Day Trips – Page 19 – Kendal Caving Club

3 January 2024

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Bull Pot Kingsdale

Helen, Pete, Matt, Ray

Another case of a hastily rearranged trip in view of the weather. The original plan had been Red Moss, but that was certainly off the menu given that it hadn’t stopped raining for at least 40 days & 40 nights. Yordas had briefly been discussed as an alternative, but quickly dropped in favour of a look at the newly bolted Monolith Traverse & Pitch in Bull Pot.

We cut a sorry sight struggling up the hillside, with both Helen & Ray limping along on their respective walking sticks. No route straight up the fellside tonight, rather a long sweeping loop out to the right and back. That left us with only one problem on top of the fell – finding the cave. Luckily this didn’t take too long and we were soon swinging off the normal 1st pitch, around a rock buttress to find the 1st bolt of Monolith Traverse. The traverse is quite nice, generally with good ledges on either side of the shaft, leading into a tube with a nicely-placed y-hand at the end. A bit cramped for rigging/derigging, but nothing too bad.

Monolith Pitch lands nicely at the old high-level traverse to the 2nd pitch. 3 or 4 anchors then take you round a couple of bends to the top of the 2nd pitch. There was quite a lot of water flowing down this, so the deviation (thankfully already complete with tat) was very welcome. From there it’s just a couple of metres down to the ledge. The slot was really the only 3rd pitch option in the prevailing moistness. This was quickly descended by all, past the easiest rebelay in the Dales. At the bottom, Ray went on to have a look at the 4th pitch. His rather drenched appearance on returning seemed to be enough to put everyone else off even having a look. Needless to say, descending the pitch was not an option. We did all agree, however, that we should definitely return to bottom the cave in drier conditions. Matt even agreed to lead such a trip… perhaps after a bit of pressurising.

Pete offered to derig. No mean feat, given the water levels and the fact that the top pitch was brand spanking new to all of us. With Matt offering moral support, he did a great job. There’s no going back now for you Pete! It wasn’t too long before everyone was safely out and slip-sliding back down the hillside.

A great little wet weather trip. Congratulations to the team that set the new Monolith route… whoever they are.

20 December 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

Notts II

Dave, James, Scott, Tom

Blighted with yet more damp weather and with enthusiasm running low for Low Douk, a reschedule to Notts II for an easy pre-Christmas trip was made.

On getting down to the streamway it was flowing pretty hard, and with rain still falling we didn’t fancy spending too much time in it. We headed up to Digby Spode’s, then up to the flood escape route.

James led the way having been through on the last trip, followed by Dave for his first squeezy stuff which he thrived on. I made slow but steady progress right until the very end with the sound of the stream tantalisingly close – a rib in the ceiling stopped me in my tracks. James bravely returned with a digging rock and we hacked at the muddy floor to create just enough room to slither through while kicking at Scott for foot purchase.

A quick rinse in the main streamway and Scott’s measuring rock showed the water had risen a couple of centimetres in the time it took us to do that short loop – definitely wise to have not gone any further. A speedy route for the exit (entrance series was super drippy) and out for 8:20 – must be a recent record for a Weds evening trip.

Photos by Dave

13 December 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

Heron Pot

Dave, James, Matt, Maz, Pete, Scott, Tom

Nice little exchange on the two routes. After heading down the streamway we broke off into two, with Scott rigging the High Level route followed by Pete, Tom and James, and the classic route rigged by Matt with Dave and Maz following.

After a chat in the bottom chamber and a quick wander along the lower streamway, we decided it really wasn’t a night for the through trip and headed back out – Matt and Dave doing the High Level back up, and the rest of us heading up the classic.

Well done Pete for his first de-rig, and nice work everyone else for handling the icy conditions like champs 💪

6 December 2023

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Lost Johns (Dome-Centipede exchange)

Tom, Scott, Pete, Matt, Claire, Dave, Ray

A great evening making new acquaintances and renewing some old ones. Matt was making a return to KCC after several years away. Claire, who is an experienced caver, was on her 3rd KCC trip. Dave was on his 2nd ever caving trip.

The 1st order of business was to split into 2 groups. Luckily Claire is a dab hand at organising 😉 Team Centipede consisted of Scott, Pete & Claire. Team Dome was Tom, Matt, Dave & Ray. Due to the wind chill, the various riggers set off sharpish (Scott for Centipede, Tom & Matt for Dome) while the rest of us got changed. Eventually getting underground was a very welcome break from the bitter surface conditions.

Everyone romped across the traverse in fine style and the teams parted ways at the top of Dome. Dave & Ray caught up with Tom & Matt on the 3rd pitch. The descent of Dome went very smoothly indeed, with Tom doing a fine job of rigging the whole thing. There wasn’t even any audible whimpering when it came to swinging into the window on Dome pitch.

Obviously Team Centipede were waiting at Dome Junction when the other team arrived. We had a sociable few minutes of chat before making our way out. Everyone exchanged. Matt derigged Centipede, while Claire derigged Dome. It all seemed to go smoothly and we were all back on the freezing cold surface in no time.

Thanks to all riggers and deriggers who made the trip go incredibly smoothly indeed. Special mention must go to Dave. He absolutely smashed it, given that this was his 1st real SRT trip and 2nd cave overall.

29 November 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

Deaths Head Hole

Darren, James, Scott, Tom

Freeeezing tonight, with the ground frozen and a reluctant turnout of 4 for this big pitch classic.

We rigged off the dodgy-feeling new ground spikes and Darren lead the way on to the big 64m entrance shaft. We then headed down the dig to the master cave including some efficient rigging from Darren on some slightly too short ropes.

After reaching the final drop to the master cave we headed back out, no dramas just sweating. Back at the surface it was just very lightly snowing (or frozen mist or something) but the heat we’d made on the prussik back up made this refreshing. Back at the cars for 9:30!

25 November 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

Christmas Bash 23

It was a chilly one this year, with frosty frozen ground the whole weekend.

Welly Filler at Inglesport then on to Bull Pot Farm for a late start. John, Miranda, Chris H, Jason headed to Wretched for a through trip to Lancaster, while Sophie, Tom, Scott and Pete rigged Lancaster for a trip in the opposite direction.

When we reached the big caverns on the high level route (never know which one is which) Sophie cracked out her stove and brewed up some mulled wine which went down a treat. The mince pies had barely survived their journey but were still welcome in our mouths.

We cracked on, possibly hearing the other team heading the other way in the streamway below us at one point (they were 20 vertical metres away from getting in on the wine!) and after bumping in to a few folks around Stop Pot we made our way out of Wretched.

We headed back to the farm to warm back up and get some food on. Cracking chili from Sophie, which we shared with some shivering NCHECC students who’d had a hard day of it, and then a feast of sticky toffee cake and Cuthbert the Caterpillar, with Gareth’s generous custard contributions.

Then it was through to the members’ lounge (thanks to Chris’ double agent status) for fireside chatting with tunes.

On the Sunday Sophie and Miranda ran a chocolate hunt for the young’uns in Yordas which of course went down well and hopefully conditioned the next generation into thinking if they go down cold muddy holes in the ground they might get sweets.

23 November 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

Valley Entrance

Dave, Jordan, Ray, Tom, Vicky, Yolanda

First trip for new recruits Dave and Jordan, and it were a damp un. We headed in to find the master cave pretty heaving, close enough to call it but we sent brave volunteers down to test it out and it turned out to be just about passable with a lot of legwork. But with this kind of flow the waterslides become pretty fun, and we enjoyed riding the river right back down to the pitch, with the adrenaline cancelling out the hypothermia. Jordan laddered back up and the rest of us SRT’d up including Dave’s first ever attempt at SRT, which went swimmingly – he’d watched enough Youtube vids that he’d pretty much taught himself already 🙂 Yolanda cracked out the Bounties before heading back out to a chilly change and a pint at the Marton.

20 November 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

County Pot

The senior contingent headed down County today for a photography cruise

15 November 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

County Pot – Ignorance is Bliss

James, Jason, Maz, Rhod, Scott, Tom, Yolanda

Cracking loop round some of the lesser-visited parts of County via Ignorance is bliss. Super foamy down at Eureka Junction, it had obviously been backed up well into County in the last day or so. Always forget how long this one takes, and ended up just cancelling callout by 3 minutes 🙂

11 November 2023

By Tom C In Day Trips

Notts II

Claire, Steve, Tom, Yolanda

Report by Tom

Claire joined us for her second trip with the club, and Steve for his third. Classic trip to see Curry Inlet, with Chocolate Orange and Pringles provided by our leader Yolanda. She needs to lead more trips!

Report by Yolanda

Notts 2 is perhaps my all-time favourite cave. It was one of the first caves I ever did, and I clearly remember the wonder of seeing calcite formations for the first time. Since then, I have persuaded friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and my brother into this cave as part of my Notts 2 evangelism. On Saturday, I added Steve and Claire to my list of converts.

The entrance to Notts 2 is underneath a metal trapdoor a few meters from the road (one of the seldom mentioned perks of Notts 2 is that there’s no need to trudge for miles across a muddy moor in order to reach the cave). Steve looked slightly apprehensive when he realised the first part of the cave involved about 70 meters of climbing down scaffolding, but was persuaded by either the promise of a calcite waterfall and/or a chocolate orange at the bottom of the cave. After the scaffolding, there followed the usual bit of slithering before the cave opened out into a large streamway. We took a leisurely stroll along the stream, admiring the stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, and calcite curtains. Best of all is the calcite waterfall – five meters high, and as white as snow.

Enthusiastic cavers, beautiful formations, a sunny day, and a bacon sandwich from the burger van on the way home… what more could you want from a day out? Thanks Tom, Steve, and Claire for joining me on a trip to one of the world’s loveliest caves!

Category: Day Trips