Author: Ray McGarry

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Vesper Pot

Will, Ami, Ray

Not fancying the official KCC trip of Dowbergill Passage, I had resigned myself to doing something else for the day… until Ami mentioned that Vesper was rigged and that she and Will were thinking of going there. I didn’t need any more encouragement than that!

Arriving at the usual parking spot by Braida Garth, Ami and I were surprised not to see Will already there. He’s never late. Still, it gave us an opportunity to catch up with Dalek, who was about to do a Swinsto pull-through with a couple of Southern cavers.

Will still hadn’t arrived by the time Dalek and party set off. However, there did appear to be someone (possibly) dressed like a caver waving at us from quite some distance further up the road. Could that be him? He was walking toward us, so we set off walking toward him. Eventually it was clear that it was indeed Will, so we indicated that we would drive up to meet him at his completely random parking spot.

All reunited and changed, we (plus Will’s dog Lenny) set off on a route I’d never taken to Vesper before. While I don’t think it was any shorter than the usual route, it did seem a bit less steep, which suits me just fine these days. On arrival at the entrance, I was fascinated to see what Lenny was going to do. Would he turn out to be an expert in SRT? Would Will tie him to a stake? No, he would just sit and wait patiently by the entrance for us to return. What a well-trained dog.

The entrance is a rather committing head-first dive down a slot, leading to a short very narrow sideways crawl. This was one of only 2 bits of the cave I could remember from the last time I did it, many years ago. For some reason there was an old pair of underpants in this section. Was it so tight that someone had to strip down to that level to get through??

Soon enough you break out into a low streamway where more conventional flat out crawling is possible. Luxury. The passage slowly enlarges so that walking/stooping is possible. At a step down on a LH bend, Ami chose to go low, ending up grovelling and squeezing at stream level. Not being Mendip cavers, Will and I stayed high for a bit of easy traversing. There were even some reasonably nice formations at roof level. Eventually we had to drop down too, shortly before the 1st pitch.

Having done the cave so far carrying our SRT kits, we each found a not-quite-big-enough spot to kit up. The first pitch is a bit awkward at the top and could really do with an extra anchor a bit further back to protect a bottomless traverse to the actual pitch head. At the bottom, the awkward passage continues to the 2nd pitch, again with a slightly awkward head. Once on the 2nd pitch, we remained on rope to the bottom.

The character of the cave changes completely from this point. No more constrictions and the pitches just get better and longer. That’s not to say that the challenge decreases at all – it just changes to a different challenge. For us, the challenge on the 3rd pitch was entirely man-made. None of us could quite fathom the rigging. It wasn’t exactly difficult to pass the pitch head, and we all managed in our own way, but I really couldn’t understand the thinking of the rigger.

The 4th pitch has an interesting traverse. The other bit of the cave I remember from years ago is the lean out to the anchors at the head of the 5th pitch. It used to be real fun to rig back in the old days of spits – hanging over the rather large drop for too long with spanner in hand. These days it’s just fun, especially when pre-rigged. The 5th pitch lands on the Great Rubble Heap, where Spectacle also drops in. There is another short pitch, but like everyone else, we decided to forego the pleasure. It wouldn’t take much movement of the rubble heap at all to make it your last ever pitch.

After a brief chat at the bottom, we made our way out without any real drama. It was absolute luxury to not have to derig and drag tackle back through the awkward entrance series. Definitely the way to go! Will and Ami totally breezed out. I thought even I was doing well, right up until daylight was in view. I approached the last section facing the wrong way and couldn’t quite get my leg up a very small step. I had to reverse slightly to a point where I could rotate the other way. No big problem, except that the act of rotating put my face rather closer to the discarded pants than I would have liked. Back on the surface, Lenny was still waiting… and very excited to see us back.

Vesper is definitely a trip of 2 distinct halves. I did kind of miss the rigging on this trip, but that’s a very small price to pay for not having to carry tackle. My hope is that this will kickstart of few more KCC trips on East Kingsdale. King Pot anyone??

Photos by Will

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Heron Pot

Helen, Paddy, Pete, James, Maz, Short Dave, Dougal Dave, Ami, Sophie P, Ray

Report by Helen

A huge KCC turnout for Heron Pot. I’d packed all necessary ropes etc but realised I’d left my mobile (an integral part of my new diabetes monitoring system) on my desk at work. Should I cave?? Decision made I loaded with carbs and led one group to the cave. The other group (taking a different route), got there quicker—but I suspect that was fitness…sorry, my bad knee!
 
Only issue I had with blood sugar was on trying to drag the tackle sack through the beginning of the cave—thankfully help was on hand—and I passed the bag to Dave. My knee meant I had insufficient confidence in spreadeagling across the traverse, so Paddy rigged the High Level route while I rigged the trad route followed by new Sophie who had only just learned to SRT the day before (at a wall). She did amazingly well, and we all congregated in the main chamber in a timely manner.
 
Concerned that new Sophie may have a few issues on ascent (her first in a cave, & with a couple of awkward pitch heads), we had a quick wander downstream as far as the very wet section and returned to start our ascent.
 
Several members exited via the bottom wet entrance, leaving just enough cavers to de-rig both routes.
 
Sophie (with her new-found SRT skills & general climbing/ropework experience), made quick work of both pitches. Whereas Maz had set up his SRT kit incorrectly and had a mare with the lower pitch – a mistake I’m sure won’t be repeated! Ami de-rigged for us and carried the kit out as well. So I got off lightly all round. The only downside to the trip being the hungry swarms of midges while changing. Thanks everyone.
By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Titan (Team Saturday – Rigging)

Will, Chris A, Ray

I’d wanted to do Titan ever since hearing about it on my return to caving a few years ago – it wasn’t a thing back in my first caving career. Thanks to Will’s determination and organisational skills (ok, he’d actually forgotten to book it until shortly before the trip, but let’s gloss over that), I was finally going to get my chance. As there was so much interest within the club, the plan was ideal – a Saturday team would do all the rigging, while a Sunday team would derig. We only had a permit for Titan itself, so no through trips this time.

Will, Chris and I met just before 9am at the Chapel (TSG hut) in Castleton. We then drove up the Pindale Road to park in a convenient layby, saving us a long climb up from Castleton, via Cave Dale. Now all we had to do was find the entrance to the biggest shaft in the country. Easy, right? Well, it probably would be if it was marked with some sort of appropriate monument, but it’s just a concrete cap completely flush with the ground… and there’s a lot of blank ground up there… and quite a few walls & fences. Luckily, in the distance we spotted TSG member Craig (who was planning to pop down our ropes to do a Lidar survey of the shaft). The idea was for him to give us a head start, then he would pop down, do his stuff and we would never even know he’d been there. So much for that plan. But at least we were able to follow him to the entrance.

Once at the entrance, Chris did his (apparently) customary stripping off, before setting to attempting to open the lid. This proved rather trickier than we were expecting. How many Dales cavers does it take to open a Derbyshire cave? Well, 3 apparently… watched in amusement by a single TSG member.

Then Chris (now fully clothed again… phew!) did an excellent job of rigging the entrance shaft. This is made slightly more awkward by the fact that rigging is from a pair of anchors below surface level. There are at least various metal rungs keyed into the concrete shaft lining to help. Rigging done, Chris set off down the completely man-made 50m shaft. Apparently it took 3 and a half years to excavate the shaft and the short passage below to connect with the main Titan shaft. It took Chris slightly less time to descend. Will took the opportunity to illuminate his descent using his new mega-torch. Luckily, Chris was so far below that we didn’t hear what he thought of that.

Will was next down, followed by yours truly. At the bottom is a short stooping passage, leading to a window out over the main shaft. Wow! What an impressive sight the shaft is. It was Will’s job to rig the main shaft down to the Event Horizon, where I would take over. Luckily there’s a convenient puddle just before the window for soaking the ropes, which is definitely a good idea.

Showing hardly any Elvis leg at all, Will was straight out over the shaft, all 3 cowstails attached, to rig the y-hang that would take us down the first half – about 70m. Everything double and triple checked, he set off, while Chris and I waited… and waited. Eventually, some rather worrying noises drifted up the shaft. Initially it sounded like a rockfall. Presumably it was simply Will and bag landing on the EH, the noise of which was reverberating around the shaft.

Eventually, “rope free” was called and it was my turn to move out of the safety of the window. It was exhilarating to look straight down the shaft at the pin prick of Will’s light below. Wow again! The scale of the place really has to be seen to be appreciated. Setting off down, I immediately regretted my decision to use a Stop. The problem was that I had to use 1 hand to hold the handle in, meaning that I only had 1 to lift and feed the rope. I would definitely use a Simple next time. That way I could use both hands on the rope, for a much smoother and faster descent. As it was, progress was painfully slow.

Eventually reaching Will, there was a bit of a comedy sketch while we tried to pass each other and the various ropes. Will had brought 100m for the top half of the shaft, thinking that it would also do down to the rebelay just below the EH. I didn’t like that idea as it would mean rather a lot of rope to tie up at the rebelay. So we decided to start the final rope directly from the EH. That did, of course, leave the question of whether it would reach the bottom. We reckoned it probably would. Meanwhile, Chris had dispatched the upper half of the shaft in quick time and was also down at the EH.

I rigged a y-hang from the EH and set off down, looking for the rebelay. Ah, there it is! There’s actually a choice of 2 pairs of anchors. The pair on the LHS looked slightly preferable from the perspective of krabs & knots potentially rubbing on the rock. It’s a pretty spectacular free-hanging rebelay. Being a bit out of practice, I managed to get my short cowstail stuck under the loaded rope. No real problem as I was able to use my foot jammer to unweight the lower rope and free the cowstail. Still, it was one more manoeuvre to perform in a rather exposed situation. Again, I took a long time to descend on my Stop. Thankfully the rope did indeed reach, although there wasn’t much spare.

While Will descended, I took the chance to scout for the way on down through the boulder choke, finding a likely looking candidate. Will was obviously in his element now and didn’t take long to reach me. Touching down, he readied himself and mega-torch to get some footage of Chris descending the final drop. He had to be quick, though, as Chris came down at a hell of a rate. The bounce in the rope as he came to a stop a suitable distance from the floor was spectacular. It seemed a bit more like bungee jumping than abseiling to me.

With everyone safely down, we took some time to regroup, have a drink and take SRT kits off for a bit of an explore. I very much wanted to treat this as a recce for a future through trip, so was keen to at least get to Stemple Highway.

As I had (possibly) identified the way on, it was apparently up to me to lead the way, despite my protestations. It starts as a head-first horizontal crawl, leading to various slight enlargements, climbs, squeezes and thrutches. Eventually we popped out of the boulder choke into AI passage, just upstream of Far Sump. Turning left, we were soon at the short climb up into the way through to Stemple Highway on the right. A short bit of stooping and crawling eventually led to Stemple Highway.

A quick poke to the right in SH revealed the way to Salmon’s Cavern. I think Ride of the Valkyries pops down from the heavens here. Useful to know for a possible vertical round trip on a later date. Our way on was to the left in SH. Quickly we came across some fixed iron ladders leading up. Will was up them like a ferret up a trouser. At the top was a roped traverse over a deep drop. None of us fancied this without cowstails, so that was a far as we went.

On the way back I couldn’t keep up with the 2 racing snakes as off they sped, occasionally stopping to offer advice or assistance to their geriatric partner. Getting back up through the boulder choke was hard work. Then came the really hard work, i.e. climbing back up the shaft. Will went first and seemed to be setting a cracking pace. As soon as the bottom rope was free, Chris also disappeared at a rate of knots. And that’s the last I saw of either of them until the surface.

I took my time prussicking. At the slow pace I was doing, it actually didn’t seem too bad. I took plenty of time to look around the impressive shaft. I was even occasionally able to pick out the line of anchors by which the shaft was first climbed – what a feat that was. Not having to derig or carry any tackle almost made the main shaft fun. I found myself feeling slightly guilty that Team Sunday wouldn’t have such luxury.

I really didn’t enjoy prussicking up the entrance shaft. The dimensions mean that I was forever banging off the walls. Will and Chris were shouting encouragement (or maybe abuse?) from above. Eventually I reached the top, but somehow managed to get the rope clipped through a krab on my belt. It took a while to realise why I wasn’t able to dismount the pitch!

All safely back on the surface, we congratulated ourselves. Will & Chris skipped and I hobbled back to the car by a much more sensible route.

What a great day out. We will all definitely be back. I’d love to do through trips to both Peak Cavern and JH in time. Today’s trip was great research for such plans. I’d also like to do a vertical round trip via Calcite Aven and Ride of the Valkyries. To be honest, there’s so much to go back for. Let’s make it an (at least) annual trip please! Cheers Will and Chris for an amazing experience and taking an old man out for the day.

Photos by Will & Chris.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Notts II (Gour Inlet)

Ami, Pete, Maz, Ray

I’d had my eye on Gour Inlet for a while. It looks substantial on the survey and includes all sorts of climbs, traverses, pitches and even a (hopefully) drained sump. What’s not to like? Having finally decided to put it on the meets list, I wasn’t sure if anyone else would share my enthusiasm. I needn’t have worried. At one point we had 9 people signed up for the trip, although some of those preferred the more traditional Notts II tourist trip. In the end, only 4 hardy souls turned up. This was particularly unfortunate for Maz as he was one of those who preferred the tourist trip, but found himself unexpectedly on the Gour Inlet team. To be fair, he didn’t take too much convincing.

As mentioned previously, the inlet includes various traverses and pitches, so we found ourselves unusually descending the entrance climb in SRT kit and carrying tackle sacks. I had a feeling that most, if not all, sections requiring tackle would be pre-rigged, but we couldn’t be sure.

Once down at the main drain, we set off downstream. The 1st hurdle to overcome was finding the right place to climb up into the inlet. We passed Inlet 14 (with it’s particularly ropey ladder hanging down). About the same distance further downstream, the passage is bridged by some clacited boulders. Gour Inlet is above these.

The next hurdle is the climb up to reach it. Looking at both the upstream and downstream approaches, it seemed that the best place to start climbing was a short way downstream of the boulder bridge. The climb looks intimidating, but turned out to be easy enough. It starts with some bridging between the walls, before transferring onto the true left hand wall and finishing up a flowstone cascade. I climbed up first, but stupidly forgot to bring the rope with me, so Ami then climbed up with the rope. While I was tying it around a convenient boulder, Pete had climbed up. Poor Maz was virtually forced to use the rope to at least get some use out of it, even though he was presumably quite capable of climbing without it.

We then set off into the unknown. According to the NC3 description, the inlet starts with 180m of stooping passage. This is a bit generous. I have no reason to doubt the 180m, but I found myself crawling a substantial amount of it.

Eventually we came to a climb down. A short distance further is the sump. Again according to NC3, there is engineering designed to keep this drained. Would the engineering still be working? None of us (with the possible exception of Ami) would have been going any further if there was less than a foot of airspace. Luckily(?), the engineering was still working, indicated by the occasional belching sound coming from the pipework.

While the “sump” had plenty of airspace, it wasn’t exactly pleasant – a sign of things to come. From this point it all becomes a bit of a mudfest. Before long, we reached the 1st traverse (over Pit Pot). As I had almost expected, this was equipped with a fixed rope. There was some debate about the state of the hangers, maillons and rope, but apart from that it all looked good enough to use. So we decided to leave our tackle there, deciding that the rest of the passage would also be rigged.

The traverse over Pit Pot would have been easy enough if we weren’t all so covered in mud. The 18m drop focused the mind somewhat, but we all made it over. The passage continued, never big, but always muddy. Eventually we came to a 2nd traverse, again pre-rigged. This one was even worse, largely because we were covered in even more mud by this point.

Not far beyond the 2nd traverse are some upward climbs. The longest of these (maybe 3m or so) was equipped with an electron ladder. I found this the most terrifying bit of the whole trip as I have seen enough of these break over the years. Thankfully this one managed to hold itself together long enough for us all to get up (and eventually back down) it.

At the top of the ladder is a small muddy alcove with another short climb up into a crawling passage. Maz decided he had had enough at this point and suggested I come past him. Past him?? I couldn’t even get to him. I don’t know if the soles of my wellies are particularly slick, but I couldn’t make any forward progress at all. In fact, I was in serious danger of falling back down the ladder. Eventually, I did manage to pass Maz, but really struggled to get up the next short climb.

Ami and Pete were still within earshot up ahead, but what they were going through didn’t sound pleasant, so I decided to stop with Maz. You can have too much of a good thing. The brave heroes at the front went on for a bit. The description is really confusing, but they think they reached Intimate Chamber. At this point, it was unclear whether they were supposed to climb up or down, so wisely did neither.

Maz and I set off out and were soon caught by the others. The traverses were even more “interesting” with our additional layers of mud. I was particularly keen to see if the “sump” was still drained, fearing that we may have knocked the pipework sufficiently on our way in to stop it working. Thankfully, reassuring belching could be heard as we approached. The “sump” at least washed us off a bit.

It was a relief to eventually hear the sound of the main drain as we approached the top of the climb back down. As we had a rope (well, quite a few actually), it seemed foolish not to use it. Fearing that an attempt at a pull through type arrangement would result in a stuck rope, the last person had to down climb unaided. This actually turned out to be even easier than climbing up. So I would suggest that a rope probably isn’t necessary at all, unless your party includes a particularly unconfident climber.

Ami chose to have a bath while the rest of us made our way out. The exit climb was made even more interesting than usual due to the pointless tackle getting stuck just about everywhere possible.

Would I recommend Gour Inlet to other parties? Absolutely. It was a fun trip. It may even get better further on. There are some reasonably-sized pitches. I would like to get to those at some point, maybe after a bit more research on the route. Would I go back anytime soon? Absolutely not. The memories of all that mud will fade, but it will take time.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Bull Pot Kingsdale

James, Pete, Maz, Paddy, Ray

More often than not in recent years, we seem to have limited club trips to the first 3 pitches of Bull Pot, either due to water levels or to make the trip more novice-friendly. With a crack team and with water levels very low, however, we were determined to get to the bottom this time. Originally, 8 people had signed up, so I packed tackle for the main pitches, as well as variants of the 1st and 3rd. In the end, 3 had failed to make it (mostly due to work commitments), leaving us with 5. We still took all the tackle, intending to rig the variants.

After a very pleasant and leisurely change, we set off up the hill. The others obliged me by taking the sweeping path out to the right, making the walk up slightly easier. A plan was hatched whereby I would rig the main pitches, while Paddy would rig the variants. So I set off down the 1st (also with tackle for the 2nd & 3rd), closely followed by James with tackle for the 4th & 5th. The idea was for us to race on ahead and see how far we could get before being caught by the others.

Meanwhile, Paddy (who had never been in Bull Pot before) set about rigging the Monolith variant of the 1st pitch, followed by Pete, who had done this variant before. It’s a great little alternative and Paddy seemed suitably impressed. He rigged straight down to the ground from the final y-hang – a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It’s possible to stop a bit higher up and join the traverse line to the 2nd pitch, but why would you? Well, because just around the corner, literally a few feet away, you have to climb back up to the traverse line anyway.

James and I made short work of pitches 2 & 3, rigged (as usual) with a single rope and dropping down the slot. The 4th was bone dry – not even a single drop of water. I set about rigging the traverse at the top, only to discover that I no longer have the flexibility to get my foot onto a necessary step to reach the final y-hang. Hmmm. After some, presumably comical, shenanigans I managed to get there. James was very diplomatic. We used the 1st deviation, more out of habit than anything else. Thankfully there was no need for the 2nd.

Further up, the “wisdom” of leaving poor Paddy, who had never been in Bull Pot before, to rig the 3rd pitch alternative was exposed as the pure idiocy it undoubtedly was. Of course, he assumed the slot was part of the 2nd pitch, so shot straight down it, as you would. My fault entirely for not considering this obvious outcome. Oh well – pointlessly carrying some unused rope down a cave never hurt anyone.

James and I could now hear the others behind us, so sped on to the final pitch. I must have gone a bit low to reach the start of the initial traverse as the first anchor seemed a bit close to the pitch head – well, slightly over it really. Only when I looked back at a higher level did I see the actual 1st anchor. Oh well, too late to go back now. The initial traverse is quite constricted, which makes things particularly awkward with my reduced flexibility. Thankfully things improved a bit after the drop onto the lower traverse line. Soon, both James and I were at the bottom.

James had a bit of a poke around to see if the passage carried on, but didn’t get very far. Unusual for him. I was sure I’d have to physically pull him out of some hole or other. Perhaps he’s learned something from Hazel Grove Cave a few weeks ago.

Soon, Paddy dropped in to join us. Then Pete. Nice one! Maz decided the initial traverse on the last pitch was a bit snug for him. Fair enough. He did incredibly well to get down the 4th for the first time.

Then there was nothing left but to set off out. I went first. Getting back across the 2 traverses on the last pitch seemed much easier on the way out and I soon joined Maz and we made our way out together. Paddy derigged the bottom 2 pitches. Apparently he had some fun on the “first” anchor of the bottom pitch being as it was too close to the actual pitch for comfort. Sorry again Paddy. Not to worry – his skills were more than up to rigging a little closed safety system. Nice.

At the front, I went up the 4th pitch first as Maz wanted someone at the head when he got there. We then made our way out, via the standard 1st pitch, without too much drama, picking up the unused 3rd pitch alternative bag on the way. James was close behind, but separated from us to derig the Monolith variant on the 1st pitch. Special mention must go to Pete. Not only did he get to the bottom, but he also derigged the top 3 pitches.

All in all, a very successful trip. Thanks all for making it a great evening.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Rowten Pot

John, Will, Ray

This was a quick trip following my favourite route: In through the Eyehole, descend the main pitch from the 1st y-hang in the bottomless rift, swing over onto the wall for a few of the rebelays on the normal Gully route, all finished off via the Flyover.

Both John and I had done Rowten many times (although this precise route was new to John), but it was a bit of a step up for Will. Having done a few of the West Kingsdale potholes, he was suitably impressed by their “big brother”.

We were down at the bottom in no time. Will couldn’t be persuaded to dive the sump, which is just as well as he started by looking at the upstream sump. Neither John nor I had any intention of diving any sumps!

Will did an excellent job of derigging. All was going very well indeed until I started to prussic the entrance pitch. The tackle bag I was carrying became tangled round the rope, so I hauled it up and started passing it around to free it. Unfortunately, being a bit depleted these days, I ran out of energy & strength halfway through this manoeuvre and let the bag drop. This was enough to break the donkey’s d1ck attaching it to me and it fell back down the pitch. We had 2 bits of good fortune here: (1) it landed on the ledge without rolling off down the main pitch, (2) I was only 6 or 7m up, so could easily pop down to collect it.

Will finished off the derigging in no time and we exited to glorious sunshine. Will tells me the whole trip took 3 hours, 20 minutes from car to sump and back. Not bad for a couple of old duffers… and a young tiger.

Photos by Will.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Oxlow Caverns

Ray and his non-KCC friend John Bown

Will had planned this as a day trip to the Peak, but no-one apart from me signed up. Not to worry – Will and I would still have a great trip. Until Will pulled out, that is. Now, I’m not so easily put off, especially since I was due to be down that way anyway. So I set about finding some other friends to go with. Only John answered the call. Still, that would be enough.

I packed all the tackle and set off south, via Vikki’s parents in Chinley, meeting John in the 5-Ways launderette cafe in Buxton (one of his favourites) bright and early on Saturday morning. What the cafe lacks in quality it makes up for in cheapness.

Suitably satisfied (in quantity at least), we moved on to the parking spot, where we both had issues trying to park on the same side of the road as the cave. The drop off from the tarmac is getting more extreme every time I go there. It’s now much better to park on the other side of the road, unless you have substantial clearance.

When we eventually got parked, I emptied all the tackle we would need out the back of the car… as did John. Hmmm, perhaps our communication could have been better. Interestingly, although we had packed ropes for the same trip, John somehow had a LOT less rope than me. Ah yes, he said, both the CCPC and the DCA rigging guides are overly generous. So we essentially took John’s tackle as he goes there more often than I do and presumably knows the rigging better. We didn’t take any rope for the West Swirl Ramp as it’s always rigged. We had a half-plan to look up into Pilgrims Way, which needs a bit more rope than the 5th pitch, so we swapped out John’s 15m for my 19m, which would do both pitches (not at the same time obviously). All ropes managed to fit easily into 2 bags. In fact, one of the bags was even quite empty! I liked this approach.

On arrival at the entrance, John informed me that, while he knew his rope lengths were sufficient, they would be a bit tight. Ahh. I started to like his approach a bit less… especially when I realised that he had brought 30m for the entrance pitch, whereas I had packed 45m. John set off rigging. On my way down the entrance shaft, I noted that I passed 2 anchors, presumably for deviations or rebelays to avoid rope rub. John had also passed these anchors. The rope did rub a bit, but to be fair it’s only really glancing off relatively flat rock. Certainly nothing worth worrying too much about. At the bottom of the entrance shaft is another y-hang for a short 4m drop. No need for the y-hang John informed me, rigging off a single anchor. I could soon see why when his rope literally just reached the bottom. A y-hang would have left us dangling. So, it turns out the entrance pitch can indeed be done with a 30m rope – whether it’s wise or not is another matter.

As we were going to make use of the fixed rope on West Swirl, we weren’t sure exactly how long a rope was need to get us there. In the end, we conservatively estimated that 60m should be enough for the 2nd, 3rd and the swing onto the ramp. John set off rigging the 2nd and I took over for the 3rd. The deviation on the 3rd was pre-equipped with tat and even a krab. The swing onto the ramp was easy enough and then a very short bit of descent down the ramp to reach the start of the fixed rope. As it turns out, 50m would have been enough. At this rate, John will be down to a single bag for his next trip!

I shot off down the ramp to get the pitch at the bottom rigged, only to find that it too was pre-rigged. The rigging wasn’t great, but it was preferable to rigging our own rope. The trip was going very well, and very quick so far.

We regrouped at the bottom of the pitch up into Pilgrims Way. Having made such good time to this point, there really weren’t any excuses for not popping up. So we tied our rope onto the polyprop cord and hauled it up through the ring at the top. There are 2 anchors for an inverted y-hang at the bottom. I was first up and was glad to see that there is a fixed traverse line at the top.

Neither John nor I had been up here before, so we were quite excited to get going. It starts as a low crawl, but soon enlarges to easy hands and knees crawling, a bit like the crawls from Bar Pot to GG main chamber. It does go on a bit though, passing many side crawls along the way. We didn’t poke up any of these.

Eventually, the going gets a bit more flat out for a very short distance, complete with puddle for maximum unpleasantness, before we entered the bottom of an aven (Mecca Aven?). The connection to Giants Hole, via the Chamber of Horrors, goes off to the left here. Fortunately John didn’t fancy looking up here on this occasion. I certainly didn’t! Thankfully, this marks the end of the crawling. From here it’s mostly walking in a passage that gets progressively bigger.

In North Chamber there was a rope heading up. We pondered on what may be up there, but left it at that. It turns out that this rope leads up to the Crusader Series, which seems well worth a visit at some point. We knew that just around the corner was North Pitch. We had decided not to bring a rope for this pitch, largely because we couldn’t be bothered carrying it through the Pilgrims Way crawl, but also because I suspected it would be pre-rigged. Rounding the corner, we were pleased to see that our gamble had paid off. It was rigged. As with most fixed ropes, however, it wasn’t easy to get on to.

I went down first and waited for John, excited to see what lay beyond. Sadly, my excitement wasn’t warranted. What lay a very short distance beyond was a miserable low, wet crawl. Neither of us could quite remember the description, but thought that this was a sign that the sump was close, with only a short wet crawl and some ducks between us and it. This didn’t seem appealing, so we decided to call it a day. In fact, this was the start of The Sewer, a 46m miserable wet crawl leading to some more big stuff, before 3 dams and then the sump. May be worth pushing on next time.

As we turned around, we felt quite a long way from home, especially with the prospect of the long Pilgrims Way crawl ahead of us. Dismounting North Pitch was as entertaining as we expected. Shortly after, there is a rather annoying little climb up, complete with stacked rocks to make it slightly easier… but not easy enough. We both struggled on this. Apart from that, the journey back to the top of our rope back down into West Chamber went surprisingly well. We were both surprised by how quickly we got back through Pilgrims Way, so much so that John crawled straight past the side passage leading to our rope.

The journey out from here went quickly, with me derigging and it was good to pop out into pleasant sunshine. The throngs of people on top of, and on their way up, Mam Tor across the valley were something to behold. A quick stop off at the Hanging Gate pub for a debrief completed the day nicely.

I would recommend this trip to anyone. There’s so much more to Oxlow if you go up the pitch into Pilgrims Way. I hope to go back at some point for a look into Crusader Series. Who’s up for it?

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Cracker – Boxhead Exchange

Scott, Ami, James, Dave & Ray

Luckily we had enough takers, so the exchange was on… otherwise we would have had to make do with an in and out of either entrance.

It had previously been decided that Scott would rig It’s A Cracker and I would rig Boxhead, so all that remained on getting to the rough area of the caves was to decide who was going in each entrance. Ami decided to join Scott, while Dave & James opted for joining me in Boxhead.

So off we set for our respective holes. Well, the Boxhead team did, but it turns out that neither Scott nor Ami had been to Cracker before, so had no idea in which direction to set. A quick detour to show them the way and we were all finally ready to get underground.

Rigging Boxhead went largely according to plan. The only issue was that I was unable to get a swing going to reach the 2nd deviation on the big pitch. I wasn’t within reach of any walls, so just hung there pathetically for far too long before I could manage to get enough movement to just about touch a wall with my feet. Mental note: next time get a swing going at the first deviation before descending to the 2nd.

We followed the Kendal Flyover route, largely because it’s much more fun than going straight down. Dave and James were hot on my heels the whole way, so obviously weren’t struggling in any way. At the ledge where the crawl goes off towards the Tate Galleries, I asked if D&J wanted to have a poke around Cresta Run, Epiglottis Grotto etc… but there didn’t seem to be any enthusiasm. I trace this to their last visit when they went through the initial crawl and then turned left into Venus dig, which must have been a bit of a disappointment. There is better stuff – honest!

So we just rigged the last drop and carried on down to the bottom to wait for team Cracker. We were just about to pop trough to the bottom of the main Boxhead shaft for a look around when we heard voices and then saw a light above. Scott and Ami obviously weren’t hanging around. Good effort, given that neither of them had been there before.

They soon joined us at the bottom and we finally had that poke around. No-one could be persuaded into having a look at The Tube. Maybe next time.

Dave volunteered to derig Boxhead – he must have really enjoyed it on the way down. Ami followed him. Scott opted for going out Cracker, followed by me, with James derigging. The plan was for James and I to share the derigging, but I was so knackered on reaching the top of the bottom pitch that Scott decided I was best just making my way out slowly. And, believe me, it was slow… and pathetic. I guess it may be a while before I’m back on top of my game.

James did a sterling job derigging. Dave must have done likewise in Boxhead as they were out in super quick time and had to wait quite a while for us – largely down to my lack of fitness/strength I suspect.

I think Boxhead – Cracker is the perfect evening SRT exchange and this particular trip didn’t disappoint. Thanks all!

Photos by Dave & Ray

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Hardrawkin Pot

Scott, Jasmine, Maz & Ray

A chilly evening saw 4 of us gather at the layby just up from the Hill Inn, unsure if Hardrawkin would be possible given recent rainfall. Although it had been dry all day, there had been significant rainfall over previous days and river levels were still very high. So we walked up the hill with a half-plan to divert to High Douk, Great Douk etc. if nececessary.

Arriving at the entrance, the water level entering the cave seemed surprisingly low… and cold, so in we went. Also surprisingly, no-one but me had ever been to Hardrawkin before. This didn’t deter Scott, who bravely led us into the unknown.

The few little climbs down at the entrance were as slippy as ever, requiring a bit of care to avoid an embarrassing tumble before even leaving the surface. The entrance passage, as far as the 1st pitch, was a good workout, forcing constant changing from walking to crawling or stooping at regular intervals. This was my 1st caving trip for around 5 months due to various joint-related issues, so I found progress along this passage to be particularly hard work.

Eventually we made it to the pitch and Scott set to rigging. Maz found a great natural backup, but it was quite a way back from the pitch head. I found myself wondering if Scott had brought a sufficient excess of rope. Time would tell.

The pitch head rigging was dispensed in quick time and Scott set off down. Despite the apparently low water levels entering the cave, the pitch did seem quite wet, so I hoped Scott would engage at least 2 deviations… which he did. There seemed to be quite a delay before the eventual “rope free” call from the bottom. At least Scott had made it down, but why the delay?

Jasmine was next to descend. The head of this 1st pitch is always a bit awkward as the y-hang is quite a way out over the pitch, making it difficult to pull enough slack through your descender to avoid hanging in your cowstail as you swing out. But Jasmine made it look easy, bridging up the walls for a bit of extra height. Nice one. Down she went, passing the deviations easily enough. Again, there was quite a delay before the rope was declared to be free. Hmmm.

Maz was up next. Not being a natural SRTer by his own admission, he appeared to be somewhat unconvinced about the sense of this particular endeavour. How would he get onto the rope? It’s not as bad as it looks, I encouraged. How would he get back off it on the way up? It’s much easier on ascent, I lied. He didn’t look entirely convinced, but carried on anyway. Sure enough, he did manage to get onto the rope and set off down. The deviations didn’t seem to pose too much of a problem. Once again, though, there was something of a delay before I heard “rope free”.

Setting off down myself, I could hear Scott shouting something as I neared the bottom. Eventually it became clear that he hadn’t, after all, brought a sufficient excess of rope! The workaround was to disengage from the rope while clinging to the wall a few metres up the pitch. As I was last down, we had to be careful that the rope didn’t ping back up the pitch as soon as my weight came off it. So Scott was on hand to tie a bit of tat to it to ensure that we at least had a fighting chance of being able to exit the cave.

We were all thoroughly soaked after descending this pitch, and the various shenanigans securing our exit strategy, so were glad to get moving down the cascades leading to the 2nd pitch. I always enjoy these cascades and the water levels made them particularly “enjoyable” on this occasion.

Somehow, Scott had previously found time to part-rig the 2nd pitch, so completing the job didn’t take long. Again, the take-off is a bit awkward, requiring quite a swing out from a ledge down to which you have to first climb. Again, Jasmine made this look easy. Maz made a pretty good job of it too and we were all soon at the bottom looking at the sump and contemplating our ascent.

Scott announced that he didn’t mind derigging. Ordinarily, I would have insisted that it was only fair that I derig. On this occasion, however, I sheepishly agreed and set off up the 2nd pitch in case either Jasmine or Maz needed some encouragement at the top.

The key at the top of both pitches is to not prussick too high. Doing so means that you don’t have enough slack to swing off the pitch, without your chest jammer pulling you back out. It was rather entertaining to watch Jasmine learning this lesson in real time. She prussicked slightly too high and attached cowstails. Then, swinging onto the ledge, found herself teetering on the edge, chest jammer pulling her back out and desperately gripping the upper rope to stop it. To be fair, she came up with the perfectly good solution of swinging back out onto the pitch and down prussicking a bit. This would have been ok. However, in the end, she simply moved her upper jammer over onto the upper rope, which she could then hang on to remove her chest jammer from the lower rope, while still stood on the ledge.

Maz made very short work of the 2nd pitch head, stopping prussicking with enough slack that he could swing onto the ledge and stand there easily to transfer onto the upper rope. Nice one!

Climbing back up the cascades provided just the right amount of fun. I then set off up the 1st pitch and was very happy to reach the top, for 2 reasons: (i) I was absolutely soaked, and (ii) I was absolutely knackered, not having done much exercise at all for 5 months (unless eating biscuits and cake counts).

Jasmine had clearly learned her lesson from the previous pitch and stopped prussicking a bit earlier this time. She took some time to think through her strategy for getting off the rope and then executed it very well. Maz’s exit from the pitch was perhaps a little less graceful, but some combined tactics did the trick.

Scott was soon up and had the pitch derigged in no time. We all remarked that the entrance passage seemed much longer on the way out and seemed to have a lot more crawling. Maz, in particular, had good reason to think this as he was dragging all the tackle – good effort. It was a very chilly walk back down to the road and cars covered in a nice layer of ice.

I like to think we all learned something from this trip: Scott learned that 40<45, Jasmine learned not to prussick too high, Maz learned not to trust me and I learned that eating biscuits and cakes doesn’t count as exercise. Thanks all for another great evening, even if it was a bit more moist than we would have liked.