Month: June 2026

By Ami S In Day Trips

Black Shiver

Team: James, Jasmine, Ami

I picked this one purely because it’s got a cool name, but lots of other people said it was on their list too, so I was feeling confident we were in for a good one.

Scott sadly couldn’t make it last minute, which did mean I had (usual for my trips) a concern that we were all lugging A LOT of rope. As James had a party and Jasmine and I were keen for the football, we decided on an early start, which meant an even earlier visit to the store for me. And boy, I wasn’t wrong about the amount of rope.

Despite our good intentions, a bit of tardiness, a lot of rope faff (fit in the damn bag you b***d) and some navigational issues meant we didn’t enter the cave until nearly 11am.

We hand-lined the modest entrance and set immediately into what was described as a ‘chest in water’ crawl. It was a low crawl, but only an inch of water, so I was optimistic our conditions would be favourable. The crawl was wiggly and winding, soon finding the first pitch. I managed to miss the rebelay anchor and was nervously shouting up to James about the horrifying-looking traverse ahead of me, when he pointed out the anchor I actually wanted was above my head. I’ll put it down to first-pitch nerves. Soon we were well underway, zooming down the wonderfully ominous-sounding Blood Pot and on to the infamous Black Dub.

This is described as hard to rig due to an hourglass shape, meaning you have to rig from the top half of the hourglass and then backtrack to actually descend from the bottom half (for future, a long sling might be beneficial here as a safety, but it isn’t needed for confident cavers) but I didn’t think it was tricky at all. We all thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of sliding through, remembering not to send ourselves off the landing lip in to the deep pool at the bottom.

From here Jasmine took over, having expressed excitement at rigging ‘the big pitch’. This amazing rift has a disgusting y hang at the top so kudos to Jasmine, but is all fun from there as you descend over 90 metres down the seriously amazing Black Rift. (Who comes up with these names? James and I have decided our first cave discovery will be called Pink Pony or Fluffy Kitten or something similar.)

By the time we were down it was evident James wasn’t making it out by 2pm as he wanted, but being James he wasn’t going to let us turn around now! Ahead and rigging, he led us expertly down, where the cave changed to a boulder-strewn, jaggedy nature in-keeping with the bottom of a cave. We were wet by now, but not as bad as I was expecting, though like many caves in that area it was draughty and chill, so I was cold nonetheless. This meant a quick celebratory Mars bar each at the sump, and back we went, with a plan to each derig a different section from that wot we rigged, for a bit of variety!

Going back up the big pitch unsurprisingly took an age, especially as the rope changes half way up, meaning poor James had to haul 70ms up and pack it half way through the ordeal. From there we blitzed it out (though that hourglass wriggle is a lot harder uphill with 100m of wet rope behind you. We all blame Scott.)

We emerged into the blazing sun less than 6 hours after we went in. An easy, sunny downhill stomp back to the car, feeling tired but happy, unlike the faces of those we passed who were about to tackle Peak 3 of their Challenge day. Thanks so much for coming guys. We all agreed it’s a cave we would definitely do again!

By Tom C In Day Trips

Easegill Open House – Pool Sink

Billy, James, Jasmine, Jason, Klaudia, Paddy, Pete, Sophie H, Tom

At the risk of getting predictable, last year’s OpenHouse wednesday nighter in Pool Sink had been good fun and was worth repeating. Pool Sink isn’t often on the meets list, possibly because the rigging puts it in a grey area between a long Wednesday trip and a short weekend trip, but OpenHouse turns it into a lovely little evening.  

Signing in (and remembering to put down our callout time 😑), the farm was much quieter than it had been at the weekend. We headed across the fell followed by midges once again, and it was time to get the entrance contortions out of the way. About 50m in, a narrow downclimb was tackled by Jason in his signature head-first fashion, with the clatter of helmet against rock announcing his arrival at the first pitch approach. It’s quite a pretty pitch really, and wasn’t equipped with its usual wide awkward deviation this evening allowing an enjoyable bounce down the shaft walls. 

At Anemolite Junction we decided not to side-quest to Magpie Grotto as there was a reasonable stream flowing by now, and we didn’t fancy risking a weather change on the surface spoiling things, so we carried on down the impressively tall canyon and were soon at the next pitches. None of us could remember much about these despite most of us being here last year, and even now 2 nights afterwards I can’t quite picture the order, but it’s an enjoyable string of SRT with a bit of everything well above the stream’s route below.

Next, a few pools were either gracefully crossed or fallen into by our resident depth testers, and we hit the last pitch. With a handful of us at the base it seemed an attractive place to set up the pick n’ mix tupperware for a quick break, but Sophie arrived announcing that they’d spotted a loose rock on the traverse directly over our spot, so we shuffled down and continued our sugar rush in the safety of the passage below.

Just the eerie lower passages to get through now, the grotesque Bacon Slicer, and we were at the junction with Green and Smelly. The original plan had been to exit via Boundary, we’d already ditched this plan because of the unsettled weather, but it’s a good job really as that now seems wayyy ambitious for an evening trip. With Wretched via Spiral within our grasp we decided not to spoil an enjoyable evening by trying to shoehorn some extra caving in and headed upstream. Billy gracefully climbed Eccles Bypass Direct while the mortals headed up the grubby chockstones and we split again, some tackling the pitch, and anyone who’d done the pitch before avoiding it with the bypass crawl. 

A standard Wretched exit and we were out in the 9:30pm daylight! We even remembered to sign out at the farm like responsible OpenHouse delegates.

By Ami S In Day Trips

Rumbling Hole – too much rumble this time

Team: Ray, Paddy, Jasmine, John, Ami

Horrendous weather topped off by a wiggly bolt scuppered this one last time, so I was keen to see it all the way.

As we could actually see this time (still light and everything), I was excited to experience the famous hanging rebelay with a view. And it didn’t disappoint! Ray set off rigging persued by John, who I’d never met but was evidently very competent from the off.  I was at the back to enjoy Paddy and Jasmine’s excited cries as they tackled the first drop. Poised over a rock edge, you lower yourself on to nothing, with the glorious green shaft down below. Certainly one of the most fun rebelays in the Dales!

By the time I reached the bottom of pitch one, the famous Rumble had begun, complete with a shower from the waterfall straight on to our heads. It became rather more, ahem, atmospheric from here. This second pitch is probably lots of fun if you can see through the water. There’s a deviation that Jasmine and I both agreed was a pain in the a***, and by the time I had finished faffing I could see the lights below turning back towards me.

Paddy and Ray had apparently reached the two 6 foot climbs and decided the flow was far too strong, and the water far too wet, to continue. We all took our turns dashing back under the falls and heading back out in no time. Sad not to reach the bottom, but absolutely worth seeing Rumbling in full, monstrous flood!