats. Sophie spoiled us with mince pies and HOT mulled wine! We could have stayed longer, but conscious our booking at the pub was coming up fast, we headed out in record time. Special shout out to Jasmine who took huge drops, exposed pitch heads and tiny crawls in her stride on her first trip of this size!

Only thirty minutes late to the pub we found Ray, Miranda and John waiting for us (a few pints in, suggesting at least that they weren’t expecting to have to come and rescue us) and enjoyed a lovely Christmas meal, with cave-based crackers provided by Jason. Some members then stayed at the Craven hut to complete the Christmas do. Amazing day, and huge thanks to Sophie for organising it all! I’m very grateful to have joined such a lovely club.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Yordas Pot

James, Steve

With enough rope to rig everything we set off into the bottom entrance to have a look, just because you can.

The rain of the afternoon / evening was not having much effect but there was a reasonable amount coming down the chapter house pitch.

A scramble up the slippery stream bed, soon found us at the top entrance. We’d decided to not do a pull through as it was forecast more rain and it had been a while since either of us had been in. Indeed the tree across the top that I last used to go down was obviously long gone.

The first pitch down with deviation was straightforward, so it was just a case of follow the water and there was enough of it to get a full soaking with either your chin or an ear in the water from the start.

A quick look up to the middle entrance we were soon into rigging the chapter house pitch. It seemed to take a while and neither of us warmed up in the process. The deviation provided a bit of frustrating excitement but the water was avoided.

By this time we were fairly cold so logically we decided to split up with Steve going back up the pitch and James walking round to rig down the middle entrance so we could both avoid the wet crawl in reverse. What could go wrong ?

Nothing as it happens, and with impeccable timing we met at the middle entrance and quickly exited. Whilst James was de-rigging the middle entrance Steve nipped down the top pitch to retrieve the krab off the deviation, do a change over and exit out of the top pitch. With more good timing we both met at the top finally warming up after a bit of exercise.

James birthday finished off in style on a wet night in Kingsdale. Wet but clean kit returned to the hut and that was it.