Category: Day Trips

By Dave In Day Trips

Rumbling Hole – Where was the Rumble?

Dave, Ami, Ray, Scott, Jasmine, James, Jim, Jess

After missing out on this trip on the previous meets list, an intrepid team met at the layby on Leck Fell, then the farm, then the layby again, for as a quick a change as possible due to the Leck Fell being true to it’s reputation. 

Dave, Jim, Jess & Ami headed off the find the cave and make a start on the rigging as surface conditions weren’t ideal for loitering, not sure where the photogenic views from the top were. Dave quickly got tied off to one of the remaining fence posts, and the tree hadn’t succumbed to die back, so off he went. Until the second rebelay where there was some confusion and head scratching. Finally getting untangled and dropping down into the shaft, this was also the last time the whole team was together until we got back to the cars! The deviation was troublesome for anyone not doing the rigging so Jess kindly re-rigged it to the rebelay under the rock ledge and that seemed to make the procession of descending cavers move a bit quicker. 

Conditions down here were much more hospitable, not much water down there at all, Dave quickly got the traverse and end of the first pitch rigged, then followed by Ami headed off down the rift for the 2nd pitch, as we’d been assured we couldn’t get lost. So we went down the cascades, which were very dry, and got to the sporting crawl over the drop to the 2nd pitch, with some fun rigging Dave got down to the bottom of the 2nd pitch. A phrase that fittingly covers this whole trip is, “THAT F’ING BAG”, as anyone carrying one seemed to find the same bag shaped capture devices that nature had woven into as many places as possible. 

The 3rd pitch was an interested drop down a narrow slot, the team made light work of this and made light work of the next drop, only to find the last anchor for the 3m drop to the flow stone was wobbly, so Dave made the call to turn back here. Only he’d somehow managed to drop the bag and Ray’s rope down the 3m pitch! The team quickly devised a cunning plan to rig off naturals and get Dave down to retrieve the rigging, which was great, but climbing back out was not so graceful and a good breather was had whilst the rest of the team headed off back up the pitches. 

Jim made light work of de-rigging and we got back to the surface to find a howling gale driving rain that felt like buckshot, pointing in your face all the way back, luckily the walk in/out isn’t too far, and Ami marched on like a trooper, with absolutely no rumblings about two bags. 

All in all, Rumbling is a fantastic cave, although oddly dry based off the route description, with testing rigging and some lovely formations and fossils, and i can only assume Scott, Ray and Jasmine has as much fun as the front half of the squad. 

 

 

By Ami S In Day Trips

Aquamole

Scott, Ray, James, Will and (Report by) Ami

Ray, true to form, decided I needed some rigging practice (he’s not wrong) so listed me leading Aquamole, where I had never been. We had all seen the excellent film about ex-KCCer Geoff Yeadon though, so I was excited.

Keen to get out the chilly wind we set off, with a warning that the pitches were permanently rigged. While helpful for navigating, this other rope meant I managed to tangle myself in almost all of the 384 re-belays on the first pitch.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself rigging such a varied 80m, with lots of slots and squeezes and surprises along the way. We were soon all down and commencing a 5 minute wet crawl, before finding the short second pitch. At the start of the third we split, as Ray had also bought gear for the One-Armed Bandit route.

I was really impressed with the final 60m pitch. There were a few pesky deviations early on, but as the cave was so dry I opted to ignore the third and just enjoy the view – a splendid cavern with a huge bulge in the centre that made you feel very tiny.

We soon met at the bottom and checked out the sump, complete with several fish.  Since I forgot the snacks (I’m not sure Will has forgiven me) we began our mini exchange, but with only Ray being brave enough to opt for ascending the 60m. The rest of us took One-Armed Bandit, which involved two pitches (decent length for an exchange) with a slightly precarious climb over a rather deep fissure in between.

At the top there were two options to rejoin Ray, one of which was a very small, but very short, squeeze. I’m always tempted to see if I’ll fit, which I did. Scott was lured through after me, but poor James, after an admirable amount of pushing, found his shoulders were just a bit too wide and had to go round. This turned out to be rather convenient as he could finish de-rigging the 60m pitch.

Will and Scott went ahead as they were a bit tight on time, and Ray came last de-rigging. We seemed good for time until the final 80m rope. It turns out, having another rope rigged is a pain on the way up too, and poor Ray found himself repeatedly tangled, meaning James, Ray and I didn’t emerge until two hours after Will and Scott were driving off. I’ve learned some new four letter words today.

Absolutely splendid cave nonetheless. It’s gone in the book of favourites. Thank you all!

 

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.

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Shuttleworth Pot

Sophie, Darren, Scott, Maz, James, Jim, Jess, Jason

Shuttleworth had been the subject of a dire CNCC warning about rock moving from behind the shuttering on the entrance pitch.  But fortuitously, only the day before, a repair crew had been out and fettled everything so you wouldn’t have known there had been anything wrong.

It was a fine, starlit night, and Darren eventually found the entranced (always further downhill than you expect) and commenced rigging.  With the big party, (and a bit of challenging rigging 😊) it took a while to get to the bottom, and admire the diving gear left by braver mortals.  Once down, we quickly set off to admire all the pretties and geological curiosities (it’s a treat for students of sediment stratigraphy, aka mud layers).  Returning from the far end, James pointed out My Newt passage on the right (as you head back to the entrance).

I hadn’t been there before, so jumped in and found myself sliding down to the chamber in an exhilarating, if somewhat foolhardy, fashion.  Landing safely, we found the newt skeleton, which is wonderfully preserved, but, well.., minute!  (In the photo, you can see the finger ends of my glove for scale).

Getting back up My Newt passage was definitely type 2 fun, although Scott managed to make it look easy.  While others begun the pull up back to the surface, Scott and I had a quick look at the sump, which was no more inviting than sumps usually are.

Newt-and-glove2
Straws-
IMG_20250129_202503

The long march uphill back to the cars on Leck Fell was a work-out that nicely capped the evening, but at least it kept us warm.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Nettle Pot, Dentdale

Maz, Tom, Scott, Will, potential new members Jim and Jess. Report by Maz

My first acquaintance with Nettle Pot came 2 days before the proposed trip date. I felt, as leader, I should do some research and at least recce out the entrance, and hopefully a bit more.

The CNCC coordinates put me somewhere in the middle of the village and the description suggested 80 metres upstream of the bridge in Gawthorp.

Armed with these facts, Janice and I went exploring on a wet Monday morning. It transpires there are 4 bridges in Gawthorp and we got lucky after number 3. The entrance looked wet, low and clogged with debris. We didn’t go any further as we weren’t overly keen on entering this enticing portal.

Wednesday night saw 4 of us plus two potential new members- Jim and Jess head out into the unknown; this being a new cave for all of us. The plunge pool adjacent to the entrance looked a little deeper than it did on Monday. No one seemed overly keen to lead, so Jim, survey in hand, set off, closely followed by Jess and Will. The delicately constructed dam of rotting vegetation and plastic was no match for Will’s size 10s (?) and a mini tsunami was unleashed downstream as it was breached. Our new members were given a baptism, literally from KCC.

Various routes from the initial chamber were checked out, Will going furthest, head first into a rapidly narrowing passage. Jim had concluded his passage was blocked by debris and Tom’s went back to the entrance.

With nowhere to go other than out, it seemed the trip was over. Almost. Keen for more unpleasant action, it was suggested we try the resurgence and work backwards.
Fortunately I had recced this more successfully on Monday and chauffeured everyone in Maz’s taxi (the back of the van) to the said exit.

The resurgence consisted of a concrete tube going some distance underneath the road. For want of anything better to do we headed in, some on hands and knees, some stooping, all getting wet to some degree.

After a short while it became apparent the only thing to be had here was playing a lottery of catching some form of water borne virus. It wasn’t with heavy hearts that we decided we had had too much fun and we headed out.

And so ended our trip to Nettle Pot. Not a classic, not even sure if it’s got potential, but definitely one for the summer. Maybe.

By Pete B In Day Trips

Aygill Caverns

Steve, James, Ami, Pete

 

Four intrepid(ish) explorers met up at Bull Pot Farm on a lovely clear night. A little stargazing before kitting up and setting off to find the entrance. We soon found ourselves heading up river, passing a hole on the way that had enough water going into it to suggest things might get on the damp side later.

The entrance located it seemed wise to just get on with it, not least because at least in there we’d warm up. The description on the CNCC site fails to mention how easy it is to crawl right past the first climb up, which we duly did. This mistake was soon noticed and rectified. There was just enough room at the top of the climb to get ourselves back in order and head off into more crawling. Before long we where down pitch number 1. Onwards and downwards we went, the crawling gave way to being able to stand up – albeit in a rather snug rift. I made a miscalculation here and was facing the wrong way which definitely made it tighter than I liked, One day I’ll remember which way I bend best I expect.

The second pitch lands next to the streamway and on some beautiful marble. James wasn’t wrong when he said it was like what you might find in a high end kitchen.  The stream was flowing nicely and after a quick recce by Steve, and some admiration of the water whizzing past we decided that our best option was to head upstream a bit. This we did and stayed drier than I expected, although wellies were filled. All too soon we reached a point where the way on was going to involve a low wet crawl and it was time to turn around.

A brief photo stop on the way back and we headed for the surface. Thanks Steve for organising this one, which definitely merits a return trip (if you missed it this time you should come).

By Helen Hooper In Day Trips

Providence Pot

Participants: Helen H and Ami S. 
Not fancying the cold and wet, Jason cancelled this club trip on Sunday 12th January. (A wise decision I’d say!) But 2 of us were still keen to get out on the last day of the snow. So Ami and Helen made an early start (8.20am-ish), the snow becoming deeper as we drove eastwards to Kettlewell. In fact, the snow and ice on the ground at valley level meant that we had to fork out for the National Park’s £6.50 parking, rather than venturing into an extremely icy looking £3 option.
What is usually a 30-35 minute walk took us 1h40!! Snow was deep (over 2ft in the 2nd half) and very icy. There was only two other sets of old footprints, which we presumed were left by a farmer and dog heading down the valley. We tried to follow but our stride lengths meant that new holes had to be made with virtually every step (mostly by Ami as my knee was not coping well with having to lift my foot out of deep holes at every step). We were completely exhausted when we eventually completed the 1.25 mile ‘walk’ up the valley!
After a bit of sustenance, and ridding ourselves of all the extra clothing we had worn to protect against the cold, we decided to go for a 1h30 recce of the initial section. Having had such a laborious tramp up the valley we wanted to be returning in the light so that we could see the places where we had slipped and fallen on the way! (When I say ‘see’, we had both suffered minor snow blindness on the way to the cave as, although fully equipped with (much too) warm clothing, neither of us had packed snow goggles–and they would have been extremely useful.
Having done the full trip 3 x previously, I was still surprised to discover that the first section was thrutchy and wet! We ventured as far as the Blasted Canal and completed the 18m (very wet & muddy) crawl but, having expected the continuation to be just a few climbs and a bit of mud, were surprised to find that the following section also involved getting chest deep wet in low, wet, and muddy crawls–so we took this as our turn around point.
On surfacing, with a few hours of above zero temperatures, the snow had completely changed. We could confidently push through the snow, even most of the deeper sections and so returned to the car in about an hour.
Yes, it was a mad trip. But amazing to be out in such a lot of snaow at such a low level.

Here’s a google drive link to some photos, and a video of our return trip through the really wet bit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-8-K7853hUSyysK_ZHLlvAfxLCS7nic_?usp=drive_link

By Tom C In Day Trips

Sunset Hole

Ami, Jasmine, Scott, Steve, Tom – Report by Steve

With Rumbling Hole down on the meets list and pictures of the Bull Pot Farm road full of snow from the previous weekend, it was decided that the Leck Fell road was to be avoided and we changed to the main Ribblehead road and met at the Hill Inn. We opted for a longer walk to Sunset Hole rather than closer options to take full advantage of the snowy conditions on such a still, clear night. We were not disappointed as we were in the snow as soon as we left the road and the stars were certainly out.

We followed a surprisingly well trodden snowy path through Southerscales up to the final wall. Here the footprints split to go up Ingleborough or turn right and follow the wall towards the Black Shiver Moss area. With an unknown van arriving near the layby at a similar time to us we wondered if by chance we’d have to share the cave with another group. However, the footprints continued along the wall and we eventually had to start to make our own path across the snow field up towards Sunset. For some reason it seemed easier to find and after a bit of wading and sliding about we were soon at the entrance. At this point Tom was leaving us, he had only come out for the walk as his back was playing up. Its either full marks for his dedication to KCC or we’d just been used as an excuse to get out of some kind of new house type chores. Entering the cave was bliss, it seemed like a sauna in comparison to outside and we soon warmed up and progressed downstream.

Ami rigged the first two pitches with no issues, mainly because we could and it did help avoid what little water there was flowing in the streamway. The second two pitches were rigged with Steve’s shiny new rope on its first outing. These ropes proved to be very quick to descend and braking crabs were definatly needed. The magical combination of new rope and not new cams rendered Jasmines descender brake lever redundant and she had to revert back to two handed control of rope. I’ll take it on a muddy trip next time to wear it in properly and slow it down a bit.

A chat about the upper extensions and the bedding plane half way down the final pitch was as far as any extra exploration got. On reading the CNCC notes afterwards it seems they are looking for an update on a potential link to the upper series from a chamber before the 3rd pitch, so there’s more to be done on the next trip if we can remember.

The way out was OK, despite lugging 75 metres of wet rope in a single bag, a visit to Action Stash is required to add a couple of smaller rope bags to Steve’s new rope collection would help for next time they are deployed.

With the knowledge of what awaited us exiting the cave we’d all avoided as much water as possible and were probably dryer than a normal summer trip! We took full advantage of the shelter in the cave entrance to sort ourselves out with dry hats, gloves etc and emerged back into the winter wonderland for a very pleasant walk back to the vans. We were still quite warm enough after the walk despite my van suggesting the temperature was hovering around -8 / -9 degrees C all the way back to Ingleton. All in all a splendid way to spend a winters evening away from the fire side & TV.