Tag: Chapel-le-Dale

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 Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Great Douk & High Douk

Pete, John Martin (2nd KCC trip), Sophie H, Billy, Chris G, Klaudia, Vikki & Ray

On the drive over to the Dales, we had hoped that the planned Hardrawkin trip would be able to go ahead. But the darkening clouds as we headed along the A65 were sowing serious doubt. By the time we got to the Hill Inn we had more or less given up on the idea. Then the heavens opened and all doubt was removed. Plan B it was.

The obvious plan B was a quick pootle around Great Douk. Not quite the excitement of the Hardrawkin pitches, but everyone seemed happy enough with the downgrade. A miserable change and even more miserable walk led us to the impressive Great Douk shakehole, where the waterfall climb up into the entrance of the cave was pretty wet. So much so that several chose to use the dry traverse along the ledge.

We had a leisurely trip through the cave, poking up various inlets along the way. One, in particular, seems to go a long way, climbing steadily, but doesn’t seem to be shown on any survey I’ve seen. Back in the main passage, progress got lower and lower as usual until we eventually popped out of the top entrance – is this Middle Washfold?

The weather had improved a bit and our spirits were high, so off we set in search of High Douk for even more fun. We did a much better job of finding it than last time. Going in at the downstream end, next to Hardrawkin, a short section involving a bit of crawling and thrutching soon breaks surface again at a collapse before plunging into the depths (well a few feet underground at least) again. I think I’d be tempted just to use this 2nd entrance in future. Having said that, I imagine I thought exactly the same last time I was there.

High Douk is a lovely little cave, much under-rated in my opinion. Progress is easy enough, although there are a few sections where calcite curtains force one to get down on hands and knees in the water. There is no shortage of calcite and moonmilk. If you’re not convinced, just look up occasionally. The passage is usually fairly narrow, but does reach lofty heights in places. Alas, there is no through trip to be had and a collapsed area is eventually reached. I imagine this is quite close to the surface. Perhaps there was a navigable through trip at one time. But not for us, so we turned around, feeling very satisfied with our evening’s work.

Could we have done Hardrawkin? I imagine we probably could, although it may have been miserable. It’s largely irrelevant as it just isn’t worth taking the chance.

By Ami S In Day Trips

Roaring Hole

Roaring Hole

Ami, James

On a verrrrrrrry chilly night we had trouble even getting our kits on with our cold fingers. Ray had warned me off this one which I assumed meant it was going to be wet, so I was well layered up.

We warmed up on the uphill walk in and found the entrance on a beautiful bit of limestone pavement. And it was already occupied! Another group were mad enough to be trying this one on a wet and frosty night.

They had rigged the first pitch which we avoided doing (doesnt seem necessary), scrambling down a pretty tight boulder choke. The geology of this cave feels very different from a lot of others in the area, with lots of wiggling and route finding to do. As James put it, some Proper Caving.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself until I had to navigate through a tight hole with a raging torrent coming down on my head. Unable to see, I missed the largest space and tried to force myself through something very small indeed. Hearing James’ shouts, I had to wiggle back up in to the flow and redirect.

The cave continues with boulder choke climbs that open periodically in to large chambers. One squeeze in particular down through a slot was hard work for James.

After a large ish pitch and a long, low crawl, we found the other group coming out. They were soaked, and warned us of the torrent ahead. Down we plunged – a 10m downward boulder scramble in the waterfall – more akin to Canyoning than caving.

After this the going becomes easier, and James made light work of the next pitch (apparently free climbable- I don’t fancy it!) and a cool traverse, plonking us high above the water of Sunset Boulevard. Here, the cave’s name became evident – the rocks were even vibrating with the noise.

We descended, pleased we’d made it to all but the last pitch. The description claims no one bothers with this one, and we were aware of the long way home, so we called it here – counting the view of stream as visiting it.

The way up through the various scrambles and climbs, with a face full of water and the rushing force all around us, was some of the most fun I’ve had in a cave for a long time. We were even still smiling trying to pry a frozen solid suit off at the car. Thanks James!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Meregill Hole… or Whose Rope is it Anyway?

Darren, Original Sophie, Jasmine, Connor, Ray

The official club trip was supposed to be Vesper, but I decided to move it to Meregill for 2 reasons: (i) I’d done Vesper a few weeks ago, and (ii) it was dry enough for Meregill to be pleasant. Both caves were already rigged (by CPC) for a 3 Peaks, 3 Pots challenge – seems they managed it in 13 hours, the 3 pots being Vesper, Meregill and Little Hull. Very impressive. The deal was that we could use the CPC ropes in whichever cave we chose as long as we derigged. Sounded like too good a deal to miss.

The walk-in was unusually pleasant, in the sunshine and with no tackle to carry. Both the mere and Aven Entrance were rigged, so we all entered via the mere. I set off first, followed by Connor, Jasmine, Darren, then Sophie. The descent went pretty smoothly on reasonable rigging, the biggest issue being that there was more than 1 set of rigging on various sections. How were we supposed to know which gear to derig?

CPC had taken the highest level option for all traverses, which added to the fun a bit. I don’t think I’d reached the 3rd pitch at such a high level before. The only other thing of note on the descent was an orange tackle bag and some krabs at the bottom of the pool on the halfway ledge on the final pitch. Connor decided he could reach it, but the pool was deceptively deep. We decided to leave it for the way out.

Having reached the bottom in good time, we set off to explore the extensive passage. The biggest hurdle here is crossing the very deep pool directly at the bottom of the last pitch. Various traversing techniques were employed. I decided on the low route, which essentially meant I was chest deep in the pool. Even then, I was teetering on a submerged ledge. God only knows how deep the pool actually is.

The young tigers, Connor and Jasmine, led the way along the streamway. The going was mostly easy walking or stooping with the occasional crawling section or cascade. Connor found cave fish at 2 locations and also pointed out a few interesting fossils along the way. He was clearly in his element. Before we knew it, we were at the terminal static sump, which seemed like a good point to turn around. Darren found a worm here, which he seemed determined to rescue, presumably not wanting to be outdone by the team involved in the rescue of Beryl the sheep a few weeks ago. I’m not sure he’ll get the same publicity – if only he’d given the worm a name!

A quick group selfie and we were on our way out. Surprisingly, the more “experienced” members of the group left the young tigers behind, despite having struggled to keep up on the way in. I can only put this down to us being more desperate to get out. Unfortunately, this meant that I for one was absolutely knackered before even starting to prussic.

I derigged the bottom 2 pitches. By the time I got to the halfway ledge on the bottom pitch, Connor had indeed retrieved the sunken sack and krabs. His suit even got a good cleaning in the process. Thankfully there was only 1 set of rigging on the bottom 2 pitches, so no dilemmas about what to derig and what to leave. Connor derigged the big 3rd pitch, where there was a dilemma. I don’t know if he simply derigged everything or decided to leave one set of ropes.

At the top of the 3rd pitch, I met Jasmine and Sophie. Sophie decided to wait for the others, while Jasmine and I set off out. At the bottom of the 2nd pitch, we could see lights from another party at the top. Jasmine went up first and caught the other group, who informed her that it wasn’t just CPC who had the cave rigged. Todd from Inglesport also had an ongoing project, so left various bits rigged… or so he thought!

There were 2 ropes hanging down from Aven Entrance, so we at least now knew which was the CPC one. Jasmine waited for the others to tell them which one to derig, while I set off out via the mere with my full tackle bag.

Sophie emerged next and we waited for the others… and waited. When nobody appeared, I took the decision to derig the (hopefully) CPC rope from the entrance shaft, assuming the others would all come out Aven Entrance. Sophie wasn’t convinced. Thankfully they did indeed all appear from AE. Phew!  Let’s be honest, though – they had no other choice. Apparently it was “a bit wriggly”.

We seemed to have rather a lot of kit to carry back down the hill – most of us had 2 bags. Given that there were 5 of us, this seems like a lot of rope, even for Meregill, so I can only suppose that we did indeed derig some of Todd’s ropes. Sorry! We’ll let CPC take what’s theirs and get the rest back to Todd. I’m sure he’ll relish the opportunity to rig it all again.

Photos by Darren and Connor.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Southerscales Pot

Ami, James, Dave and Steve (Report by Steve)

Dave from Red Rose was the only one who’d done it before but some years ago.
So armed with a copy of the CNCC guide and a selection of slings we found the entrance as described but perhaps helped more by OS Maps and the grid reference.
At the time we’d not seen rain for weeks so there was hardly any water in the entrance crawl and we soon found the first pitch. The rigging wasn’t too bad. We tied in to a large stal away from the pitch and then used 2 slings up on some natural threads high up on the right hand side for a nice free hang into a large chamber.

So began the 300m or 10 minutes worth of wet millipede crawl.
I think we all lost track of time and distance but can confirm it’s a long, wet crawl probably best measured by at least 150 adjustments made to knee pads in an attempt to minimise the bruises.

Ami reckoned it was just over an hour when we reached the second pitch which was to prove interesting to rig.

Fortunately a piece of old rope had been left so that was used to back up a butterfly loop over a nobbly bit closer to the pitch head.
With James weighing down on the loop I was confident enough to get out above the pitch to look for something else.
This turned out to be our long sling over a large protruding lump of rock on the right about 2 – 3m out past the pitch head. I couldnt find anything else to back it up, but it was a nice straight drop down to the chamber floor.

We All suspected getting off the rope on way out would be interesting so
I returned to the top of the pitch to rig a loop to aid getting off.
The others set off on the short trip to the Sump. The few reports on the internet suggest it’s not free diveable and even after no rain they still found it full.
The single sling proved OK on way out and was easily flicked off the lump to de rig so there is some advantage to natural rigging after all!
The return crawl seemed longer and wetter and none of us found the president passage crawl, so there is cause to do it again but I for one would be waiting for a another good dry spell.

We soon emerged wet and muddy to a lovely sunset over the fell.

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 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.

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Roaring Hole

Roaring Hole 18/10/2023 – Connor, James, Rhod,  Jason

I always like to begin a trip to Roaring with half-an-hour or so fruitlessly wandering the limestone pavement on the slopes of Ingleborough, and tonight was no exception.  It turns out that a) What3Words isn’t as useful a navigational tool as I’d hoped, and b) my recollection of the entrance of the entrance was woeful.  Anyway, when Connor’s phone got a signal, it didn’t take long before we were heading down.

The first (and only, as far as we were concerned) pitch into Bandstand chamber comes in two halves – the first a simple drop to a wide ledge, and the second a rather awkward Y-hang down the last 5m.  I rigged both parts, but regretted it.  It’s quicker and easier to tiptoe round the edge of the chamber to the bottom, and really not too terrifying.

There follows one of several scaffolded boulder chokes.  There wasn’t much water – the promised storm having held off – but what there was found its way down the back of our necks. A short crawl, and another boulder choke or two leads to Slab Chamber.  There are hangers for a handline, and I had brought some rope, but once again the rope doesn’t really help – it takes you away from dry rock with good handholds.

A final boulder slope led down to the streamway, which we explored as far as The Rift, which we left for another time.  Getting out is easy enough, though warm work – until the final upward thrutch into the entrance slope.  The youngsters all managed this with minimal assistance, but I was badly in need of a shove from Connor, who manfully ascended unaided.

A good trip, and thanks to all for bearing with my attempts at above-ground navigation!