Dave – Kendal Caving Club

24 July 2024

By Dave In Day Trips

Red Moss Pot

Dave & Maz

After some last minute change to meet locations and delays on arrivals we finally headed on up to hunt down the elusive New Entrance with W3W running in hand, turns out thanks to Damian’s tip-off we landed right on the entrance and quickly got in out of the drizzle onto some lovely beefy bones.

A short relatively tight section led to the “pitch” which was rigged with an 8 m rope off a handily placed natural and we free climbed down with some moral support from the rope getting onto it. Once down we had a quick head scratch whilst trying to interpret the survey and decided to head right an follow the stream way. The formations in the cave were fantastic and made up for the wading in deep water – making sure Maz was sent ahead to gauge the depth – we didn’t explore any of the avens or inlets being content with the stream way and called it quits when we got nipple deep. Beat a quick retreat and snapped some shots on the way out back into the wonderful summer weather.

1 May 2024

By Dave In Uncategorised

Yordas

Dave, Ray, Tom, Maz, Yolanda

With Smelt Mill off the cards this week, the crew decided to have another (drier) go at Yordas, having been kept away from the traverse last time due to an awful lot of water. Things looked a lot more promising this time, with Long Gill not visible on the surface, and some sun in the sky.

Tom and Maz nipped into the bottom entrance to play with Tom’s new light bomb while Dave, Ray and Yolanda went straight to the middle entrance to get on with rigging the first pitch.

Having practised here in Feb, Dave quickly got the first and second pitches rigged, with Maz and Tom catching up at the bottom of the second. Was nice to not descend into a waterfall and pool this time.

Ray led on with the tackle for the Chapter House traverse and pitch and made short work of the surprisingly complex rigging. Tom rigged the waterfall pitch for those who didn’t fancy going the high road.

We followed Ray over the traverse and down into Yordas Cave, narrowly skirting the waterfall’s spray on the last couple of metres, with Maz abseiling the alternative route… straight into the fall… at least his oversuit and SRT kit got a good wash!

After a quick rest in Yordas Cave, Tom, Yolanda and Dave made a start on prussiking out with Dave de-rigging, Maz and Ray opting for the short way out. We all made it back out into daylight and back to the cars by 9:15, a short trip but plenty of SRT work and plenty to see.

3 February 2024

By Dave In Day Trips

Alum Pot

Claire, Dave, Ray, Scott, Vicky:

My first lead after a suggestion wanting to save myself paying for a day trip with work, first Saturday trip and also the first one setting off and coming out in sunshine, busy day!

With a plan of attack set, discussed over a breakfast and a brew at Inglesport cafe, we set off towards Selside in glorious sunshine. Scott and Ray collectively having enough rope to rig everything possible as least once.

We opted to go in via Long Churn bottom entrance and take the Dolly Tubs alternative descent. Apparently this was also the intention of the YSS members who turned up just as we were setting off, leading to a race to the entrance, quite how they caught us i’ll never know but we got in first! Scott lead the way and got the first pitches rigged up.

Here our riggers swapped with Claire taking the rope bag for the Greasy Slab (maybe, opinion was divided about which side was which) and across to the Bridge before dropping us down to the bottom ready for the last wet abseil into the sump. The waterfall from Diccan Pot was in full flow with the sump foaming with all the feed coming in.

Pretty safe to say this was a soaking wet trip, with water coming at us from all angles, so we made out way back out via Dolly Tubs with Dave giving the Cheese Press an obligatory visit with some words of encouragement from Ray. We detoured on the way out and emerged back into sunshine from Long Churn middle entrance, swiftly marching downhill with the taste of a well earned pint at the Station already in our minds.

Author: Dave

Dave & Maz