New Rift Pot (Beryl’s rescue!)

New Rift Pot

Team: Will, Chris Arthur, Ami

Before I begin, go and grab yourself your favourite beverage and get ready for a good one!

Our intentions were to head down New Rift Pot to Coates Cavern via Route 66 for a good old explore and poke about, potentially head through to Necropolis and scout out for a future mission to the Eastern Front. None of us were really excited to walk in with the current conditions being pretty wet, but soon enough we were hopping the wall and heading across the fell path looking for our shake hole. I’d done this trip once before with Scott at the start of the year so fairly confident I knew the way, neither Ami or Chris had been before but both were raring to go after my promises of a grands days caving with plenty to look at.

Chris was up first to rig and quickly got to work scrambling down the entrance climb to the pitch head, closely followed by me and Ami bringing up the rear. It wasn’t long at all before Chris stopped dead in his tracks and was staring down at something below. Low and behold the rough shape of a sheep’s back could be spotted at the bottom of the pitch, it must have taken a tumble from above the entrance into the rift and then at least one other to get to where it was. Clearly Chris and I both quickly concluded we were going to do something, although at this stage we weren’t too sure what! We observed a little more and then noticed that it was still moving around, alive! That changed everything as previously I’ve only dealt with deceased extractions, and immediately all three of our minds started running wild with what if’s, and it was evident we felt this was going to be a rather difficult task. Ami made for the surface to get some phone signal with the instructions to try and gather more club members for some extra hands and see if anyone knows which farmer it’ll belong to so we can notify them. Whilst she was on with that, Chris and I pondered some more from the pitch head trying to come up with a plan of action. The worry was that the more we moved towards the sheep, it would get more scared and potentially hop down the last 2-3m drop to the flat out bedding crawl beneath the pitch. Whilst the 2-3m drop certainly wasn’t serious, especially in comparison to the roughly 30m already descended, it would have been further to extract from and with a lot less room than we currently had if we could make it work. We were envisioning some sort of grab, lash, and haul but knew we’d have to be slick with it. For every move and noise we made it looked almost certain we were going to loose the sheep further into the system as she was teetering on the edge of the drop. Chris was left on suicide watch (although I’m not sure there’s much he could have done had she jumped!) whilst I quickly set about rigging a tensioned line we could use to haul all the way up and out over the fence, trying to make our lives as easy as possible. By the time I was done, Ami had put a shout out to other club members for assistance, informed North Yorks Police agricultural department to try and locate farmer, and got CRO on standby should we have struggled or failed with extraction.

One by one, we slowly and carefully abseiled down to join the sheep, trying our hardest not to spook or scare her at all. Once on a level, there was quite a bit of eye balling between the 4 of us, and I think it was here where Ami had decided she was called Beryl. Margaret and Barbara were also contenders I believe, but Beryl certainly felt more fitting! I slid myself over the drop beneath Beryl to stop her fall, while Chris and Ami coaxed her back away from the edge, and over into the other side of the chamber where we were able to pick her with a human barrier. I say that, there wasn’t much force required as she was ear deep in a pool of water, clearly dehydrated. Whilst having her fill, we took the opportunity to fashion up a harness for her out of a couple of slings crossed with an ‘X’ underneath. With a somewhat equalised central attachment point, we were pretty set to whip her out of there. Ami and I climbed back up to the pitch head and began prepping for the arrival of Beryl, with a view to smoothly transition her up the pitch and up out of the entrance rift. Haul system all set, Chris hopped on the in situ rope to ascend alongside Beryl, just in case she need any in flight attendance. Beryl just sat in her ‘harness’ completely un phased with the most chilled out expression on her face. Perhaps it was the 4 litres of water she’d just downed after 2 weeks of dehydration! I’m glad Chris was below and not me! Everything felt like it went smoothly and to plan whilst between the 3 of us we negotiated the package that was Beryl back to daylight. On the surface, Beryl had a new lease of life and kicked up a fight whilst Chris was taking off her harness, perhaps she wasn’t done with New Rift Pot just yet! Ami to the rescue with some extra hands to hold her down and she was soon skipping up the side of the shake hole on her merry little way, with nothing more than a mere limp for her troubles! She gave us all a look back, as if to acknowledge what had just happened, and then proceeded to head exactly in the direction of where she must have fell down in the first place. We all ran at her to chase her up and out of the shake hole, and just as we did, our back up arrived in the form of a solo CRO volunteer to check what all the fuss was about. I bet he was having a hard time to believe that this little lamb that was skipping across the fell with a grin on her face had just caused so much hassle!

We’d intended to continue with our trip, but after a very hasty 10 minutes of de-rigging and stuffing everything back into tackle sacks, some of which being left behind now so we could move faster The , it just seemed the right shout to call it a day and quit while we were ahead.

In an additional attempt to locate the farmer, I put a couple of social media posts out into local Ingleton groups, which then got spread wider afield and now Beryl is becoming a superstar, with various local news platforms reaching out to cover the story.

Whilst there is absolutely an element of comical value to this situation, I would absolutely like to highlight the teamwork and communication enabling us to achieve this, and a big thank you to CRO and everyone else who were ready if we needed them.

#Berylthecaver

Write up by Will, pics by Will & Ami