Category: Day Trips

By Tom C In Day Trips

County Pot

Ami, Maz, Steve, Tom

This was meant to be Mistral, it was meant to be muddy. It also meant no takers. So a plan was hatched to pop over to Easegill for something a little more refreshing.

So on a Wednesday night, four of us, Tom, myself, Steve and Ami headed off across the moors for a date with County Pot.

I’ve not done this many times and my navigation isn’t great, so we were relying on Tom for safe passage through the cave.

Based on the notes I received after the event, we did the following: Mushroom Passage, Platypus Junction. At this point Steve and Amy went AWOL, exploring passages and the like.Then on to Spout Hall, Trident Series, White line, before returning back to Oxford Circus.

To be honest, it was all a bit of a blur. nice cave, nice formations, nice company. Admittedly I had no idea where I was most of the time, but that didnt matter.

The most notable thing was me discovering at the bottom of a pitch that my hand jammer had disappeared. A bit of organisation for the others and I was borrowing superior kit to ascend. It was a bit of a mystery as to it’s location and I had resigned myself to buying some new shiny kit.

On the final section getting out, a shout from above revealed Ami had discovered it lying of the floor somewhere quite random, thus entitling her to a free breakfast in our cafe.

A great night out. Thanks to those who led and rigged the pitches

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Fiveways Pot

Tom, Will, Claire & Ray

The first key to a successful trip down this one is finding it, as Pete & Matt had discovered on the previous (aborted) KCC trip. A GPS is absolutely essential, especially on the sort of murky day we had. Even with a GPS, we still seemed to be walking randomly across the fellside… and yet, somehow, we ended up at the correct shakehole.

The entrance climb sets the theme for many of the pitches, being a bit tight and awkward at the top. It’s an easy enough climb, but a short handline is useful, mainly because you can’t see where your feet are going until your head has popped through the hole. At the bottom of the climb, I set off down the slope to what I thought was the first pitch and was rather disturbed on 2 counts. First, there didn’t appear to be any hangers and, second, it appeared a bit on the tight side. Luckily Will found the actual 1st pitch in the totally opposite direction. In keeping with the general theme of the cave, the pitch was a bit tight and awkward at the top, soon opening out.

Next comes the Tonga Trench – a steeply descending rift, neatly divided into about 10 massive shored steps like a giant’s staircase. This is some feat of engineering. Then there is a reasonably tight short blasted crawl, leading to a short climb down a shored shaft. I thought this looked a bit intimidating from the top, but it was easy enough to climb down the shoring. Another short crawl then leads to Blade Runner pitch. A y-hang rebelay (from opposite walls) a few metres down is my sort of rigging and gives a great hang. Will had some choice words for Claire who he blamed for giving him a drenching on his descent. Was it deliberate or not? The debate continues…

Another short crawl leads to a 5-way junction. Apparently this is not the feature after which the pot was named! The way on is via the passage immediately to the right. We didn’t spend any time exploring the other 4 ways.  The next pitch (My Left Foot) is reached after crossing a few holes in the floor – nothing too scary though. Mt Left Foot is another fine pitch. At the bottom, however, is an awkward section requiring climbing up a few feet and traversing before dropping down again. The next pitch is reached soon and is quickly followed by the last 3 pitches. The last pitch is a bit tight near the top, but soon opens out.

Tom decided to forego the last pitch on this occasion, presumably thinking it would be awkward enough to get back up the other pitch heads. Can’t say I blame him. As is the way on Dowlass Moss, the bottom is pretty uninspiring. A low, wet crawl apparently leads to a tiny sump, but none of us could muster the enthusiasm to take it. So there was nothing left to do, but begin the long upward journey.

Will offered to derig and, surprisingly, no-one argued. I went up first. Near the top of the bottom pitch I heard something fall. I didn’t know what it was until I reached the top of the pitch and noticed that the case in which I carry my phone was open. Bu88er! My phone must be lying in pieces somewhere far below. Hopefully Claire or Will would be able to pick up most of the pieces on their way up, largely to avoid littering. Poor Will put a lot of effort into the job, exploring a ledge partway up, but no sign of anything phone-like. What a mystery!

The mystery was resolved when I reached the bottom of the next pitch to find my phone lying there, thankfully intact… and still in working order. It must have fallen out of the case on that pitch instead, presumably near the bottom.

Meanwhile, Will was cursing my shiny new tackle bag, struggling with the length of the cord. Claire had never heard such language! Apart from that, the journey out went very smoothly and we were back at the cars shortly after 2pm. Given the early hour, what could we do but retire to the Marton Arms for a debrief after another great trip. Thanks all!

Photos by Will (mostly) and Ray

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Lancaster Hole – Wretched Rabbit

Connor, Tom, Will, Yolanda

Report written by Tom?

Thwarted yet again by the weather, we sacked off Penyghent Pot and, given that most of the attendees would soon be heading to the Berger, we decided that a nice tiring Easegill through-trip would be a good option. 

We headed into Lancaster and made our speedy way down to Fall Pot, with Will being pointed on a short solo diversion to the Colonnades as he hadn’t seen them yet. At Fall Pot, Connor headed onto the gloopy in-situ rope of the main pitch while Tom headed for the more climb-y bypass down the slot. Will and Yolanda clocked the thick mud oozing from Connor’s descender and decided to avoid getting their gear mucky at such an early stage, instead choosing the bypass.

Given the forecast we chose the high level route from here rather than chancing the main drain, so along to Stake Pot we headed, and swiftly across the bridge and up to Bob’s Boss. After a bit of formation admiring, we slipped, slithered and sometimes skied our way along the high level, once again thankful for the traverse lines around Scylla and Charybdis.

Passing Oxbow Corner we paused in Oakes Cavern at what’s becoming the usual lunching spot for some choccy and hydration, before pressing on through the Minarets and through the various massive caverns dotted along the route. Will spotted familiar territory as we approached Main Line Terminus, having been there just last week for the Manchester Bypass trip. On we headed to Stop Pot and regained the main streamway.

At this point we made our way up to Holbeck Junction and a short diversion into Gypsum Caverns. The straw-covered chamber at the end is always a pretty sight. Will attempted a LiDAR scan but the straws prove difficult for it to see and it didn’t quite do it justice. At this point we were feeling well-exercised and it was nice knowing that just half an hour of knackering caving would see us out of Wretched Rabbit. We twisted and wound our way through the labyrinth and made our way up into Spiral Staircase, with only some mild cursing from Yolanda in the tight pitch bypass, before bursting out of the cobble funnel and hauling ourselves out of the entrance climbs. 

A quick wander down the gill and up onto the fell, and Connor was all too eager to de-rig Lancaster. Grand day out.

Photos by Will.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Cupcake

Maz, Ray, Tom 

Report by Maz

Whenever I had spoken to people about Cupcake, the response was either “haven’t done it” or “it’s a bit muddy down there.”

With such an enticing sounding name, surely a bit muddy, meant, well, a bit muddy. Research had garnered that the eponymous Cupcake is a rather cakey looking calcite feature somewhat near to the entrance. Sounded lovely.

Ray hadn’t managed to get many takers for this and had floated alternatives. I, however, was keen to see this fine piece of geological patisserie. Tom kindly offered to show us the way.

According to the description, Cupcake is a series of pitches connected by various highly decorated crawls, rifts, ducks and passages, eventually joining up with Notts 2 at the superbly named Count Lazio Stroganoff’s Aven. Our plan was to give some of it a go.

Our descent began when Tom was tempted by the entrance in situ rope. A few feet down and the shout up was this was a quick one. I’m not keen on those sort of ropes, so Ray was persuaded to rig one especially for me. Quickly down, through a shored section, and we were on to one of several crawls. This culminated in the famous Cupcake feature. I do like these looky likey type formations and while I appreciate some resemble their name only vaguely, cupcake does very much look like a cupcake.

Mission accomplished, it was time to explore. Tom had been down to just beyond pitch 3 before and was keen to further his knowledge of the cave. Some more crawling, this time with added mud, we descended via Splashdown pitch into Pool chamber. That’s where the proper mud began. Not so much of a splash, rather a gooey splat. The journey though was made better with some excellent formations including wonderful translucent straws. A tight downward rift then led to some nice traversing. Tom leading down the unpleasant slope that was mud pitch. There was no avoiding the horribleness here and soon we were caked.

This point marked Tom’s furthest exploration. To move on, we needed to escape the chamber. We knew there was a tight rift climb at the far end. If we could get someone up onto the ledge above, they could rig a rope down for the rest of us. Brilliant! We soon spotted a scaffolding pole 30 or so feet above. That was the way forward.

What followed was a genuinely impressive free climb by Ray up a tall, vertical, extremely tight, exposed, muddy rift. Upon gaining the ledge, Ray informed us that the scaffold pole we were relying on, was in fact just tape. He did find the bolt however, and rigged the pitch. This was Limbo Pitch

I ascended first and did OK for a while. At the top, the pitch narrowed and my progress slowed. Soon I was down to short movements, gradually inching up, using, elbows, knees even my head, to aid my progress. I arrived exhausted. By the time Tom’s head popped up, I was just getting my breath back and heart rate under control.

We were keen to continue. Some hugely impressive formations followed and along rifts and easy traverses. Sludge Crawl lived up to its name. tight, squeezy and muddy. Very, very muddy. Ray dumped his SRT kit and Tom left the tackle sack. We carried on through this hell hole to pitch 5; Slither Aven.

Although the way forward looked perfectly fine, this became our terminus as time was getting on and I was aware that was becoming knackered.

Back through sludge crawl. I regretted leaving my knee pads in the van. Formations gazed at on the way in became a blur as we soon reached the descent down Limbo pitch. Gravity and a very muddy rope soon had me on the bottom of the pitch. Ray downclimbed the rift to meet us. I don’t know how he got on with it, as I was already on the mud slope. Progress on this return journey seemed very quick until a squeeze literally stopped me. On the way in I’d just wriggled through. After a bit of effort, I was free, Tom and Ray offering encouragement.

We breezed past the Cupcake and soon we were out to a setting sun. Our clothes, rope and SRT kit covered in mud.

Would I do it again? Probably. Was it worth the mud and crawls? Back at home 24 hours later, I’d say yes. Would I recommend it? Like many things in life, you just have to see it for yourself.

The moral of the story? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, don’t judge a cave by it’s name. Cupcake, my arse. Mississippi Mud Pie more like. Thanks to Ray and Tom for rigging.

 

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By Tom C In Day Trips

Manchester Bypass

John, Miranda, Tim D, Tom, Will

It was about time that the Manchester Bypass – the flood escape route from Easegill which often gets neglected from regular trips because it’s a shithole – was re-familiarised and the knowledge passed on. 

For whatever reason we decided it was best to do it both ways to double the suffering wholesome knowledge. So across the moor we headed and slipped down the County entrance series like nobody’s business. When we reached the sharp end at Battle of Britain Chamber, Tim led the way on, closely followed by Tom who had insisted he would never fit through after an attempt earlier in his caving career, even more so the day after getting back from an all-inclusive binge of a holiday. But through some optimistic and knowledgeable coaching from Tim, there were no particularly difficulties. Not to say that it wasn’t tight and horrible, but it was good to be able to finally see this route. 

On reaching Main Line Terminus, we sat to collect our thoughts, get a few nice photos and admire the vastness of the high level route from a different angle. Miranda, Tom and Will headed back a little and into the lovely Main Line Passage, a lesser-visited spot as it’s not a through route but with plenty of nice straws and a few helis. This terminates high up in the wall in Monster Cavern, so we turned back and headed to the Terminus. 

There was some talk of avoiding the horrors of the bypass for an easy exit via Wretched Rabbit, but we realised that Miranda had helpfully left some clothing halfway through the bypass, and also the impracticality that we’d left all our SRT kit at the bottom of the County entrance pitch so would have a hard time getting it back from the outside. So we dove back into the bypass for a thrutch-fest in reverse. Some difficulties on the way in became easier in this direction, but new struggles replaced them from nowhere. 

We were all quite knackered on getting out, and John enjoyed getting up close and personal with a welly-thieving bog on the walk back, but we all lived to tell the tale, and pass the knowledge of this grubby route on to future generations to suffer.

Photos by Will and Miranda

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By Helen Hooper In Day Trips

Rigging Practice: Lost Johns

Helen, Sophie, James, Dave

Well we’re ready to take you on a Lost Johns Exchange on 10th July!!

Sophie, Dave, James and Helen went on a quick refresher of rigging skills and specifically, the ins and outs of Mud/Centipede and Cathedral/Dome routes.

We kept quite tightly to a preferred exit time of 10pm and made it back to the cars at 9.59pm! James and Sophie will be leading half of the group down Mud and Centipede on the 10th, and Dave and I will rig the Dome and Cathedral route. Unfortunately, with our tight timescales last night, Dave only reached the bottom of Cathedral…he says he will wing the pendulums and hanging rebelay of Dome on 10th (but I will be following closely so nothing can possibly go wrong??…)

See you on the 10th July for the KCC new, but increasingly competent, riggers exchange trip.















By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Ibbeth Peril… at last

Pete, Nat (Pete’s son), Maz & Ray

This trip had been a long time coming. I think it had been on the last 3 meets lists, but the weather had never quite co-operated. To ensure that it happened this time, we even brought it forward by a week as the weather finally seemed amenable.

Pete led us on a relatively quick, but very enjoyable trip. After excavating the entrance, we crawled through to the main chamber, which was as impressive as ever. Of course we had to climb up into the inlet passage above the chamber. I think this is one of my favourite sections of passage in the Dales… beautifully shaped and well-decorated.

After that, we dropped down into some of the lower level stuff. Pete, Vikki and I had found loads of passage down there on a previous visit, but we were unable to find some of it this time for some reason. There was still plenty to have a go at. The lower levels seem to contain a maze of passages.

Unfortunately the midges were out in force on our exit from the cave… and all the way back to the cars.

Photos by Ray

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

F’ing Hopeless Pot

Maz, Steve, Scott, Tom & Ray

Tom & Scott had been down this relatively recent discovery very shortly after the original explorations and were keen to get back. It was a 1st time trip for the rest of us and we were eager to see the well-documented pretties. Tom led us expertly straight to the entrance.

The excavated entrance shaft is a 20m climb down scaffolding. for which the CNCC description suggests a knotted handline may be useful. Being clever, I minimised the length of rope required for this by stringing together a series of single overhand knots, rather than knots on a bight. This was definitely a case of wishing I hadn’t started… it takes quite a while! In the end, the climb isn’t too bad, but the handline is useful on a few short sections.

At the bottom, Tom led on through a short crawl and rigged the 1st pitch. There was some debate (mostly from Maz) about whether Maz’s harness was coming undone at the top of the pitch, but it seemed secure enough. Scott then suggested that, as Ray hadn’t been before, he should lead on from this point. Ray protested, but lost.

Progress is never easy, but never really hard. The pitches are all fairly short. There is still some loose stuff around on some of the pitches and climbs, so some care is required.

Eventually we reached the rope heading up to Levelling Up. As Scott had been before, he decided to forego this particular pleasure on this occasion. Given how nice it is up there, I think this was a good call. Tom & Maz thought it looked a bit tight, so the 3 of them carried on to Speechless Grotto at the lower level, while Steve & Ray headed up the rope. It is indeed quite tight at the top. Once up the pre-rigged pitch, there is an awkward little climb up into a tube. Luckily, this was also pre-rigged with a short length of rope, complete with a very useful foot loop.

The tube at the top of the awkward climb is a short crawl through to Eggshell Chamber. This doesn’t pose too much of a problem, apart from a constriction, which isn’t that bad. I think anyone who can get up the pitch would fit through ok. Eggshell Chamber is reasonably well decorated, the highlight being a huge flowstone cascade. At the entrance to the chamber is a calcited side tube, heading off to Leveling Up. The tube is mostly easy crawling. Again, there is a single constricted section (as far as I recall), but it’s not too bad. It’s certainly worth trying to squeeze through to reach the pretties beyond. The passage starts to enlarge to walking size as Levelling Up is reached. The formations just get better the further you progress. Lots of straws and stals. The highlight for me is a grotto with lots of stalactites, each festooned with a multitude of helictites. I’ve never seen the like of it before.

When Steve and I had had our fill, we returned to find the others waiting at the bottom of the pitch. They had been to Speechless Grotto and come back with tales of stunning formations. Yeah, yeah… it can’t be as good as Levelling Up. We popped along to have a look anyway as the others started making their way out. Actually, Speechless is pretty stunning itself. Steve pushed on a bit beyond Speechless and then we started to make our way out, catching the others at the bottom pitch. Steve did a great job of derigging the whole thing.

This is a truly unique cave and well worth protecting. Tom & Scott noticed that some formations were already considerably muddier than on their first trip, which can’t be much more than a year ago.

Photos by Steve.

By Yolanda Aze In Day Trips

Notts 2 – with a twist

Ray, Tom, Maz, Scott, Yolanda.

On Wednesday we went on a trip to my favourite cave – Notts 2. As we’d all done Notts 2 several times before, we decided to take a different route and leave the main streamway to explore Inlet 5. As the designated trip leader, it was apparently my duty to be at the front, slithering on my belly through the mud. To me, after a couple of minutes of slithering it looked as though we’d reached the end of Inlet 5 – the tunnel seemed to be getting smaller and smaller and muddier and muddier. However, I could hear some mutterings from behind me – something about how I hadn’t spent enough time crawling through mud to really know that there was nothing at the end of the tunnel – so I carried on slithering out of pride. To my considerable surprise, it turned out that there was something at the end of the tunnel – a little chamber with some very pretty calcite formations.

The next hour continued along similar lines. We’d wriggle through the tunnels for a few minutes at a time before stumbling upon chambers with various beautiful formations. We’d spend a couple of minutes getting our breath back and admiring the pretties before slithering further and further into the cave. Eventually, we came across a huge chamber with various different tunnels splintering off from it. We hoped that one of the tunnels would lead us back to the main streamway, but there had been a rockfall. The only way out was to lead everyone in crawling back through a load of muddy tunnels. Everyone was caked from head to toe in mud by the time we emerged. They were sorry they’d ever mocked my commitment to caving…

Having said that, they can’t have been too put off because there’s talk of trying to dig through from the huge chamber to the main streamway, so we may yet be able to turn Inlet 5 into a satisfying little round trip rather than a long muddy crawl. Watch this space!