Tatham Wife Hole

Team: Ray, Scott, Connor, Paddy, Sophie H, Billy, Yolanda, Ami

The scheduled trip was off the cards, but KCC turned out on a beautiful chilly day for the epic walk to Tatham Wife Hole.

More uphill than any of us hoped for, it was just before 11am when we went in. This one starts with some beautiful streamway, that you notice is heading rather steeply downhill. Ray had gone ahead to rig so the rest of us just had to follow and enjoy the series of impressive chambers and fun little scrambles before the first two pitches.

After these it all becomes a little trickier.  The CNCC description says ‘nothing too strenuous’, but the manoeuvres through the rift here are definitely awkward, even taking in to account the alcohol-fuelled Christmas break most of us had had since we last went caving. Some real pretties and mixed geology make it worth stopping to look though.

We finally reached the duck, where several party members had turned back on a previous trip due to wet conditions. As it was my first time in Tatham, I was determined to see the end and plunged through, grateful for the dry conditions. I was promptly followed by Scott, Paddy and Billy. Connor opted for the ‘bypass’ climb, which, having watched him do it, looks even less fun than a thorough wetting. It could possibly be less awkward if the right route was chosen, but certainly isn’t an easy alternative if anyone is considering it!

From here you briefly climb up above the water as the streamway is narrow, traversing some boulders before descending again and finding the final pitch, expertly rigged by Connor. Once down, you enter a crawl which I thought meant we were nearly at the terminal sump. But on it went. The stals were pretty but the water was getting deeper – getting me far wetter than the duck had – and before long only Billy and I were still preserving in the name of ‘terminal sump’. We made it all the way to a dive line, but as there was no air space here to do the final few metres, we called it a success and retreated.

This is one of those caves where you know you’re practically back at the level of the car, but to get to it you’ve got over 100m of Up to contend with. Derigging, I quickly established how out-of-practise I am, and I’m sure Paddy won’t mind me saying that both of us huffed and puffed our way back up, hauling the bags through those awkward rifts. We were very grateful to find Connor at pitch 2, on hand to lighten the load. It felt hard work, but I actually emerged into the sunshine (hope you weren’t too cold everyone) less than 3 1/2 hours after we went in. Not bad for a team of 8.

Passing Leeds Uni club, who blamed car trouble rather than hangovers for their late start, we were soon back at the car and even made it to Inglesport for some bargain rope and a bowl of chips. Great trip everyone!

Pics by Sophie and Connor