Titan (Team Saturday – Rigging)

Will, Chris A, Ray

I’d wanted to do Titan ever since hearing about it on my return to caving a few years ago – it wasn’t a thing back in my first caving career. Thanks to Will’s determination and organisational skills (ok, he’d actually forgotten to book it until shortly before the trip, but let’s gloss over that), I was finally going to get my chance. As there was so much interest within the club, the plan was ideal – a Saturday team would do all the rigging, while a Sunday team would derig. We only had a permit for Titan itself, so no through trips this time.

Will, Chris and I met just before 9am at the Chapel (TSG hut) in Castleton. We then drove up the Pindale Road to park in a convenient layby, saving us a long climb up from Castleton, via Cave Dale. Now all we had to do was find the entrance to the biggest shaft in the country. Easy, right? Well, it probably would be if it was marked with some sort of appropriate monument, but it’s just a concrete cap completely flush with the ground… and there’s a lot of blank ground up there… and quite a few walls & fences. Luckily, in the distance we spotted TSG member Craig (who was planning to pop down our ropes to do a Lidar survey of the shaft). The idea was for him to give us a head start, then he would pop down, do his stuff and we would never even know he’d been there. So much for that plan. But at least we were able to follow him to the entrance.

Once at the entrance, Chris did his (apparently) customary stripping off, before setting to attempting to open the lid. This proved rather trickier than we were expecting. How many Dales cavers does it take to open a Derbyshire cave? Well, 3 apparently… watched in amusement by a single TSG member.

Then Chris (now fully clothed again… phew!) did an excellent job of rigging the entrance shaft. This is made slightly more awkward by the fact that rigging is from a pair of anchors below surface level. There are at least various metal rungs keyed into the concrete shaft lining to help. Rigging done, Chris set off down the completely man-made 50m shaft. Apparently it took 3 and a half years to excavate the shaft and the short passage below to connect with the main Titan shaft. It took Chris slightly less time to descend. Will took the opportunity to illuminate his descent using his new mega-torch. Luckily, Chris was so far below that we didn’t hear what he thought of that.

Will was next down, followed by yours truly. At the bottom is a short stooping passage, leading to a window out over the main shaft. Wow! What an impressive sight the shaft is. It was Will’s job to rig the main shaft down to the Event Horizon, where I would take over. Luckily there’s a convenient puddle just before the window for soaking the ropes, which is definitely a good idea.

Showing hardly any Elvis leg at all, Will was straight out over the shaft, all 3 cowstails attached, to rig the y-hang that would take us down the first half – about 70m. Everything double and triple checked, he set off, while Chris and I waited… and waited. Eventually, some rather worrying noises drifted up the shaft. Initially it sounded like a rockfall. Presumably it was simply Will and bag landing on the EH, the noise of which was reverberating around the shaft.

Eventually, “rope free” was called and it was my turn to move out of the safety of the window. It was exhilarating to look straight down the shaft at the pin prick of Will’s light below. Wow again! The scale of the place really has to be seen to be appreciated. Setting off down, I immediately regretted my decision to use a Stop. The problem was that I had to use 1 hand to hold the handle in, meaning that I only had 1 to lift and feed the rope. I would definitely use a Simple next time. That way I could use both hands on the rope, for a much smoother and faster descent. As it was, progress was painfully slow.

Eventually reaching Will, there was a bit of a comedy sketch while we tried to pass each other and the various ropes. Will had brought 100m for the top half of the shaft, thinking that it would also do down to the rebelay just below the EH. I didn’t like that idea as it would mean rather a lot of rope to tie up at the rebelay. So we decided to start the final rope directly from the EH. That did, of course, leave the question of whether it would reach the bottom. We reckoned it probably would. Meanwhile, Chris had dispatched the upper half of the shaft in quick time and was also down at the EH.

I rigged a y-hang from the EH and set off down, looking for the rebelay. Ah, there it is! There’s actually a choice of 2 pairs of anchors. The pair on the LHS looked slightly preferable from the perspective of krabs & knots potentially rubbing on the rock. It’s a pretty spectacular free-hanging rebelay. Being a bit out of practice, I managed to get my short cowstail stuck under the loaded rope. No real problem as I was able to use my foot jammer to unweight the lower rope and free the cowstail. Still, it was one more manoeuvre to perform in a rather exposed situation. Again, I took a long time to descend on my Stop. Thankfully the rope did indeed reach, although there wasn’t much spare.

While Will descended, I took the chance to scout for the way on down through the boulder choke, finding a likely looking candidate. Will was obviously in his element now and didn’t take long to reach me. Touching down, he readied himself and mega-torch to get some footage of Chris descending the final drop. He had to be quick, though, as Chris came down at a hell of a rate. The bounce in the rope as he came to a stop a suitable distance from the floor was spectacular. It seemed a bit more like bungee jumping than abseiling to me.

With everyone safely down, we took some time to regroup, have a drink and take SRT kits off for a bit of an explore. I very much wanted to treat this as a recce for a future through trip, so was keen to at least get to Stemple Highway.

As I had (possibly) identified the way on, it was apparently up to me to lead the way, despite my protestations. It starts as a head-first horizontal crawl, leading to various slight enlargements, climbs, squeezes and thrutches. Eventually we popped out of the boulder choke into AI passage, just upstream of Far Sump. Turning left, we were soon at the short climb up into the way through to Stemple Highway on the right. A short bit of stooping and crawling eventually led to Stemple Highway.

A quick poke to the right in SH revealed the way to Salmon’s Cavern. I think Ride of the Valkyries pops down from the heavens here. Useful to know for a possible vertical round trip on a later date. Our way on was to the left in SH. Quickly we came across some fixed iron ladders leading up. Will was up them like a ferret up a trouser. At the top was a roped traverse over a deep drop. None of us fancied this without cowstails, so that was a far as we went.

On the way back I couldn’t keep up with the 2 racing snakes as off they sped, occasionally stopping to offer advice or assistance to their geriatric partner. Getting back up through the boulder choke was hard work. Then came the really hard work, i.e. climbing back up the shaft. Will went first and seemed to be setting a cracking pace. As soon as the bottom rope was free, Chris also disappeared at a rate of knots. And that’s the last I saw of either of them until the surface.

I took my time prussicking. At the slow pace I was doing, it actually didn’t seem too bad. I took plenty of time to look around the impressive shaft. I was even occasionally able to pick out the line of anchors by which the shaft was first climbed – what a feat that was. Not having to derig or carry any tackle almost made the main shaft fun. I found myself feeling slightly guilty that Team Sunday wouldn’t have such luxury.

I really didn’t enjoy prussicking up the entrance shaft. The dimensions mean that I was forever banging off the walls. Will and Chris were shouting encouragement (or maybe abuse?) from above. Eventually I reached the top, but somehow managed to get the rope clipped through a krab on my belt. It took a while to realise why I wasn’t able to dismount the pitch!

All safely back on the surface, we congratulated ourselves. Will & Chris skipped and I hobbled back to the car by a much more sensible route.

What a great day out. We will all definitely be back. I’d love to do through trips to both Peak Cavern and JH in time. Today’s trip was great research for such plans. I’d also like to do a vertical round trip via Calcite Aven and Ride of the Valkyries. To be honest, there’s so much to go back for. Let’s make it an (at least) annual trip please! Cheers Will and Chris for an amazing experience and taking an old man out for the day.

Photos by Will & Chris.