August 2024 – Kendal Caving Club

31 August 2024

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

There’s more to Lost Johns

John, Will, Ami & Ray

A typical evening Lost Johns trip usually involves some combination of routes down the upper series (Dome-Centipede or Monastery-Dome), but there’s so much more to the system if you venture below Dome Junction or Sink Chamber. The aim of this trip was to delve deeper. The original plan had been for a Boxhead – Death’s Head through trip, but the recent wet weather gave some cause for concern about water levels in Long Pool. So we decided to do an in and out trip via Lost Johns, but still get to see some of the master cave and Lyle Cavern.

On arrival at the lay-by up on Leck Fell, there was another party of 2 already there. The usual “Where are you going?” discussion elicited that they were also headed for Lost Johns. Thankfully they were heading to Dome, while we were planning on Centipede. From Dome Junction, however, they were planning to head deeper, which could have caused issues. How would we handle 2 independent parties on Battleaxe, for instance. I was pretty confident that we would be faster, so decided that was their problem.

We went underground at 11:00 and made swift progress down the pitches, arriving at the bottom of the last pitch at 12:10. We had budgeted for 5 hours underground, so had plenty of time to explore. At Groundsheet Junction we headed upstream, arriving before too long at the handline climb up into the bottom of Lyle Cavern. Now, to get into Lyle Cavern you leave this handline after a few feet, but Will and Ami (who were leading the way) carried on up into a crawl. Being a bit more experienced (or knackered), John and I left them to it. They came back with tales of wonderful decorations, so maybe it’s worth a look next time.

Reunited again, we all climbed up into Lyle Cavern. As we still had a bit of time, Will set off up the fixed ropes, followed by Ami and then me. John once again showed his greater experience by waiting at the bottom as we weren’t planning to be long. By the time I reached the top, Will had done some exploring and was ready to set off back down the fixed ropes. Ami was thrutching through some damp crawl below Helectite Rift, eventually climbing up into the rift beyond the miserable crawl. I chose to take the more traditional route of climbing straight up into Helectite Rift, without any need for crawling at all.

Alas, time was getting on by now, so Ami and I turned back (via our chosen routes) and headed down the fixed ropes to meet up with the others again and begin the long upward journey back to the sun. A brief stop for fun-sized Mars bars (supplied by Ami) at Groundsheet Junction was very welcome. The upward journey was again very efficient, albeit a bit slower thanks to gravity. On the way out, we bumped into the other party of 2 at Dome Junction, still on their way in! I guess we didn’t need to worry about double rigging then.

We emerged to glorious sunshine at 15:45, 15 mins ahead of schedule, feeling very satisfied indeed. Even though we saw quite a bit of the system, there’s still plenty more to go back for. We didn’t even head downstream in the master cave. And think of all those great through-trips we could do. I hope we’ll be back before long!

Photos by Will.

26 August 2024

By Tom C In Day Trips

Hell Gill

Janice, Maz, Scott, Tom – Report by Maz

There’s a Brown Girl in the Rain tra la la la la. Hell Gill to be precise

It had been raining all week. I was praying for a break. As the Bank Holiday loomed it didn’t bode well for the trip down my favourite gorge in the Eden Valley.

A slight let up on Sunday raised hopes of a trip from a definite no to maybe, just maybe.

On Monday morning , I checked the river levels. It had dropped. Just. That seemed to satisfy Tom and Scott who made the journey north into Eden. As for me and Janice, well Hell Gill is just down the road.

We met at the lay by and proceeded to check the level at the waterfall. We could hear the noise before we saw the fall and the size of the ford told us all we needed to know. It was big, brown and running very quickly indeed.

Not to be put off by the evidence in front of us, it was felt, unconvincingly that by going a kilometre upstream to the access point, we might, somehow, avoid the worst of the flow. A basic study of hydrology would show this as a flawed assumption. Still, within our party of 4 there existed degrees in Geography and Geology. And 2 more in optimism.

Rain had started falling again by the time we got to the access at the top of the gorge. It looked big, it sounded big and it felt a bit iffy.

I’m not a risk taker, so I surprised not only myself, but everyone else by announcing I’d give it a go. The shock of my statement stunned everyone into silence and after a short moment of contemplation it was Scott who wisely decided to voice the fact that indeed, the gorge looked really quite horrible.

And so we decided to turn round, the gorge having beaten us today.

Only as far as the egress point.

A greasy walk upstream into the gorge indicated the correct decision had been taken. The water was brown and surging. Peaty odours from the vegetation mingling with the roar of the white water.

This lower section of the gill is wider, lower and less intimidating. Still, on a day with a much higher than usual discharge, the infant River Eden showed she could push us about. We had to be careful on the meanders and within the sculpted gullies.

Soon the gorge became tighter, darker. The walls rearing up higher and the river became angrier, hemmed in by the limestone and violently crashing against the underwater obstacles.

After the bridge we came to our potential trip stopper. The double drop waterfall. Here in the lower plunge pool the water meandered lazily round in the undercut. Eddying against the walls, while the main flow pushed left through the arch in an impressive set of standing waves.

A discussion ensued as to the possibility of using the Tyrolean traverse in situ to bypass the falls. Tom didn’t like the anchors, Janice didn’t like the rope. Scott didn’t like either.

And that was why Tom decided to give it a go. What looked from below to be a fairly taut rope was in fact very loose indeed. To his credit, our intrepid volunteer gamely attempted a traverse only to find himself all but dunked into the main plunge pool; a turbulent frothing cauldron of horribleness.

That decided it. No going further. The return journey was completed much quicker for two reasons. Firstly we were starting to get cold and put a wriggle on. And secondly because the gorge had had enough of us and wanted us out. The fast flow meant we could lie back and enjoy the bumpy, noisy white water ride home.

We finished our trip with a nice little abseil down the side of Hell Gill Force courtesy of Scott’s rigging.

Although we hadn’t done what we’d planned this was a fun, noisy, wet and in places a little scary trip. It also taught me to recalibrate what constitutes BIG on the river level gauge.

Same again next year? Weather permitting.

21 August 2024

By Tom C In Day Trips

Shuttleworth Pot / Witches II

Dave, James, Maz, Steve, Tom

Simpsons rained off yet again 🙁 Instead we decided to head to Shuttleworth as a few haven’t been down yet, and it’s good to go in pretty much any conditions.

It was definitely a case of 5 people who really didn’t want to be out in the heavy driving rain, but not wanting to let the others down. Maz hid further up Leck Fell Lane in the fog texting and hoping (as we all were) that we’d mutually cancel, but sure enough we all congregated in the typical Lecktember weather for an uncomfortable change and a hoods-up march across the moors to the entrance.

Dave was on the rigging tonight, and quickly had the entrance pitch roped and we shimmied down. Round the corner and it was time for the 60 metre. This is awkward in places to rig over the top of the in situ rope, which has been hanging around for a couple of years now waiting to be retired from its misery, but Dave did a cracking job in getting us down the Diver’s Pitch in comfort and style.

We discarded our SRT kits and headed up the mud bank and into the pretties. It’s always a nice wander up here, with formations like volcanoes and cupcake cases and piles of green sheep shit. Upon reaching the entrance funnel into My Newt Passage, James found it impossible to resist the warnings of its difficult escape, and slithered down to claim his newty trophy. Steve and Dave were also chomping at the bit and after some token hesitation they joined him. Maz and I enjoyed watching the cardio challenge that followed, with all three choosing different but equally exhausting techniques to make their escape from the muddy funnel.

After a look at the now-powdered dog bones and the cloud of straws at Dogger Bank, we made our way back through it all to the base of the pitch. The roaring waterfall of the House of the Rising Sump had become an eerily silent sump pool in the time we’d been looking around, and we began heading out. With the exception of a toxic chemical spill in the entrance shaft all went well, and we slogged back across the moor knackered, with some getting home past midnight.

Photos by Dave

14 August 2024

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Short Gill

Tim D, Jason

As I drove up Barbondale, avoiding the loitering sheep, I could see another car a mile or so ahead, and wondered if it was Tim. Indeed it was, but I was surprised that no-one else had turned up. Probably exhausted by the Welsh mines a few days before?

We were fortunate with the weather, hitting a dry window between spells of heavy rain – fresh foam on some of the passage roofs attested to the fact that it gets very wet at times.

It lives up to its name, as we were underground less than two hours, but it has plenty of variety – some crawling, some walking, some interesting climbs (“Not as bad as it looks” was the reassuring message several times) and some pleasantly splashy sections. There are even some attractive formations. There’s only one snug section, mercifully short, and not really tight, just needing a little care to negotiate. At several points, it looks like the sump has been reached, only to find a way past, until we reached what was unquestionably the final sump.

Tim suggested I lead out, to familiarise myself with the route. I did so by finding practically every wrong turning I could, including one which led through an extra aqueous section – we didn’t follow it up, but it looked like it went – somewhere…

We were out soon enough, found an unnecessarily difficult climb out of the gill, then a hurried change to escape the ravages of the midges. A fun trip, much recommended!

11 August 2024

By Tom C In Day Trips

Mystery mine in North Wales

Chris, John, Maz, Miranda, Nic, Sophie, Tim K, Tom and the UCET team

We’d been in touch with UCET about being chaperoned round one of their systems of expertise, a massive system of mines in North Wales.

We headed down on the Saturday afternoon to our campsite at Llyn Rhys, ate, pubbed and headed back to camp for a fire with toasted marshmallows and a responsibly early night.

The next morning at the crack of dawn we de-camped ready for our painfully early 9am meet at the designated secret spot. We met up with the UCET bunch and headed off into the forest to the entrance lid.

Shortly inside the entrance we passed a teetering stack of deads and debris held up where a rockfall had happened last year. Onward through a cramped old level, passing over deep pits and collapsed false floors until we reached the first set of ladders. These were great fun, with some airy heights as you threaded back and forward through the workings, deeper into the mountain.

There was plenty to see along the way, and finally we popped out in the side of a tall stope, with solid modern ladders heading one after another into the depths. With these behind us, a short walk led into muddy passage and we popped out into the main adit.

After a quick break for drinks and snacks, we stomped on downstream in the main passage, with its railway running beside a deep and fast-flowing river. The extent of this place was huge, and we walked for miles along the ‘floating railway’, stopping off at various engineering workshops, pump houses and sidings along the way.

Eventually we headed up a branch tunnel bringing in a heck of lot of water, past chambers used for storing the UK’s TNT arsenal during WW2, and up to a vast natural cavern. A deep lake filled one side of this, and when the depth of the chamber below water is added to the soaring ceiling, this makes it a contender for the UK’s largest underground cavern.

A quick bit of lunch then we split up, with John, Miranda and Chris starting the treck back out, and the rest of us continuing to some more modern and seriously big workings, complete with mechanical shovels and carts scattered around the huge tunnels.

On our way out we stopped at another couple of lodes along the way for more scratting around, before the trudge back up the tunnel to the junction where our entrance joined, and the start of the long ladder climb back out. nearly 9 hours underground, covering over 10 miles, and a pint at the local with our hosts went down a real treat. Thanks UCET!

7 August 2024

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Sell Gill Holes Exchange

Will, Tim K, Tom, Jason, Helen & Ray

We seem to have done the dry route in Sell Gill rather a lot in recent years, but it has always been too wet for the Goblin (wet) route. This time, however, there was a chance of Goblin being dry enough… at least until some heavy rain over the previous 2 days. So we really didn’t know if the exchange was on or not until we got up there. As it turned out, there was no need to worry – while it wasn’t completely dry, the stream sinking at the wet entrance was very low. So it was all systems go for a fun, short exchange. I have to say, I was really looking forward to a straightforward stress-free trip after the shenanigans in Voldemort last week.

The first order of the day was deciding who was going in which way. It had already been decided that Will was going to rig the dry route, while I would rig Goblin. Most people seemed to prefer to descend Goblin, so Helen, Tom & Tim followed me, while Jason followed Will.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever done Goblin before. If so, it was so long ago that I have no memory of it. So, either way, it was essentially a new route for me. And what a great route it is! The initial climb down into the entrance is “entertainingly” slippy, so a short (10m) rope was useful. After that it’s a short easy walk to the head of the pitch. The fun starts with a traverse round to the left into a short oxbow, leading to a y-hang just out of view round the corner. Then it’s a short (5 or 6m) drop down with the water – this would be miserable in higher water – to an entertaining bit where you have to post yourself through a letterbox into a short crawl. While it had all been fun to this point, my sense of homour was tested when the tackle sack refused to follow me into the crawl, necessitating a feet-first reversing manoeuvre back out towards the drop to free it.

At the end of the crawl is a short climb down to a ledge from which the next drop is rigged from a y-hang well out over the shaft. While teetering out to rig this y-hang, I was most perturbed to find Helen pulling the rope to which I was attached. Not that Helen did anything wrong. There was an intermediate anchor between us, but even the small rope movements transferred to me were nearly enough to pull me off my perch. Apologies for barking at you Helen. The happy voices behind suggested that the rest of the team were making light work of the SRT behind me.

After the next drop is a humungous y-hang – exactly my sort of thing. Then there are just 2 single-anchor rebelays to reach the bottom. As I was rigging these, I could hear Will & Jason on the other route. Will won the race to the bottom (if there was one) and I landed about the same time as Jason. Perfect timing. The others made short work of bottoming Goblin. Prior to descending, Tom had announced that this route was his nemesis, due to a bad experience shortly after he had started caving. Well, times have certainly changed. He smashed it on this occasion.

With a bit of time on their hands while the rest of team Goblin touched down, Will & Jason went for a bit of an explore. After a while, Will came back, but not Jason. He must have gone exploring in the downstream crawl. So we sat around and chatted for a while. Eventually Helen started making her way out the dry way. A while later, I started up Goblin. Still no sign of Jason. Then Will, Tim & Tom went looking for him. Tom even got as far as starting the miserable crawl, reporting that Jason was coming back just in time to save Will & Tim from a similar fate. Apparently Jason had been all the way through to the elusive final pitch. Good effort!

Tim & Jason made their way out the dry way, followed by Tom derigging. Will followed me up Goblin to derig that. Considering Will hasn’t been caving for long, he made short work of it. He did say it was the first time he’d derigged a route he hadn’t previously descended, which made it a particularly interesting experience. There is a great vantage point, perched at the top of the shaft, just beyond the short oxbow. I waited there and got some great views of Will reversing out of the letterbox and derigging the top y-hang. If only I’d had a camera!

We emerged to find Tom, Tim & Jason waiting for us on the surface. I presume they hadn’t been there long. A decamp to the Helwith Bridge was called for. This rounded off a near-perfect evening. I will definitely be back to Goblin before long. It is an absolutely stunning route. Such a lot of interesting and varied SRT packed into a single pitch.

Photos by Will.

4 August 2024

By Tom C In Day Trips

Fisher Place Gill (Canyoning)

Dave, Sophie, Steve, Tom

Not quite the refreshing summer-scorcher splash around that we’d been hoping for, it was a drizzly 18 degree day when we met at 3pm for a later than usual trip.

Got in about 2 pitches from the top to avoid any more steep hiking, but still caught all the good ones. There was a decent amount of flow in the ghyll so we got a good dousing on the waterfalls, getting a bit chilly and drafty waiting in the pool in the middle of the double drop.

By the time we reached the social media Infinity Pool, we had a real audience for the big pressure washer pitch, presumably hoping to witness a repeat of yesterday’s accident where a tourist had fallen the full height of the waterfall.

We started leapfrog rigging the last set of pitches with them all being quite short, and with body temperatures dropping. We clambered out and legged it downhill for a change and a pint with chips (and a dessert of crisps) at the Kings Head at Thirlspot.

Month: August 2024