Tag: Dales

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

There’s more to Lost Johns

John, Will, Ami & Ray

A typical evening Lost Johns trip usually involves some combination of routes down the upper series (Dome-Centipede or Monastery-Dome), but there’s so much more to the system if you venture below Dome Junction or Sink Chamber. The aim of this trip was to delve deeper. The original plan had been for a Boxhead – Death’s Head through trip, but the recent wet weather gave some cause for concern about water levels in Long Pool. So we decided to do an in and out trip via Lost Johns, but still get to see some of the master cave and Lyle Cavern.

On arrival at the lay-by up on Leck Fell, there was another party of 2 already there. The usual “Where are you going?” discussion elicited that they were also headed for Lost Johns. Thankfully they were heading to Dome, while we were planning on Centipede. From Dome Junction, however, they were planning to head deeper, which could have caused issues. How would we handle 2 independent parties on Battleaxe, for instance. I was pretty confident that we would be faster, so decided that was their problem.

We went underground at 11:00 and made swift progress down the pitches, arriving at the bottom of the last pitch at 12:10. We had budgeted for 5 hours underground, so had plenty of time to explore. At Groundsheet Junction we headed upstream, arriving before too long at the handline climb up into the bottom of Lyle Cavern. Now, to get into Lyle Cavern you leave this handline after a few feet, but Will and Ami (who were leading the way) carried on up into a crawl. Being a bit more experienced (or knackered), John and I left them to it. They came back with tales of wonderful decorations, so maybe it’s worth a look next time.

Reunited again, we all climbed up into Lyle Cavern. As we still had a bit of time, Will set off up the fixed ropes, followed by Ami and then me. John once again showed his greater experience by waiting at the bottom as we weren’t planning to be long. By the time I reached the top, Will had done some exploring and was ready to set off back down the fixed ropes. Ami was thrutching through some damp crawl below Helectite Rift, eventually climbing up into the rift beyond the miserable crawl. I chose to take the more traditional route of climbing straight up into Helectite Rift, without any need for crawling at all.

Alas, time was getting on by now, so Ami and I turned back (via our chosen routes) and headed down the fixed ropes to meet up with the others again and begin the long upward journey back to the sun. A brief stop for fun-sized Mars bars (supplied by Ami) at Groundsheet Junction was very welcome. The upward journey was again very efficient, albeit a bit slower thanks to gravity. On the way out, we bumped into the other party of 2 at Dome Junction, still on their way in! I guess we didn’t need to worry about double rigging then.

We emerged to glorious sunshine at 15:45, 15 mins ahead of schedule, feeling very satisfied indeed. Even though we saw quite a bit of the system, there’s still plenty more to go back for. We didn’t even head downstream in the master cave. And think of all those great through-trips we could do. I hope we’ll be back before long!

Photos by Will.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Sell Gill Holes Exchange

Will, Tim K, Tom, Jason, Helen & Ray

We seem to have done the dry route in Sell Gill rather a lot in recent years, but it has always been too wet for the Goblin (wet) route. This time, however, there was a chance of Goblin being dry enough… at least until some heavy rain over the previous 2 days. So we really didn’t know if the exchange was on or not until we got up there. As it turned out, there was no need to worry – while it wasn’t completely dry, the stream sinking at the wet entrance was very low. So it was all systems go for a fun, short exchange. I have to say, I was really looking forward to a straightforward stress-free trip after the shenanigans in Voldemort last week.

The first order of the day was deciding who was going in which way. It had already been decided that Will was going to rig the dry route, while I would rig Goblin. Most people seemed to prefer to descend Goblin, so Helen, Tom & Tim followed me, while Jason followed Will.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever done Goblin before. If so, it was so long ago that I have no memory of it. So, either way, it was essentially a new route for me. And what a great route it is! The initial climb down into the entrance is “entertainingly” slippy, so a short (10m) rope was useful. After that it’s a short easy walk to the head of the pitch. The fun starts with a traverse round to the left into a short oxbow, leading to a y-hang just out of view round the corner. Then it’s a short (5 or 6m) drop down with the water – this would be miserable in higher water – to an entertaining bit where you have to post yourself through a letterbox into a short crawl. While it had all been fun to this point, my sense of homour was tested when the tackle sack refused to follow me into the crawl, necessitating a feet-first reversing manoeuvre back out towards the drop to free it.

At the end of the crawl is a short climb down to a ledge from which the next drop is rigged from a y-hang well out over the shaft. While teetering out to rig this y-hang, I was most perturbed to find Helen pulling the rope to which I was attached. Not that Helen did anything wrong. There was an intermediate anchor between us, but even the small rope movements transferred to me were nearly enough to pull me off my perch. Apologies for barking at you Helen. The happy voices behind suggested that the rest of the team were making light work of the SRT behind me.

After the next drop is a humungous y-hang – exactly my sort of thing. Then there are just 2 single-anchor rebelays to reach the bottom. As I was rigging these, I could hear Will & Jason on the other route. Will won the race to the bottom (if there was one) and I landed about the same time as Jason. Perfect timing. The others made short work of bottoming Goblin. Prior to descending, Tom had announced that this route was his nemesis, due to a bad experience shortly after he had started caving. Well, times have certainly changed. He smashed it on this occasion.

With a bit of time on their hands while the rest of team Goblin touched down, Will & Jason went for a bit of an explore. After a while, Will came back, but not Jason. He must have gone exploring in the downstream crawl. So we sat around and chatted for a while. Eventually Helen started making her way out the dry way. A while later, I started up Goblin. Still no sign of Jason. Then Will, Tim & Tom went looking for him. Tom even got as far as starting the miserable crawl, reporting that Jason was coming back just in time to save Will & Tim from a similar fate. Apparently Jason had been all the way through to the elusive final pitch. Good effort!

Tim & Jason made their way out the dry way, followed by Tom derigging. Will followed me up Goblin to derig that. Considering Will hasn’t been caving for long, he made short work of it. He did say it was the first time he’d derigged a route he hadn’t previously descended, which made it a particularly interesting experience. There is a great vantage point, perched at the top of the shaft, just beyond the short oxbow. I waited there and got some great views of Will reversing out of the letterbox and derigging the top y-hang. If only I’d had a camera!

We emerged to find Tom, Tim & Jason waiting for us on the surface. I presume they hadn’t been there long. A decamp to the Helwith Bridge was called for. This rounded off a near-perfect evening. I will definitely be back to Goblin before long. It is an absolutely stunning route. Such a lot of interesting and varied SRT packed into a single pitch.

Photos by Will.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Fun and Games in Voldemort

Sophie, Pete, Matt, Dave, Ami & Ray

It all started so well. OK, there was the usual random walk around the fell to find the entrance, but nothing to suggest the comedy sketch to come. But let’s start at the start…

There is a short ladder directly from the surface. At the bottom is a short bit of crawling. I’d forgotten how snug this crawl is, so had to re-orientate myself (and the tackle sack) to get through. No-one else seemed to struggle, so I’ll blame arthritis. Others may blame pies. Things then get a little bit less snug down a few climbs to the head of the 1st pitch. As last time, this was already rigged, so we were all soon down at the start of Haywagon. Everyone else went for a marvel at the pretties, after being good boys and girls and removing SRT kit. As I’d been before, I waited patiently for their return.

The 2nd & 3rd pitches follow soon after, again thankfully pre-rigged. The take-off for the 2nd is moderately interesting. Now the key to this trip is to leave the 2nd pitch at a traverse line halfway down, rather than following the rope all the way to the bottom. A short traverse then leads to the 3rd pitch, which is easy enough. The bottom of this pitch is where the fun really begins.

Immediately is a fairly tight downward sideways crawl, dumping you rather unceremoniously in a puddle at a T-junction. The way on is left, along a seemingly interminable crawl… nothing too bad to start with, but a few more tricky sections along the way turned the thoughts of some members of the party to religion and sex, at least judging from the language. The “pleasure” of this passage is only enhanced by the accompaniment of a tackle sack.

After what seemed like a long time, but was probably no more than 15 mins or so, we popped out at the head of Oliver Lloyd Aven. Phew! The ordeal was over. All we had to do was slide down a rope and stomp out of Notts II. The first part of this plan went well enough. Before long, most were down in Inlet 7 of Notts II, with Matt and I stopping on the big ledge near the bottom to pull the rope down. And that’s where it all went wrong…

We pulled, we tugged, we hung, we jumped, all to no avail. No way was the rope coming down. Perhaps a few more bodies would help. So we decided to abseil down to the bottom so that all 6 of us could try together. Just 1 problem, of course… we had managed to pull the rope down to some extent with our exertions, so was it now safe to use? The obvious solution was for Matt and I to abseil together on the 2 ends. Thankfully this worked.

Even with all 6 of us pulling, the rope wasn’t budging. There was nothing else for it – someone would have to prussic up and free things off, or at least see what the problem was. No sooner had such thoughts started to dawn on us than Dave was attaching his jammers and setting off. No need for any drawing of straws then. With Ami, Pete and I tied to the other end as ballast, Dave was soon up near the problem. Some comedy communication then followed, the gist appearing to be that the 2 ropes were rather twisted, although an equally plausible translation could have been that the pope was Father Ted. On Dave’s return, it turned out that the 1st translation was closer to the actual situation. He even remembered how many twists there were and in which direction. So a sketch looking rather like a typical Mayday dance around a maypole then ensued. Surely that must have freed things off… but no.

I then decided to go up and have a look, but couldn’t find my chest jammer. Meanwhile, Sophie had set off up, reporting that there were no twists, but that the pull-down krab was a good 5 or 6m from the top, rendering it impossible to actually reach the top to rerig. In the meantime, Matt had found my lost jammer on the big ledge about 7m up and dropped it to me. On Sophie’s return, I then set off up to view the problem, intending to prussic up beyond the pull-down krab and reach the top of the pitch to rerig, making sure that enough bodies were tied to the other end to prevent my early demise. On reaching the problem, it was clear that, while there were no twists in the ropes below the krab, they were very twisted indeed above. Ah, so that’s the problem then. Using ropes and walls for purchase, I was able to spin enough to remove all twists above the krab. The others were then able to take the twists out below me. Job done. All I had to do was descend and the ropes should feed freely. It became clear that this probably wasn’t going to work as soon as I started to descend. There was no way to prevent the ropes twisting again. Again we all tried to pull down from the bottom, but again there was no give whatsoever. Whether it is simply the twisted ropes or there is something more fundamentally wrong at the top, we couldn’t be sure. In any case, it was getting a bit late by this point and we were all getting a bit cold, so we decided to make our way out of Notts II and come back for the ropes another day. Ami had never been in Notts II before and was suitably impressed. It was a shame we weren’t more in the mood for an explore.

So, as I write this (the day after), my ropes are still on Oliver Lloyd Aven. Matt and I plan to go back tomorrow to retrieve them, presumably via Voldemort. Watch this space…

Photos by Sophie

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 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!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Gaping Gill Mystery Tour… or Who The $#!& Is Steve?

Claire, Will (aka Mark or Matt) & Ray (aka Steve) with special guest appearances by Pete Sykes & Jean Brooksbank (BPC)

The Bradford winch meet seemed too good an opportunity to miss, given that most of the entrances to the system would be pre-rigged, so 3 of us set off for Clapham on a fine May morning with no particular plan. We arrived in the village around 09:30, easily early enough to get a good parking spot up by the church… or so we thought. Not a chance! There were cars everywhere. We ended up parked back out towards the A65. We were later told that the winch meet is now so popular with tourists that they were turning people away at 08:30. Apparently people start turning up at the booking-in tent up by Main Shaft at 05:30. Perhaps they need to charge more?

The walk up was pleasant enough, although it must have been a bit hot for Will who didn’t get the memo about walking up in normal clothes and getting changed up there. Then, of course, we had to decide where to go. Will had never been in the system before, so was happy with anything as long as we saw Main Chamber. Claire had been before from Stream Passage to Bar. She was adamant that she didn’t want to come out of Bar again. So a reasonable plan was to go in Marilyn, have a poke around in Hensler’s Master Cave then take New Hensler’s crawl through to SE Passage, do a quick out and back to Main Chamber then exit via Flood Entrance/Wade’s. The only potential issue with this excellent plan was that our guide (yours truly) wasn’t sure he could remember the route through New Hensler’s. Assurances were sought and given that failure to find the route through to SE Passage would not result in bodily harm of any sort. After all, we could simply return back out via Marilyn if it all went Pete Tong.

A quick change, even quicker visit to the toilet block, check-in at Main Shaft and stroll over to Marilyn entrance saw us joining the queue to descend. Directly ahead of us were a nice duo from BPC – Pete & Jean. Pete sounded very knowledgeable about the system, so I resolved to stick as close to him as possible, especially since they were planning to use New Hensler’s to get to SE Passage. If only I could keep him in sight, I may just be able to bluff the others that I too was very knowledgeable.

Now, I can only suppose that excitement about such an amazing trip (or was it nervousness about being guided by a an incompetent fool?) got the better of Claire at this point as she took to referring to Will as Mark or Matt (alternately) and Ray as Steve. Whatever the reason, it was useful to be able to blame Steve for any subsequent mishaps.

The entrance pitch is a series of short drops. Some of these are a bit on the snug side – no problem sliding down, but I could already feel mounting pressure to find SE Passage with each muttering about it possibly being a bit awkward to re-ascend. Hmmm… is Pete still in view?

The 2nd pitch (Niagra) is famously loose. One wall is essentially just a loose collection of cobbles and boulders. Things have definitely improved in recent years with the addition of 2 rebelays, rather than a single deviation. Even so, we took the precaution of ensuring that the previous person was clear of the pitch before the next started to descend. This took a while for the 3 of us to get down. On the positive(?) side, a choir of students from Cambridge waiting at the bottom of the pitch kept us entertained(?) with various caving songs, some of which I thought had died out years ago. What they lacked in tunefulness they made up for in enthusiasm. On the negative side, there was now no chance of catching Pete & Jean. We would be condemned to crawling aimlessly around various Hensler-themed scrot holes before admitting defeat and struggling back out of Marilyn.

The remaining descent of Marilyn (which is now really Disappointment) went smoothly, consisting of 3 more nice pitches with the odd bit of passage in between. The last pitch is particularly nice. At the bottom of this, a scramble down the boulder pile leads into a low passage on the way to the master cave. Much to our surprise (and my relief), who should we meet here but Pete & Jean. They had specifically waited for us. An act of extreme generosity… or had we come across as so incompetent that they had no other choice? Let’s give them (or do I mean us?) the benefit of the doubt.

We set off as a group of 5 along Hensler’s Master Cave, with Pete’s extensive knowledge of the area coming to the fore with various tales and descriptions. The master cave grows to impressive dimensions initially. Even when the size decreases, it is still pleasant walking for the most part, with various formations and features to marvel at. Eventually Jean stopped, but Pete escorted us to the ladder leading up to the Blowhole and eventually the Far Country. Pete turned round here… fair enough. But we couldn’t come all this way and not at least climb the ladder for a look at the Blowhole. We would have to be quick, but hopefully we could catch Pete & Jean again and all would be well.

 The ladder up to the Blowhole is actually a double ladder, the old one being still in place behind the newer one. This would be fine if the rung spacing was identical… but it isn’t! The passage at the top is a muddy crawl. The way onward is to the right. Another passage heads left, but we didn’t explore this. After a bit of crawling we eventually arrived at the Blowhole. It’s many years since I was last through it… I can only suppose I was a MUCH smaller man back then. To say it didn’t look inviting is an understatement. Will is no mug and quickly declared himself out. For a while, though, it looked like we might be able to cajole Claire into making an attempt. Alas, sense prevailed in the end. We’ll add it to the list of places to return to.

All this tomfoolery meant we would really have to leg it to catch Pete & Jean again. So off we set. Sadly there was no sign of them even at the start(?) of New Hensler’s. Off up it we set, crawling for all we were worth. If only we could crawl fast enough we could probably still catch them before getting too lost. The first definite sign that things had gone a bit awry was when we emerged into the bottom of Hensler’s High Aven, complete with rope for the final pitch of Hensler’s Pot. Now, while I don’t remember all the details of New Hensler’s, I was pretty sure it didn’t pass this aven. Oh dear. Should I admit we were wrong and backtrack in an attempt to find the route we wanted? Fearing for the health of my various bodily appendages, I decided against this course of action. There were really only 2 places we could be – Old Hensler’s or Mud Hensler’s. Old goes on a bit, but would eventually take us toward Main Chamber. Mud would be miserable, but would give us a very nice round trip.

Beyond the aven, things got muddier and wetter. That probably answers that one then – we must be in Mud Hensler’s. Again, it’s so long since I’ve been that I couldn’t be sure. Then the ducks arrived. And not the quacking sort. The miserable, freezing, ear in the water sort. The sort that spelled doom for my man parts if this passage didn’t lead somewhere. Then the character changed. No longer were we crawling. We were in a tightish muddy rift. Climbing up, we thankfully emerged into something big. Now, if that was Mud Hensler’s, we should be very close to Mud Hall. Being winch meet, there should also be a rope dangling down from Corky’s. At first I couldn’t see any rope, but was more relieved than you can imagine to eventually spot it. And, just a few steps further, the vastness of Mud Hall. YES! The day was saved. Even I can find my way out from there. It must be pointed out that, through all of this misery, Will was dragging a tackle sack. He didn’t once complain – even when it got stuck in the most miserable part of the crawl. He’s made of harder stuff than me.

The mood was now considerably lighter as we made our way along and then up Mud Hall into East Passage, eventually emerging high up the east side of Main Chamber. It’s always an impressive sight, but particularly rewarding to introduce someone new to it. Will was such a virgin and was suitably blown away. We stuck around Main Chamber for a while to wash off some of the excess mud, take photos and chat with some of the Cambridge students we’d met at the bottom of Niagra in Marilyn. God knows how they’d got there as they were on their way out when we passed them earlier.

Then onwards again, along South Passage, then SE Passage to SE Pot. Our plan was to climb the rope here and exit via Flood/Wade’s, but there was a bit of a queue waiting to go up. So we carried on to the Bar Pot main pitch. Now, those of you who have been paying attention will remember that Claire’s one specific demand of the trip is that we didn’t go out via Bar Pot. So she was understandably perturbed at this point. Not to worry – at the top of the greasy slab, we were able to crawl through to the entrance pitch of Small Mammal. Phew!

While waiting for some people to be lowered down the Bar Pot main pitch, we got talking to a BPC member, Roisin. She lives in Penrith and may be interested in joining KCC for some midweek fun. Let’s see if she makes contact.

This was an excellent trip. I have no idea how long we were underground for. It felt like a long time, but it really doesn’t matter. Will’s grin on exiting… and all the way back down into Clapham… summed up the day perfectly. To paraphrase Sid Perou… what a way to spend a Saturday.

Photos by Will.

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