Juniper Gulf
Will, Sophie, Gareth, Tom, Pete, Helen, Maz, Steve
Giants/Snelslow
Scott, Will – Report by Will
A last minute day off meant we sadly had low numbers on this trip to the Peak District, however with two caves on our radar, both of which requiring SRT and relatively new territory to us both meant we were suitably occupied throughout.
An early start meant we avoided most of the South-bound M6 congestion and found ourselves at Peakshill Farm just after 9am ready for a quick snack and kitting up. One other caver was awaiting his team for the day and their plan was to tackle Snelslow Swallet (one of the two we were there for!) in the morning and be out by dinner, which worked perfectly as we knew that even if they were a novice team moving slowly, they would certainly be out or well on the way out by the time we were going in. Giants Hole was the first on our list then, and we now knew we’d beaten everyone and had the place to ourselves. Both of us had been in previously, however Scott just the once to complete the through/round trip that’s available in there and myself for a couple of cave leader courses. This meant that neither of us had really had the opportunity to ‘explore’ and so that was the plan for the morning. Water levels were relatively high compared to what we’d previously encountered here, but at this stage not enough for us to be worried and we adopted a dynamic risk assessment approach fully expecting to be turned around at some point. I think it’s safe to say that before we got underground, we’d both decided that as dry a day as possible was on the cards! We didn’t mind a bit of wading, and waterfalls that couldn’t be avoided, but neither of us fancied any flat out wet crawls and both deliberately left our wetsuits behind!
In we went, firstly up into the Upper West Passage which quickly turned into a crawl until its end. We avoided the Upper East Passage as the description hinted more of a crawl and wetter than the West so we dropped back down into the main streamway and headed to the First Stream Sump. Although everything was very visibly wet at the sump, it was evident that the levels had recently been higher and had dropped and so this gave us a little more hope we may get the trip we’d hoped for! After a somewhat leisurely stroll plus a bit of stooping down Giants Highway, with the odd stop for a bit of admiration, a well decorated chamber worthy of a picture or two, we soon arrived at Base Camp chamber where the sound of water rang in our ears again. Here there’s an incredible stream flowing along a bedding plane and out of the wall, with an interest climb up to explore (we left this for the way back). With Garland’s Pot next up, we quickly moved through the passageway to where it opens back out and the floor steps and falls away revealing the 6 metre hole that is Garland’s Pot. We quickly had the pitch rigged and deviation in place to keep us as far out of the waterfall as possible (that was rather loud and active!) and onwards into the narrowing passages to keep us out of the cold water spray. After a short meander through some awkward passageway we popped out at Chert Hall, evident by its incredible flow stone formations. We quickly pushed on, again saving this section for our return. After another 10/15 minutes of passageway we found ourselves at the Crabwalk traverse, and quickly set about preparing ourselves for SRT mode again.
A quick flashback to give context – I’ve been in here twice in the last couple of months, I haven’t done the Crabwalk yet but had been to the start of it. My training was looking at cave leader rigging and ropework plus rescue training. I remember coming away from Giants Hole thinking they do like a thread down there in the Peaks and so promptly set out on my return home to equip my already pretty well equipped caving kit with some shortened lengths of cord (I already had/have a HUGE selection of slings).
So there we were at the start of the Crabwalk, I rigged Garland’s so it was Scott’s turn and before passing him the topo we had a quick check. S**T!!! Forgot my bloody threads didn’t I! Brought them all the way back to the Peaks and left them in the van! The Crabwalk has 15 anchor points, 6 being bolted, 8 as drilled threads and 1 as a natural thread. I think it’s fair to say at this point Scott and I called challenge accepted and after a few minutes of interesting rigging and improvisational tactics, we were across the Crabwalk. We had an explore down every available passageway, although most of these attempts quickly were abandoned when our first rule of the day (no wet crawling) soon kicked in and one of us would say to the other “you can if you want, but I ain’t going in that!” I think our success on the Crabwalk gave us a false sense of security somewhat, as the sketchy tactics continued. After peering into a very narrow aven from the top through a small 30cm triangular shaped hole which we couldn’t see the bottom of and it meandered around out of view, Scott and I decided the only suitable option was to connect cows tails and I (being the heavier lump) act as anchor and lower him in. Amazingly Scott got in the opening but sadly to no avail and I promptly pulled him out like hook a duck. A couple more passageways to poke which either choked up or we abandoned within a few metres and we decided to make our way back to explore the things we’d saved for our way out. First being the Chert Hall flow stone climb, at the top of which there’s a small crawl onwards that eventually turns you back and Scott did the honours as the rigging baton was back to me. The Chert Hall traverse starts with a natural and a short ab down the previously scrambled flow stone before traversing off to your left (or right as ab-ing) back towards Garland’s Pot. A series of bolted anchors and drilled threads (let’s not talk about it) take you along an easy traverse with some large ledges on either side, before a narrower ledge takes you up to a main ledge on the opposite side of Garland’s Pot to the way we originally came in. A small 4 metre ab into Garland’s Pot pretty much rounded up the lower section of the cave for us and we were now getting wet and cold from the waterfall coming down Garland’s. With speed in mind now, Scott headed back up the rope end we had just descended and I quickly headed down the stream passage crawl back to Chert Hall to climb the flow stone and de-rig from the start of the traverse, Scott de-rigging from the opposite end, with the plan to meet in the middle, scramble back down into the lower passageway and get out of Garland’s pronto. This went as planned and we were soon back in Base Camp chamber scrambling up the calcite formations to explore the passageways which soon became impassable but were well worth the extra time taken! I think it was evident at this point that we were both ready for a sandwich and so we headed straight for the surface, which luckily didn’t take too long. On our way out we still hadn’t seen a soul, so we really did have the place to ourselves!
Upon surfacing, the cold wind soon kicked in and we both had hoods up and buffs on but the walk in/out for Giants is only a few hundred metres so we were quickly back at the van huddled in the back opening eating sandwiches as though we were setting records. We also spotted that the other party were heading back across the field, and no other vehicle had arrived so we had a clear shot at Snelslow, you couldn’t have asked for better timings! This time, we had packed everything we needed and off we went across the field at a very fast pace in an attempt to warm up. Caving temperatures were perfect, if a touch too warm at times, but on the surface the wind just ruined everything, and had the second walk in/out been any longer I think we may have called it a day after Giants!
After a little descent into the gulley where the entrance to Snelslow Swallet can be found, we climbed down the entrance ladder to instant relief from the wind lifting our spirits again. I handed Scott the ropes along with the topo as the baton was back to him (plus I’d also recently rigged this on another trip and really enjoyed it so wanted Scott to experience that too). Initially some narrow, walkable passageway leads to the first pitch down a well secured boulder wall that ends in a lower roofed space with signs of a potential dig of to the right. The second pitch starts immediately and the way on is down through a narrow slot onto a ledge where a re-belay to the left can be found. A short 4/5 metre abseil to another ledge with a window into a large aven and then there’s a few rigging options to continue but my personal favourite is to go for a ‘Y’ hang with 2 bolts above the window, into a re-belay using a bolt either side of the aven roughly 5 metres below the window, and then your straight down the remaining 25-30 metres below descent. There’s a lot to look at in the bottom of this seemingly small and uninteresting cave. The fossils and the size of them are some of the best and biggest I’ve seen (granted I’ve not seen much outside of the Dales and I still have a lot of the Dales to see! But even Scott joined me in awe at some of them!) mainly crinoids. The passageway does continue on with a low crawl off to the left which we didn’t opt for, and then a passageway to the right leading to another pitch head which isn’t on the topo and so we didn’t have any more ropes with us and neither of us fancied climbing out to cross the windy fields to get more rope from the van and return. Perhaps I should organise a KCC follow up trip? What is at the bottom of that pit?!
Lancaster Hole
Ami, James, Steve – Report by Steve
Armed with a plan and an A4 extract off the survey we headed to the entrance with the aim to simply find our way around some key points. Between us we’d either never been in before or usually followed others around without a care in the world. So whilst we did miss the usual faces for the KCC Wednesday night trips it was a good opportunity for us to go it alone and get our bearings.
We soon discovered we had to share Ease Gill with another group as we found it rigged. However, Ami soon had our rope rigged and we were on our way down in a bit of a shower. It was nice to dump the SRT gear and move around a bit easier.
Slow and steady found us up the climb to the Colonnades. It looks like theres a clean up project ongoing with small mud walls, 1” to 2” high separating the walkway from the some of the calcite floor. The CNCC notes suggest the colonnades formation was expedited by the lime kilns on the surface above, this planted the idea of a spin off surface trip to find them one sunny afternoon. Continuing past, we thought we’d reached the end of that section when we read the ‘bad air’ comment on the survey, given we are all still here maybe there was more to go at.
Back at Bridge Hall we descended into Kaths Way and made our way under the large boulder and onto the muddy slopes around the Fall Pot Area. We had a good look at the fixed lines and other anchors for the Fall Pot routes.
Back over the muddy slopes and across the rift to a 3 rung aluminium ladder up towards Montagu West and its dry mud crawls to the T junction. The streamway could be heard at this point via a hole in the floor. By now we were at the end of the survey sheet and into the hand amended bits pointing towards cross passage and Wilf Taylors Passage. We felt like we’d met our route finding objectives so began to make our way back to the entrance pitch.
We took a more direct return route back and within 30 minutes we were kitted up and on our way up the pitch. The other group had left so only our rope remained which was handy to avoid the cats cradle in the entrance pipe. With James de-rigging we were out in the rain about 1 hour after turning round.
This was very much a route finding trip, identifying future routes and trips of which theres obviously plenty ! All in all a pleasant 3 hours plodding around underground.
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
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.
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.
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.
