Month: December 2025

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Twixmas Fun in Alum Pot

Tom, Maz, Gareth, Billy, Sophie H, Ray

No to be outdone by Will’s Little Hull trip, a group of 6 of us met on the Alum Pot lane on the same chilly, but glorious morning. Tom had brought tackle for Dolly Tubs down to the bridge. I was equipped for SE route down to the sump.

After Christmas greetings, the 1st order of the day was to decide who was doing which route. Sophie and Billy were keen to do SE for the full Alum experience. Maz was keen not to. So that was easy. Tom and Maz would go in via Lower Long Churn and rig down to the bridge, where they could join our ropes and continue to the bottom if they felt so inclined. Gareth, Billy, Sophie and I would drop SE and rig down to the bottom.

The 2nd order of the day for me was to work out how to use my brand new Petzl Superavanti harness, complete with plastic inserts to stop the leg loops working themselves undone. I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest that Petzl should get their finger out and actually fix the problem!

After a pleasant walk up, Tom & Maz headed for Long Churn, while I set to rigging SE route. A small clump of young (and, hence hopefully undiseased) trees seemed like a good place to start, then off the big tree directly over the shaft – does this tree lean slightly more than it used to? It’s quite a while since I last rigged this route, but the anchors for the y-hang rebelay were easily located, although they are a bit off to the side in a corner. The rebelay is a bit awkward, being almost free hanging. I think I left the right length of rope in the loop for people to stand in. The rope was very twisted on the way down, so it was slow progress trying to untwist it as I went.

Next down was Billy. He made very short work of the rebelay, using his foot loop to aid, rather than standing in the loop of rope. He was down in no time, suitably impressed by the experience. Next was Sophie. Again, she passed the rebelay without an issue, this time standing in the loop of rope – nice! She claimed to be a bit nervous on the way down – funny how the daylight shaft is so much more exposed – but it didn’t show. Obviously Gareth was also down in no time.

By this time, Tom and Maz had appeared at the window at the bottom of Dolly Tubs pitch, having clearly sprinted through Long Churn. Good effort. They were busy rigging the Greasy Slab as I set off down the next big pitch. Luckily the deviation was easy to find, although it was higher than I remember. One of my slings around the old bit of in situ tat did the job nicely. Again the rope was slightly twisted on the way down, but not quite as bad this time. I wonder if washing them in the washing machine leads to twisting. Either way, I’m going to put more effort into untwisting them next time.

Again, Billy was down beside me in no time. Sophie claims to struggle with deviations, but there was absolutely no evidence of that. She coped admirably, despite it being quite an acute angle.

The last short pitch posed no problems and we were all soon down in the impressive passage on our way to the sump. Gareth pointed out the bypass to the final climb and Billy & Sophie were off, keen to see what lay beyond. Sadly, not much lies beyond and we were at the sump in no time. The waterfall coming in from Diccan was it’s usual noisy self. Sophie declared a complete lack of interest in ever coming down that way.  Billy was clearly tempted. No matter – I’m confident they’ll both be doing it before long.

We took some time at the bottom for Gareth to get some photos and then started to head out, unsure whether Tom and/or Maz were planning to come on down. By the time we got to the last pitch it seemed like they had stopped at the bottom of the bridge, so I derigged. Sophie and Gareth joined Tom & Maz to head out via Dolly Tubs, so I carried on derigging SE with Billy ahead of me.

Billy may have regretted his decision to go out SE when he was handed a full tackle sack to prussik up the top pitch with. Not that it seemed to slow him down any. The others seemed to be having a whale of a time on the traverse and Greasy Slab. Sophie managed to get some nice shots from the window of Billy on the top pitch of SE. I have to admit to finding the y-hang rebelay near the top a bit awkward due to the large offset between upper and lower ropes. Billy didn’t complain, so maybe he found it easy.

As for my new harness – I have to say I was quite pleased with it overall. It’s simpler and less bulky than my old Singing Rock. The only slight issue for me is that the central maillon seems to sit a little lower, which presumably leads to me leaning back and hence using my arms a bit more. Perhaps I just need to adjust it a bit better. I’ll experiment over the next few trips.

Billy and I strolled slowly back down to the cars, where I got changed and he waited for Tom so that he could access his dry clothes. Bad planning that! Thankfully it didn’t take too long for the others to reappear.

A stop off at the Station was called for to round off an excellent day. Not a bad way to kill some time between Christmas and the New Year.

Photos by Sophie.

 

By Will Burnett In Day Trips

Little Hull Pot

Team: Will, Connor, Scott, James, Archie

Earlier in the year I was supposed to lead a LHP trip but unfortunately couldn’t make it and no replacement leader/team was available at the time. So I was keen to reorganise this trip before the end of the year.

The five of us met in Horton-in-Ribblesdale ready for our ‘slightly longer than usual’ walk in up the Pennine Way towards Pen-y-Ghent, accompanied by my four-legged companion Lenny. Although it was a cold day around 4-5 degrees surface temp, the sun was shining and there was little to no wind to contend with, so spirits were high and we were soon at the shake hole donning SRT kits.

I was raring to go, so quickly set about navigating the initial cobbled entrance crawl to meet the streamway where it was possible to stand again. A short romp downstream in this familiar passageway soon found us at the first pitch, which I quickly set about rigging with some new rope I picked up from Inglesport the day prior (100m of Edelrid Performance Static for £100!!! Can’t get bargains like that anymore!) Connor was hot on my tail through the re-belays and traverse and we were soon on the ground once again watching the others work their way through the pitch. To keep things moving, we headed off downstream yet again towards the second pitch. Although the levels were pretty low, none of us fancied getting any wetter than we had to, and so the high option with a squeeze through to the ledge was our direction of travel for the second pitch. To be honest, water or not, I think I prefer this way as you get a slightly bigger abseil and some more complex rigging to play with. As I’d finished rigging the pitch head, I heard the others catching back up, so wasted no time in getting down the pitch and keeping the pace going. Again Connor was chasing me down, and whilst the others were working their way through the second pitch, Connor and I pressed on to find the crux. Your faced with the option of either going through a 5-6m low tube/crawl half filled with the coldest water I’ve ever encountered in the Dales, or you must negotiate a ‘bypass’ consisting of a narrow rift with a couple of squeeze pinch points. As I said earlier, some of us (excluding James!) had zero intentions of getting any wetter than necessary, so needless to say we stripped our SRT kits and began working our way through the squeezes. I emerged from the other side just in time to catch James making his way through the low wet tube towards me. Behind his wake, I could just about make out Archie and Scott stripping their SRT kits in preparation for the squeezes, time to push on and keep the momentum I think! After some more rift-y streamway negotiated at water level and then also traversing high in places, we came to the final pitch. Nothing to complex here, just careful of where your placing your feet as everything around you feels very loose and ready to fall. With all five of us to the bottom, we took it in turns to explore around briefly before beginning the journey back to the surface.

Luckily, as self nominated team rigger, my work here was done and so I set off up the ropes first with camera in hand ready to catch make up for the lack of pictures and video I’d taken on the way in due to rigging. The chaps decided between them and took a pitch each to de-rig on the way out and so off we went. It wasn’t long before we were all up the final pitch and working our way back through the crux squeeze, again emerging from the other side in time to watch Scott this time take on the low wet tube of horror, before James also. Naturally, we all reconvened at the second pitch with it being the biggest and taking the longest to ascend, however this gave us plenty of time to get some good pictures and play about with lighting. Once we were through this, the re-filled tackle sacks began moving forward to us front runners and we were soon back moving towards the exit. Like a well oiled machine, we worked our way back up through the first pitch and into the cobbled entrance crawl. Emerging into daylight was quite a welcome, as was the sun when we came out of the shake hole ready for our trod back to Horton.

Pics & write up by Will

By Scott In Day Trips

Lost Johns – Sink Chamber via Dome Alternative

Pete, Ray, James, Dave, Jasmine, Scott

A manky night indeed. Yet more heavy rain, but The Kendal were unperturbed (mostly). Six of us made our moist way to Leck Fell. The plan: to reach Sink Chamber in Lost Johns via a mini exchange between Dome and Dome Alternative.
Unfortunately I somehow left out the short rope for Vestry pitch, so Dave was doomed to run out of rope before the base of Cathedral unless we changed tack. The exchange was abandoned, the Dome rope urged into early action, and we all committed to go up and down Dome Alternative. This charming little route starts with a pleasant crawl in what seems to be completely the wrong direction, before emerging into a parallel shaft and tunnel which eventually brings you to a window halfway down Dome pitch. I quite like it, but most people seem to prefer the more straightforward route after their first go. Anyway, it claimed an early victim in Ray, whose knee was playing up during the crawl, and he beat a reluctant retreat.
Five continued down into Shale Cavern. Dave rigged the last pitch into Sink Chamber, and we descended to take in the view of the very lively waterfall from Monastery Route. We didn’t hang around long, and James and Jasmine did a cracking job of derigging the pitches.
The way out was not without interest, for the stream in the entrance series had risen while we explored, and was pretty sporting, though not quite enough to hinder our exit.
Another good trip – thanks to all who came out in such rubbish weather!

By Ami S In Day Trips

Pippikin – Mistral

Team: Scott, James and (report by) Ami

After a week of biblical rain I wasn’t sure I was going to get to do this long-awaited trip, but a few dry days meant we were ON! 

Scott was the only one silly brave enough to be doing this one again, and expertly led us over the moors to the entrance. He also suggested from experience that the whole trip could be done head first, so after the first pitch, I happily plunged into our first squeeze (of many). However, having rounded the very snug corner – kit scraping along the walls – I found myself head and torso over quite a drop. I could see the issue – a taller caver could probably reach the far wall as a brace, meaning they could slide out slowly and get their legs underneath them for the drop. No such luck for me, so the boys had to wait patiently while I forced myself inexpertly uphill, back through the squeeze in order to turn around. Pippikin had begun! 

Pippikin then continues in the most fascinating and unique way – absolutely teeney tiny holes followed by pretty, flowy pitches (often almost immediately, making for precarious redressing if you’ve had to take your kit off). James certainly lived up to his reputation of self-squashing (cries of ‘My Bones!’ echoing from the walls) but overall we were making fun progress. 

The third pitch however posed me a problem. About 8m down you hit a bedding plane, but the rope continues into a very narrow, v-shaped crack. Assuming there was a reason for that, and remembering my trouble earlier, I decided to remain on cow’s tails and squeeze through feet first. After a few metres, my feet were hanging in air. No issue, I thought – I’m attached. I kept wriggling, still not finding a floor, using my knees to brace against the walls. Finally my head popped out and I found myself bridged over a 3m drop, with my ‘safety’ rope hanging limply beneath me. With a few choice words I traversed out further and got hold of the precarious looking stemple and hand line that is unhelpfully placed a considerable distance from the head of the drop. I made it down gracelessly, blew a sigh of relief and called Rope Free. 

I thought it best to wait for James and talk him through his upcoming adventure. When I heard him reach the squeeze, I suggested he come head first, to avoid my fright of an unprotected drop. He did as instructed, head appeared, then shoulders, then the proclamation ‘My legs are stuck’. He pushed and pulled, with assistance from Scott behind, but nothing seemed to be doing the trick. Eventually I had to scramble back up the handline and revisit my precarious wedged position above the pitch, to act as a human rock for James to leverage himself off. My knee kept slipping off the sheer wall, but eventually my shoulder was sturdy enough for James to lift himself out of the rift and out over my head. Hooray. 

Scott, having witnessed this ordeal, decided to face the opposite wall to avoid the same fate. But Pippikin had other ideas. Scott got his head out above the pitch before realising his legs had too slipped down into the bottom of the crack, meaning he wasn’t able to move. At least we knew the drill this time – back up I went, braced between stemple and wall, to be Scott’s extra handhold and allow him to free himself. 

After all that, we had our Pippikin snacks early, before setting off once more. It was easier going now, with some real pretties and a fun traverse down into the streamway. Thankfully it wasn’t too wet at all, as I’m not sure our enthusiasm would have withstood needing to go back out the way we came. 

Scott knew his way, and led us out Mistral, showing us the many other route options for future trips. This one was even better than I hoped and we’re absolutely raring for the Easegill traverse now, though conscious what an ask it is to go through all that but uphill. Dare I say it, perhaps even Bye George is on the cards?!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Jingling Pot

James, Ami, Jasmine, Tom, Ray

As is so often the way at this time of year, the planned trip couldn’t go ahead due to high water levels. The “Crawling Crew” (James, Jasmine & Ami) were most disappointed about this as the planned trip was Bucket On The Head. Tom and I were considerably less disappointed.

Where to go on a wet Wednesday evening? Well, obviously Rowten! But, as Tom already had the ropes packed for Lateral Cleft, Jingling was the even more obvious choice on this occasion.

Ami & Jasmine set a cracking pace up the hill, obviously excited to get dangling. I showed my greater experience by treating the evening as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Jingling was the site for some of Ami’s initial steps into rigging, so she was keen to rig Lateral Cleft to show how much she had advanced. I don’t think she had rigged the traverse from Little Gully over to the Cleft before, but made short work of it. On seeing how much fun Ami was having on the traverse, Jasmine immediately declared that she wanted to derig. She loves a challenge apparently – worth remembering!

While Ami carried on into the Cleft, followed by the others, I rigged the direct route from the start of the traverse. Last time I’d attempted this, I was thwarted by Tim K, who had given me an “experimental” rope to use. The experiment failed when the rope proved to be too fast to stop in order to rig the rebelay, even with full lock on my descender. No such issues this time as I brought my own tried and tested rope.

While waiting for the others, I rigged the final pitch. Apparently the youngsters just free-climb this these days. It looked easy enough to climb down, but I’m not so sure about getting back up. As I had some rope left over, I carried it on down into the dig, rigging it off an old piece of wood that was just lying around. It reached down the first short drop, then the first big drop and another short drop. That was as far as I went as the next drop was another big one. It certainly looked climbable though. To me, this dig feels much deeper than the One-Armed Bandit series in Aquamole, which I’d always assumed it was hoped to connect with. What do I know though.

I got back up to the bottom of the main shaft just in time to see Ami dropping in, soon followed by the others, minus Tom who had turned back a bit earlier. Fair enough. It’s impressive that he gets out at all at the moment with his new mini-caver-to-be.

Ami & Jasmine carried on down. I forgot to look at whether they used the rope or free-climbed. James and I had a chat at the bottom of the main shaft. Eventually Ami reappeared, but not Jasmine. Apparently the next long drop in the dig was indeed climbable, so of course Jasmine couldn’t resist. I think she went to the very bottom of the dig. Good effort.

Ami and James exited via the direct route, Jasmine and I took the Lateral Cleft, with Jasmine getting her wish of derigging. She made quick work of it too. James had only finished derigging the direct route when Jasmine appeared at the start of the traverse – see attached non-artist’s impression as no-one had a camera. I love watching (and listening to) Jasmine developing as a caver. The running commentary captures each precise moment when some new idea clicks into place. In this case it was how to derig an awkward traverse.

Nice job all. Thanks James for making it happen… and for not doing Bucket On The Head.

 

By Scott In Day Trips

Xmas Do at Gaping Gill (via Small Mammal)

 

Pete, Jason, Connor, Jasmine, Scott

It was hard to believe that a year had passed since our last mission to GG, but it was so. As before, soggy conditions forced us into Small Mammal, the least wet way into the system for mere mortals. I had been tasked with organising the trip, and so quickly delegated most of the ropework and bag carrying to other people, choosing to concentrate on the most vital aspect of the expedition – looking after the mince pies and mulled wine.
Unfortunately, fate had decreed that while the mince pies were unmatched in both excellence (Aldi standards, that is) and application, the mulled wine was to be hindered by a significant planning flaw. I had brought wine, stove, lighter and plastic drinking vessels – all exquisitely packaged to withstand the rigours of Small Mammal – but no pan to heat the wine. A quick straw poll at the entrance confirmed that no one wanted cold mulled wine in the Main Chamber (right answer), so the wine was abandoned at the entrance.
The rest of the trip was really good. Connor rigged the entrance pitch, Jasmine the big pitch, and I the traverse around SE Pot. We saw another team from the YSS coming down the last pitch of Wade’s, which confirmed our suspicion that it might be really quite wet on that route. They obviously didn’t let it stop them though, and they were leaving the Main Chamber by the time that we arrived.
The waterfall from the Main Shaft was colossal today, and crossing to the North end of the chamber necessitated a soaking just from the spray from Rat Hole.
Mince pies were consumed. Pete eschewed his in favour of a nutritious sandwich, but I didn’t hold a grudge, and certainly didn’t spend time calculating the distance, height gain/loss and calories of effort expended in transporting this most delicious (Aldi standards) of morsels to this remote spot in vain. Anyway, I digress.
We went for a look at Mud Hall. It remained large and muddy, with no sign of movement from the much-hyped earthquake of a couple of days before. Connor stopped to take photos while the rest of us traversed the glutinous slopes on fixed ropes to the end of the chamber.
The return trip was fairly uneventful except for the arrival of a couple of teams of student cavers into the system. One bold squad had canyoned their way down Stream Passage, and raced back up the Big Pitch of Bar Pot with impressive speed (as in, they totally burned me off by rope walking, the young scamps). Another team of the less experienced were being slowly taken through their first descent of GG (or perhaps any cave?), but we managed to reascend our rope in between their abseils.
Pete had had a rough time on this trip, with back problems and a headache – classic symptoms of mince pie deficiency in anyone’s book – but he took on the frustrations of bag hauling through the Small Mammal bedding crawl with an absolute minimum of expletives, numbering well below twenty. That bedding plane, when you’re tired, really is an Awkward Sod, and I’m almost tempted to trade it next time for the classic Bar first pitch (a vertical Awkward Sod).
Anyway, eventually all bags and people were reunited on the surface – thanks Connor and Jason for the bag hauling – and the bountiful cave water which had so refreshed our skins all day was topped up, reinvigorated by copious quantities of sky water; what a blessed relief, in the wintry darkness, the wind, the misty isolation of  the arse-end of Ingleborough.
We ran away. Eventually an excellent meal at the Crown in Horton blotted out most of the horror.
Thanks to all on the trip, and all in the pub afterwards for the fantastic Xmas Do.
Merry Christmas! – and I look forward to the rightful reinstatement of our one true Mulled Wine Operative on the next Xmas trip.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Lost Johns Exchange

DID THE EARTH TREMBLE FOR YOU IN LOST JOHNS?
Scott, Tom, Ami, Ray, James, Maz (Report by Maz)

This was cave option number three for me. The original plan; on the list anyway, had been to go to Red Moss Pot. However, drier weather earlier in November had necessitated a switch from the original (Calf Holes) which made  snorkel and fins no longer necessary in RMP. I had planned to go to Calf Holes to reccee it, but well, just hadn’t.

So I asked Tom if he had any suggestions and for some reason he came up with Lost Johns.
Now its been a while since I’d done this and perhaps the terror of the traverse had receded, so off went the emails.

A few souls braver and more skilled than I signed up, and a Dome/ Centipede exchange was suggested.  Scott, Ami, James, Ray, and new father Tom turned up. Sporting a sleek post partum Dad bod, he got in his excuses early, saying he hadn’t caved in the last 3 weeks. A lie no-one believed.

The team split with Ami and James going down Dome, and myself, Ray, Tom and Scott took Centipede; the uneven split being my displeasure at doing anything other than straightforward SRT. A few paces in, and I remembered the traverse. I needn’t have worried however, as I (ahem) breezed effortlessly and silently ahead. 

After a short period, Team efficient peeled off and we descended the pitches. Kind words of encouragement  were offered to our returning caver, but he soon got the hang of it! Soon we were at the bottom of the big pitch. After waiting a bit for the other two, Tom decided Daddy duties superseded the needs of his mates and up he went. How selfish. 

Ray had informed me we’d probably have a bit of a wait, but it was not to be. Speedy 1 and Speedy 2 aka James and Ami soon appeared and a ceremonial hand over of baggage (myself) ensued as I chose to go back the same way.

James confidently predicted we would be out long before the other two. But he hadn’t taken into account my SRT skills. With Ami derigging, we moved back up the ropes and on to the traverse. Again I demonstrated the utmost calm, composure and ethereal movement along this section. I could tell the others were so pleased to be caving with me again. 

Back at the vehicles, James’ prediction proved untrue with Ray and Scott waiting patiently for our return. 

An hour or so later, there were strange things going on 3km beneath Lancashire. Maybe it was tectonic movement, maybe it was isostatic rebound, or maybe it was the thud of boots at the bottom of the big pitch. Whatever it was that triggered it, an earthquake measuring 3.4 was felt across the region.
Personally, I blame the cavers of KCC. We await the call from the British Geological Survey….