Category: Day Trips

By Sophie H In Day Trips

Gavel


Sophie H, Billy, Jason, Klaudia
The plan for the weekend was Fossil Pot, but with a fair bit of rain forecast we decided to be sensible and go for somewhere less flood-prone. Gavel seemed like a good suggestion, and meant we could check the KCC cleaning station installed by Jason a month earlier. We arrived at Leck Fell on a drizzly Saturday morning, shortly followed by a group from another club heading the same way. I rigged the first pitch, and with several more cavers arriving, Billy headed off to quickly rig the next pitch. After a short down-climb and a bit of crawling, soon enough we were at Glasfurds. Its a great chamber, with curtain-like formations, straws, crawls and squeezes. After a good look around we headed to the newly discovered Echo chamber. I’d been here a couple of months earlier, and it was still equally as impressive and definitely has some of the longest straws i’ve ever seen. It is particularly muddy on the entrance though, so Jason re-stocked the cleaning station and we cleaned a few of the formations nearest to the path. Next, the two big pitches. I’d been to the top of these once a couple of months before with Billy and Scott, had looked down, got nervous, and waited at the top whilst they explored. Having since gained considerably more confidence with my caving, I was keen to give it another go, and it did not disappoint. Billy was very smooth on the rigging, and after a re-belay, exposed traverses, a precariously positioned pipe and a big deviation, we were at the sump. Klaudia and I shared de-rigging duties and we both complained about the weight of the bags. Klaudia did a particularly great job de-rigging the exposed traverse. The weather was even more miserable on the walk back to the cars, but we had a great day. Thanks all. Photo 1- Klaudia in Glasfurds chamber, photo 2- looking down from the top of pitch three, photo 4 – straws in Echo chamber, photo 5- the sump.

By Billy F In Day Trips

Gaping Gill – Stream Passage Pot


Billy, Sophie H, Paddy
The original plan for Saturday’s trip had been Juniper Gulf, but without the man and woman power required to lug 250m of rope up the hill, we decided Stream Passage Pot in Gaping Gill would be a better option. None of us had been down this way before, and it was a first Gaping Gill trip for Paddy. It was still a lot of kit to carry, and we were grateful to reach the entrance after a nice walk up the hill – we even spotted  a white grasshopper on the way.

A quick kit sort, some lunch and off we went. None of us were a huge fan of the mid-way squeeze on the first pitch, but after this things got big, dangly and great fun. A few swingy deviations and traverses later and we found ourselves at the bottom. The route described several waterfalls to pass here – today they were not much more than a trickle. Navigation went smoothly. We scrambled up muddy slabs and down various twists, turns and crawls to the main chamber. It was as spectacular as ever.  A quick flapjack and off we went back the way we came. I must admit, I struggled a bit with the bags on the way out – do bags ever not get stuck? A great trip and I hope to be back again soon. Thanks to Ray for being the call-out. Report written by Sophie H.

 

By David L In Day Trips

Hurnel Moss Pot

Tall Dave, Billy and Sophie 

In the midst of the great heatwave of July 2026 (which I’m sure we used to just call “summer”), Myself, Sophie and Billy met at a slightly earlier time than usual in Clapham to head up to Hurnel Moss Pot on the side of Ingleborough. Starting the walk up in a cool 25°C we had opted for the longer but more gradual and shaded route up via Clapham beck rather than from Newby Cote. This proved to be a wise decision, and definitely not just because of the cafe halfway. The showcave was just opening up as we passed so an already very welcome can of pop was bought and then we continued the sweltering trudge up through Trow Gill and on to the moss, to a very welcome breeze.

The shakehole was easy to find, being at the foot of an obvious stream cutting diagonally down from Ingleborough and we were greeted into it by a dozen beautiful dragonflies of quite an impressive size, whirring around, pondering the new arrivals.

I went first into the snug entrance, rigging the first short but awkward pitchhead and sliding like an unathletic seal off the edge into the first small drop.

From here a boulder slope drops down towards the main chamber and another very short rebelay swings you out over the abyss and onto the first traverse. This is described as being technical and lacking footholds however we all agreed that the perfectly placed crack at foot height all the way along seemed to suffice just nicely and we were soon at the Y-hang. From here the view is dramatic with the full height of the upper chamber on show, the anchor on the side of a huge hanging buttress of rock and the start of a stunning fluted shaft within the end of the chamber. In normal conditions when there is more than a tiny trickle of water, the stream drops 30m down a perfectly eroded shaft and hits a seemingly impenetrable flat layer of rock, flowing off over the lip into the final drop.

From here, an upwardly angled ramp on the left wall took us to the next pitchhead, Billy taking over the rigging with a new rope and expertly facilitating the next descent. Once again we enjoyed another straight drop down a picturesque fluted and layered wall with the lower chamber opening up as we descend.

The water at the bottom descends through a huge boulder choke which we down climbed and then rigged a short rope from a natural thread to reach the streamway. An awkward downclimb took us through to almost the furthest limit however not to be outdone I could see a large space through a gap in the boulders up a 6 foot climb. My first attempt consisted of me grabbing what turned out to be mud and not rock, my foot slipping and landing in an unceremonious heap back down in the stream way. Attempt number two, this time spotted by Billy allowed me to see further on both above and below but both options were a bit tight for me.

Admitting defeat but knowing it didn’t go much further we returned up to the main chamber and began the climb back out. Derigging went like a dream and we soon found ourselves unceremoniously thrutching and grunting through the awkward pitchhead and into the sunlight. 

The walk down was much more pleasant but we still felt obliged to support the local businesses and fill up on fizzy drinks and ice-creams on the way back to the cars.

Another great trip.

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!

By Tom C In Day Trips

Smeltmill Beck Cave

Ami, James, Sophie (OG), Tom

Q: Should we visit Smeltmill Beck during the Appleby Horse Fair?

We met at J36 at 9am hoping to beat the cultural traffic around Kirkby Stephen, and our plan worked! We sailed straight through the police blockades and were changing and at the entrance in no time.

It was Ami, James and Sophie’s first time here and I’d primed them with miserable-looking videos of Maz in neck deep water in the hopes they’d be pleasantly surprised by the place, and it might have worked. Although probably not initially, as I heard various muffled curses mixed with the word ‘TOM’ from behind as I tried to navigate through the horrible wallowy entrance series. Things only progressed from bollock deep, to ovary deep, to boob deep (‘see, it is a varied trip! Varied depths of icy water’) and we all squeeked our various sounds of discomfort, until the roof eventually rose to the second part of the journey which is more canyon-like.

This section’s quite well decorated, if a little sinister, especially around the Hanging Gardens. We were soon at the Grovel which is a nasty little low crawl in water that I’d conveniently forgotten about. The reward for wallowing through this is getting to the suit-destroying section, which has been specially designed to shred your suit at 4 different heights. This gets a bit traverse-y and we took routes at various heights to see which was the best, not that James or I could see Ami and Sophie who were steaming ahead of us.

We caught up to them (actually, they took pity and waited for us) at the big junction, where the choice was offered of left (horrible) or right (horrible). We took the left (horrible) into the Handwrecker series, which we’d been a short way into on a previous visit, and an acrobatic little slot into cold water took us beyond our previous limit. Beyond this was just various branches of pointless crawling, which were only alleviated by some brilliant fossils in the rock.

Ami and James tagged the ends of the two furthest branches we could find, James negotiating a chilly duck for his, and we retreated to the junction where Sophie had thoughtfully dumped a bag of Jelly Babies. We’d been worried about not being able to finish these and whether they’d survive the journey out, but needn’t have since we demolished them in about 30 seconds. Even though other branches of the cave hadn’t yet been dispatched, the pub was calling at this point, and we made a beeline (a very drunk bee if you see the zig-zaggy survey) for the exit, and out to dark clouds.

A lovely pint and truffle chips in the Cross Keys in Tebay cemented its place as a certified KCC post-trip pub option for future visits to the Far North.

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Middle Scar

Damian, Maz, Tim, Gareth, Helen, Jason

I hadn’t realised that this cave was open (surprisingly, a thirty year-old copy of Northern Caves 2 isn’t totally reliable), so thanks to Damian for spotting it.  As we were just starting the long trek (c. 200m) from the cars to the cave, a motorist pulled up and asked where we were heading.  It turned out to be Andrew Hinde, who is not only a great luminary of northern caving, but was responsible for opening up Middle Scar during lockdown, repairing the entrance which had been collapsed for decades!

We quickly found the entrance – a few feet above a stream resurgence at the northern end of the shakehole – and descended.  Almost immediately, we were in deep water, but fortunately a traverse line allows progress without actually swimming.  Neoprene is definitely needed, though, as chest-deep wading continues for a while after the traverse line finishes.

The going got easier in a nice rifty passage until the “13-foot climb” is reached.  NC describes this as an easy climb, which it probably is, technically, but the material is so crumbly and loose that it’s much better to use the in-situ rope with SRT.  As well as being dubious from a safety viewpoint, climbing up would almost certainly damage the ‘rock’ so would be terrible in conservation terms.

The cave continued as mixed walking and crawling, still wet, but not difficult, until we came to a junction.  We turned left, into some interesting passage with unusual formations including fragile flakes of black material that need extreme care to pass by.  We reached Parba aven, a waterfall, which is as far as we could go, not having any means of ascent.

Returning to the junction, Damian took the straight-on (now left) fork into a low, very wet crawl.  I followed, but if he hadn’t gone first, I would probably have concluded that it didn’t go – the roof  was often intimidatingly low over the water!  Eventually this leads to a short section of pleasanter passage with some nice formations, before properly sumping.

This trip was a lot of fun, with nothing too hard, but definitely not one for novices, or if the weather is at all unsettled!

PS – Gareth produced one of his cracking short videos from this trip.  This did entail a certain amount of squatting in cold water while lighting was perfected, but hey! who doesn’t want to suffer in the name of art?

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Lost Johns, Monastery Route

Long Dave, Billy, Sophie H & Ray

The trip on this particular evening should have been a Big Meanie – Deaths Head exchange, but Ami (who had proposed it) was unavailable. As she was keen to do it, we simply postponed it and replaced it with not 1, but 2 trips! Damian led those with a penchant for aquatic pleasure into Middle Scar Cave, while I tried to drum up enough danglers for a Monastery – Dome exchange in Lost Johns, which is a trip I’ve been keen to do for quite a while. Only Dave, Sophie and Billy signed up in the end. While it certainly would have been possible to do the exchange with 4, it somehow seemed more sociable for such a small party to stick together. So we decided on a simple in and out of Monastery.

For once, the weather was surprisingly clement up on Leck Fell, so it was a rather leisurely change and stroll along to the entrance. And what a different scene greeted us to that of a few weeks ago. This time there was barely any water flowing into the LJ entrance. We were going to have a very pleasant evening indeed – none of the usual spray lashing or salmon impressions on the various climbs for us.

I led off through the very familiar entrance passages, eventually cutting down with the water where the New Roof Traverse heads off towards Dome & Centipede. Sophie declared herself very happy to not have to do this particular traverse. Hmmm, I thought.

Continuing with the water, we got to a short down climb. In the past I’ve wasted a bit of time looking for anchors here as it looks a bit tricky to get back up. There aren’t any anchors… and none are needed as the climb is much easier than it looks, both down and up. Not long after, I made the same mistake I always make on this route and completely missed the “obvious” Old Roof Traverse leading to Hampstead Heath pitch. Missing this traverse leads one to the head of a wet “pitch”, but nothing to rig off. A quick bit of backtracking and thrutch up later, we were making our way along the traverse. To my mind, the Old Roof Traverse is much worse than the New. Sophie seemed to agree.

Soon we were in the dry passage leading to Hampstead Heath pitch, which was quickly rigged and descended. Meeting the water once again, the traverse to Monastery pitch soon begins. At least this is protected by a rope, initially rigged from a natural thread and then following a long line of anchors. It’s a bit cramped for rigging this section and I was glad to eventually reach the end of the traverse and start heading down the pitch. Just a couple of metres down, I swung into the dry oxbow passage to rig the drier hang. To be honest, we probably could have carried on directly down in view of the low water conditions, but where’s the fun in that?

Everyone loved Monastery pitch. And why wouldn’t they? It is particularly nice. And unusually dry on this occasion. Dave took over the lead, and rigging duties, from here, sliding down the narrow climb (another problem to overcome on our way back up?) and soon reaching Piscine pitch. In no time at all, he had the traverse and pitch rigged and we were all down thrutching, crawling and ducking along the passage to the final pitch (Pinnacle). I always find that this passage goes on a bit longer than I expect, but nothing too bad.

Pinnacle is another great pitch, starting with the customary roped traverse, before dropping down onto a ledge above a pool. Billy made the mistake of abseiling right down to the pool, leaving himself an awkward scramble back up onto the ledge. Forewarned, Sophie made no such mistake. After the ledge, the pitch continues on down into Sink Chamber via various rebelays and/or deviations. Dave expertly rigged this section with 2 rebelays, ignoring the final deviation, which wasn’t necessary in the relatively dry conditions.

Sink Chamber was as far as we could go on this occasion. After a few photos (and, in my case, a bit of looking longingly up at where the Dome rope would have come in), Billy set off out first, followed by Sophie and Dave, with me derigging the bottom 2 pitches.

The narrow climb up to the bottom of Monastery pitch provided a bit of entertainment, but nothing too serious. Dave even provided a convenient sling for use if required. Sophie led up Monastery pitch, with Billy derigging this one. It’s not the easiest pitch to derig, but he did a great (and very quick!) job. Not wanting to be left out, Sophie derigged Hampstead Heath pitch.

Opinion among the team seemed to agree that the Old Roof Traverse was a bit easier on the way out. Is this because the passage floor gets progressively closer as you move forward? Or is the caver simply more used to heights and traversing on the way out?

Billy provided a convenient stepping stone for the next short climb up. Then we were back on familiar territory and heading rapidly toward the surface in no time.

One day I’ll do the Monastery – Dome exchange, but this was more than adequate consolation. Another great evening out with great company.

Photos by Dave.

By Billy F In Day Trips

Gaping Gill

One year after Sophie dragged me up to Gaping Gill at 6am to go down the winch, I return as a full convert to the underground! Sophie and I were so excited to go caving that we arrived 12 hours early, staying the night in Clapham in the van.

Ray, Sophie and I arrived at Gaping Gill at 10:30am on Winchmas-eve to find the place deserted. We eventually found signs of life in the beer tent, where Ray secured us a cup of tea on our return to the surface by a donation of high-quality biscuits.

We suited up and squeezed our way down into Flood Entrance. It was at this moment, Ray realised his kneepads were still in Clapham! You wouldn’t have known from his speedy crawling after the entrance pitch. We soon found ourselves swinging around clipping deviations on South East Pot. It really is huge, with a nice hanging rebelay and interesting rock carved out by water.

Armed with the route description, I led us away from the ledge through some cobbled crawls and stooping passages, finally getting to the main chamber. It was incredible. The best view in the Dales? Unfortunately we were too early in the week for the lights to be turned on, so you’ll have to make do with my poorly lit photos.

Ray took the lead on navigation, taking us to mud chamber and sand chamber, giving great ideas for future trips. Too wet for stream passage, we retraced our steps to South East, exiting via Bar Pot Big Pitch. The crawling continued, before tackling the greasy slab and small mammal pot. Daylight beckoned. We will be back thats for sure.

Recent free ascents of the famous Gee Gee Rider meant GG was at the top of the to-do-list, and it didn’t disappoint. We had been talking about getting down there constantly for the past few weeks and the day turned out to one of our favourite trips to date. Cheers for the trip Ray!