Tag: Dales

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 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 Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Yordas

Scott, Tom, Klaudia, Sophie H, Billy, Paddy, Long Dave, John Martin (1st KCC trip), Ray

Conditions seemed perfect after a number of dry days and with glorious evening sunshine, so we set off in high spirits to pretty much rig every route possible. I rigged Middle Entrance and the full Chapter House traverse/pitch. Scott rigged the Top Entrance and Paddy set up a Tyrolean-style guide line for anyone wanting to take the direct route down Chapter House. As far as I know, only Tom (and Paddy himself) were crazy enough to use Paddy’s setup. Although there had been no rain for a few days, there was still a reasonable quantity of water in the cave.

After everyone’s first descent, all but me went back up for another go – I was going back with Vikki the day after anyway, so didn’t want too much of a good thing. One good thing about me returning was that Chapter House and Middle Entrance didn’t have to be derigged. By the time everyone had had their fill and were back at the cars, it was still before 9pm, so the Marton Arms beckoned for a debrief. Top evening.

Now… back to Yordas for me…

Photos by Long Dave, Sophie H and Billy

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Heron Pot

Billy, Sophie H, Klaudia (2nd KCC trip), Tom, Steve, Pete, Ray

A first lead for Billy. Quick progress to the pitches. Billy rigged the lower pitches, while Steve rigged the higher level. Most people explored below the pitches. Billy climbed up into the Old Phreatic Inlet and threw a rope down for lesser mortals Steve, Klaudia and Ray. After this excitement, Sophie & Ray carried on to exit via the very wet bottom entrance. Everyone else retraced their steps back up the pitches and out via the top entrance.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Calf Holes – Browgill

Sophie H, Billy, Original Sophie, Maz, Jason, Ami, Vikki, Ray

A first lead for Sophie H. Beautiful rigging on the entrance pitch then a leisurely trip through to Browgill. Billy rigged the pitch down into Browgill. It’s really not easy, so he did very well. Only Sophie H followed him down it – everyone else opted for the bypass, which was equipped with a fixed handline. Then it was a return trip back through the cave to exit via Calf Holes. There are rumours that 2 members of the party chose to exit via Browgill, but these rumours can’t be confirmed… nor can it be confirmed that these 2 members managed to get lost on the fell on the walk back.

Photos by Sophie H

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Rowten Pot

Long Dave & Ray

For a long time now, I’ve been trying to arrange an exchange trip in Rowten. I think it would be a very jolly experience, with people passing close to each other all over the place. But numbers or weather have always conspired to thwart my plans. This time it was both! In the end, only Dave and I signed up on a particularly bleak early spring morning with a forecast for rain all day.

Having just returned from Tasmania a couple of days before, I was feeling particularly jet-lagged and lethargic, so was very happy when Dave said he didn’t mind not getting to the bottom on this occasion. This meant that we only had 2 bags to carry up the hill, rather than 3. Phew.

It was a pretty quick and efficient trip to the bottom of the Main Chamber. I rigged the entrance pitch down the Eyehole and Dave took over to rig the big pitch, which he hadn’t rigged before. He made short work of it too.

This was only Dave’s 2nd trip to Rowten. On the 1st occasion, I had rigged the big pitch, using my trademark hybrid route of descending from the 1st y-hang in the bottomless rift and swinging over onto the far wall halfway down to join the Big Gully route at the descending line of rebelays. Dave must have enjoyed this on his previous visit as he chose to take the same route this time, despite my suggestion that he may want to take the more traditional route to the end of the bottomless rift.

In no time at all, we were both down in Main Chamber, looking down the Flyover, wishing we had brought the other bag of rope. However, this did give us a chance to explore as far as we could (tackle-free) on the Direct route. I hadn’t actually been down that way for many, many years, so was quite surprised by how far it’s possible to get. There are a few short climbs to get down, which looked like they may be interesting on the way back up, but we forged on. Eventually we ended up about level with and reasonably close to the 2nd rebelay of Flyover route, reinforcing my opinion that an exchange would be a very sociable affair indeed.

On the way back up to Main Chamber, Dave spotted Calcite Inlet. We didn’t attempt to squeeze into this, but it does look very nice. The 2 interesting climbs weren’t too bad to get back up. Combined tactics worked nicely on the lower one. For the upper one, Dave had left a convenient length of 6mm string attached to a handy anchor, which I was very pleased to see.

I set off up the big pitch first, with Dave derigging. One of the advantages of my hybrid route is that it breaks the big pitch up, so that 2 people can be ascending at the same time. Despite the extra rigging, I think this actually speeds things up. At the top of the big pitch, I offered to take over derigging, but Dave was in his element, so I took his bag off him and set off out. Dave appeared on the surface before I’d even had a chance to catch my breath.

This was a great, quick trip and Rowten delivered as it always does. Just to round things off, Dave produced a couple of slices of the cake he made himself for his recent wedding. Move over OG Sophie, there’s a new cake king in town!

No photos of the trip, but check the cake out…

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Twixmas Fun in Alum Pot

Tom, Maz, Gareth, Billy, Sophie H, Ray

No to be outdone by Will’s Little Hull trip, a group of 6 of us met on the Alum Pot lane on the same chilly, but glorious morning. Tom had brought tackle for Dolly Tubs down to the bridge. I was equipped for SE route down to the sump.

After Christmas greetings, the 1st order of the day was to decide who was doing which route. Sophie and Billy were keen to do SE for the full Alum experience. Maz was keen not to. So that was easy. Tom and Maz would go in via Lower Long Churn and rig down to the bridge, where they could join our ropes and continue to the bottom if they felt so inclined. Gareth, Billy, Sophie and I would drop SE and rig down to the bottom.

The 2nd order of the day for me was to work out how to use my brand new Petzl Superavanti harness, complete with plastic inserts to stop the leg loops working themselves undone. I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest that Petzl should get their finger out and actually fix the problem!

After a pleasant walk up, Tom & Maz headed for Long Churn, while I set to rigging SE route. A small clump of young (and, hence hopefully undiseased) trees seemed like a good place to start, then off the big tree directly over the shaft – does this tree lean slightly more than it used to? It’s quite a while since I last rigged this route, but the anchors for the y-hang rebelay were easily located, although they are a bit off to the side in a corner. The rebelay is a bit awkward, being almost free hanging. I think I left the right length of rope in the loop for people to stand in. The rope was very twisted on the way down, so it was slow progress trying to untwist it as I went.

Next down was Billy. He made very short work of the rebelay, using his foot loop to aid, rather than standing in the loop of rope. He was down in no time, suitably impressed by the experience. Next was Sophie. Again, she passed the rebelay without an issue, this time standing in the loop of rope – nice! She claimed to be a bit nervous on the way down – funny how the daylight shaft is so much more exposed – but it didn’t show. Obviously Gareth was also down in no time.

By this time, Tom and Maz had appeared at the window at the bottom of Dolly Tubs pitch, having clearly sprinted through Long Churn. Good effort. They were busy rigging the Greasy Slab as I set off down the next big pitch. Luckily the deviation was easy to find, although it was higher than I remember. One of my slings around the old bit of in situ tat did the job nicely. Again the rope was slightly twisted on the way down, but not quite as bad this time. I wonder if washing them in the washing machine leads to twisting. Either way, I’m going to put more effort into untwisting them next time.

Again, Billy was down beside me in no time. Sophie claims to struggle with deviations, but there was absolutely no evidence of that. She coped admirably, despite it being quite an acute angle.

The last short pitch posed no problems and we were all soon down in the impressive passage on our way to the sump. Gareth pointed out the bypass to the final climb and Billy & Sophie were off, keen to see what lay beyond. Sadly, not much lies beyond and we were at the sump in no time. The waterfall coming in from Diccan was it’s usual noisy self. Sophie declared a complete lack of interest in ever coming down that way.  Billy was clearly tempted. No matter – I’m confident they’ll both be doing it before long.

We took some time at the bottom for Gareth to get some photos and then started to head out, unsure whether Tom and/or Maz were planning to come on down. By the time we got to the last pitch it seemed like they had stopped at the bottom of the bridge, so I derigged. Sophie and Gareth joined Tom & Maz to head out via Dolly Tubs, so I carried on derigging SE with Billy ahead of me.

Billy may have regretted his decision to go out SE when he was handed a full tackle sack to prussik up the top pitch with. Not that it seemed to slow him down any. The others seemed to be having a whale of a time on the traverse and Greasy Slab. Sophie managed to get some nice shots from the window of Billy on the top pitch of SE. I have to admit to finding the y-hang rebelay near the top a bit awkward due to the large offset between upper and lower ropes. Billy didn’t complain, so maybe he found it easy.

As for my new harness – I have to say I was quite pleased with it overall. It’s simpler and less bulky than my old Singing Rock. The only slight issue for me is that the central maillon seems to sit a little lower, which presumably leads to me leaning back and hence using my arms a bit more. Perhaps I just need to adjust it a bit better. I’ll experiment over the next few trips.

Billy and I strolled slowly back down to the cars, where I got changed and he waited for Tom so that he could access his dry clothes. Bad planning that! Thankfully it didn’t take too long for the others to reappear.

A stop off at the Station was called for to round off an excellent day. Not a bad way to kill some time between Christmas and the New Year.

Photos by Sophie.

 

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Jingling Pot

James, Ami, Jasmine, Tom, Ray

As is so often the way at this time of year, the planned trip couldn’t go ahead due to high water levels. The “Crawling Crew” (James, Jasmine & Ami) were most disappointed about this as the planned trip was Bucket On The Head. Tom and I were considerably less disappointed.

Where to go on a wet Wednesday evening? Well, obviously Rowten! But, as Tom already had the ropes packed for Lateral Cleft, Jingling was the even more obvious choice on this occasion.

Ami & Jasmine set a cracking pace up the hill, obviously excited to get dangling. I showed my greater experience by treating the evening as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Jingling was the site for some of Ami’s initial steps into rigging, so she was keen to rig Lateral Cleft to show how much she had advanced. I don’t think she had rigged the traverse from Little Gully over to the Cleft before, but made short work of it. On seeing how much fun Ami was having on the traverse, Jasmine immediately declared that she wanted to derig. She loves a challenge apparently – worth remembering!

While Ami carried on into the Cleft, followed by the others, I rigged the direct route from the start of the traverse. Last time I’d attempted this, I was thwarted by Tim K, who had given me an “experimental” rope to use. The experiment failed when the rope proved to be too fast to stop in order to rig the rebelay, even with full lock on my descender. No such issues this time as I brought my own tried and tested rope.

While waiting for the others, I rigged the final pitch. Apparently the youngsters just free-climb this these days. It looked easy enough to climb down, but I’m not so sure about getting back up. As I had some rope left over, I carried it on down into the dig, rigging it off an old piece of wood that was just lying around. It reached down the first short drop, then the first big drop and another short drop. That was as far as I went as the next drop was another big one. It certainly looked climbable though. To me, this dig feels much deeper than the One-Armed Bandit series in Aquamole, which I’d always assumed it was hoped to connect with. What do I know though.

I got back up to the bottom of the main shaft just in time to see Ami dropping in, soon followed by the others, minus Tom who had turned back a bit earlier. Fair enough. It’s impressive that he gets out at all at the moment with his new mini-caver-to-be.

Ami & Jasmine carried on down. I forgot to look at whether they used the rope or free-climbed. James and I had a chat at the bottom of the main shaft. Eventually Ami reappeared, but not Jasmine. Apparently the next long drop in the dig was indeed climbable, so of course Jasmine couldn’t resist. I think she went to the very bottom of the dig. Good effort.

Ami and James exited via the direct route, Jasmine and I took the Lateral Cleft, with Jasmine getting her wish of derigging. She made quick work of it too. James had only finished derigging the direct route when Jasmine appeared at the start of the traverse – see attached non-artist’s impression as no-one had a camera. I love watching (and listening to) Jasmine developing as a caver. The running commentary captures each precise moment when some new idea clicks into place. In this case it was how to derig an awkward traverse.

Nice job all. Thanks James for making it happen… and for not doing Bucket On The Head.

 

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Old Rift Pot

Long Dave, John & Ray

We had hoped to do an exchange with Long Kin East, but couldn’t quite muster the numbers. With recent rainfall, it seemed like LKE may be a bit moist anyway. As it turned out, though, it wasn’t that wet underground, so LKE probably would have been ok.

The day all went very smoothly. We found the cave easily enough and Dave did a great job of rigging the whole thing. We opted for the Bob Hole route to avoid any hanging death on the Ramblers route. The suggested 10m rope for the 3rd pitch could really do with being 12m and the suggested deviation is really a rebelay. Apart from that, and my short cowstail being a bit too long, we reached the bottom in quick order. Dave and I had a bit of a poke around in the very nicely sculpted passages at the bottom while John began the ascent. We were in the Gamecock in Austwick reasonably early for a well-earned pint.

Let’s try to get enough people for an exchange next time!

Photos by Dave & Ray