Tim Donovan, Darren Mackenzie, Steve Physick, Alec Hunter, Tom Calpin, Scott Nixon, Ray McGarry
A classic Tim D trip – tight, damp and full of surprises. If anyone wants to write an in-depth trip report, I didn’t get past the squeeze between the first and second pitches, so I can only assume that fun was had beyond!
Tim D, Darren, Tom, Scott, Alec, Steve, Ray
Aygill is one of those caves that I’ve never been able to work out. Although it isn’t very long, there seem to be a maze of passages. Luckily our leader, Tim D, knows his way around… well, mostly… there was the small matter of missing the climb up on the left not far inside the entrance, but we can forgive him that as he led us through the rest of the cave without a hitch.
The going is fairly cramped until the 2nd pitch. Immediately before this pitch is an awkward little section with a tight left hand bend. This proved too tight for Tom, but he gave it a damn good try. Unfortunately all his effort was in vain and he reluctantly headed out for an early bath. To my mind, the best way to tackle this awkward section is feet first, left side down and stay low. As far as I could tell, those who attempted it head first had a more difficult time, as you then have to somehow swing your feet under you to approach the pitch the right way up.
Anyone expecting a nice stomp down the streamway at the bottom of the 2nd pitch was to be disappointed. It’s a mixture of crawling (mostly in water) and climbs down some entertaining cascades. Some of the wet crawls appear to be bypassable, but it’s hardly worth it as others aren’t so you get a good soaking either way. Despite grumbling in the ranks, Tim did a great job of urging us all on, largely due to the promise of “the most scenic sump in the Dales”… or some similar dubious claim. To be fair to him, it was quite a nice sump, the best bit being the ability to stand up in the sump chamber.
After a few photos we headed out. Some of the entertaining cascades provided even more entertainment on ascent. There was general agreement that the awkward section at the top of the second pitch was easier on the way out. I personally put this down to the fact that most people tried to approach the pitch head first on the way in. All in all, another great mid-week trip. Thanks Tim!
Rhod, Maz (2nd KCC trip), James Benson (1st KCC trip), Ray
A great little midweek novice trip. The weather was uninspiring to say the least… decidedly wet and windy! The long walk across the fell was directly into the wind too. Definitely one of those trips where you’re glad to be below the surface. Given how wet it had been, Easegill Beck was remarkably dry. It wasn’t even that wet underground.
The chosen route was a short roundtrip via Platypus Junction. I had originally planned to go anticlockwise, but opted for clockwise instead, out via Razor Passage and back via Spout Hall. I didn’t want to get all the way round to Razor Passage, only to find it impassable and then have to come all the way back. As it turned out, there were no issues with water levels at all.
We made good progress to the pitch, which we laddered. The climb down into Broadway caused the usual fun and games, but nothing too serious. Then on to Platypus Junction, where we took a short photographic break. Rhod led us out expertly. The spout in Spout Hall was spouting a bit too much to climb up comfortably, so we bypassed it to the right. More fun and games on the climb back up out of Broadway. James somehow managed to get his left leg into a most uncomfortable looking position. I’m still not sure how he managed to get himself out of that position, but he did. Everyone managed the climb back up the ladder without incident. Maz had been a bit concerned about getting back up some of the rifty climbs in the entrance passage, but needn’t have worried as he seemed to fly up them all.
Thankfully the wind was behind us for the walk back across the fell. It was a relatively tough trip for novices, but they both seemed to cope well. They even want to come back for more!
Photos by Ray.
John Forder, Miranda Forder, Tim Donovan, Tom Calpin
Standard tourist trip down Shuttleworth to Witches II on a sunny Sunday. It’s already rigged which caused some minor rigging issues for us on the way down. Once in Witches II we popped up to the Exercise Yard for a gander, then back over the sump to visit the pretties. A quick but careful nip down into My Newt Passage was sloppily reversed (glad we brought a rope) before a wander up to the mega long straws and a gentle exit.
Tim Donovan, Darren Mackenzie, Scott Nixon, Tom Calpin
With my new oversuit due to arrive any day, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a muddy Mistral send-off so joined for Tim’s trip.
Water levels were relatively high with the beck in full flow, but we managed to get to Leck Fell Lane all the same. A quick look at the thundering inlet waterfalls and we were on our way back through the thick glutinous mud. Darren and Scott headed off to check out Darren and Dave Ramsay’s new dug route down to the end of Pippikin and caught Tom and Tim up as they were walking back across the fell for home.
Scott Nixon, Darren Mackenzie, Tim King, Pete Blamire, Chris Downham
Scott lead for this Link Pot trip, heading for Cairn Junction, Serendipity and the Easy Street streamway
Jason Clements, Darren Mackenzie, Tom Calpin, Yolanda Aze
None of us had done full Boundary before, with Jason itching to get it over with after several failed meets list appointments over the years. Him and Darren had tried it once in damp weather, only to be turned back by a section of ‘washing machine’ passage in the entrance series.
We slogged over the fell to the second highest entrance to the system, and slid through the entrance bedding. Down a climb, down another, right, left, down another climb, through some flat-out and acute corners, I lost track a bit to be honest. But eventually we popped out at the top of an airy traverse round a pot in a chamber and a free-climb down. Through a cross-rift into Fusion Cavern and into bigger stuff. We made our way past some fantastic crystal false floors and into Hiroshima.
We found the Manhattan connection without much difficulty up on the ledge, and popped down into upper Easegill. Made our way up to Nagasaki but ended up going upstream from here trying to find the route onwards, eventually getting to Limerick Junction before realising our mistake. We headed back in the right direction out Nagasaki and through the little canyon for a quick visit to Easter Grotto, Yolanda’s first visit there.
We’d have loved to go back out of Wretched at this point, but sadly due to the blockage it’d have to be County. This took longer than I remembered and by time we popped out of the entrance flap we were all knackered.
Helen H, Andy J, Tony B, Jason
Boundary Pot and I have a history of failed attempts due to high water and quailing spirits, so I was not over-optimistic when we gathered on Sunday. There had been plenty of dry weather in the past few weeks, but more recent rain. However, the walk up the bed of the beck was encouraging, in fact the pool at Pool Sink was completely empty, which I hadn’t seen before.
Entering the second chamber in the entrance series, I was delighted to hear – nothing! Normally some water either babbles or thunders down the next climb, but it was completely dry – so the trip was on!
We quickly passed the bone-dry ‘Tacklesack passage’, as I think of it, on via Savage’s bypass and into a chamber where at last we heard the sound of water – a bold step over the top of an inlet waterfall is required. This was as far as I’d been before, so from here on, guides (3 of them!) were consulted at every turn, although navigation is actually straightforward at this point.
Passing through Fusion Chamber, with its impressive pitch that we’d bypassed, we soon came to the area round Boxing Day Aven. This was a lovely section of cave – as well as lots of clean stal formations, there were abundant brown crystalline deposits that I was unfamiliar with. At one point, a shelf of this stuff looked like the Grand Canyon in (extreme) miniature. Further on, the passage was divided horizontally by a false floor of crystals. To avoid walking on this, we crawled through the canal beneath it, including a brief complete ducking at the end. Looking back, it was plain that most folk had stayed dry and gone over the top. However our dampness was soon dispelled by a warm glow of self-satisfaction at our top cave conservation conduct!
Before long, the character of the cave changed as we arrived at the large rubble-strewn Hiroshima chamber. There were warnings about unstable boulders here, but we passed without incident, down the scaffolded shaft, traversing upstream in the roof of a rift and following a boulder slope up into Nagasaki chamber, another huge bouldery void. (I imagined having Superman’s height and X-ray vision – the land under Easegill must look like an enormous Swiss cheese!)
At this point, there was some doubt about which way to go on. Eventually Andy’s compass settled the argument and we followed him downslope. A series of climbs, up, down and traversing led to the Assembly Hall, with increasing confidence about the route (though not on my part – had I been leading, I would probably still be there!). Some of the climbs were not without interest, but some in-situ knotted ropes helped out.
From there, we (apparently) followed the White Way to Holbeck junction. At a subsequent climb up, Andy demonstrated the wisdom of not standing beneath a climber when a large flake he was using as a foothold parted company from the wall and narrowly missed Helen. Soon afterwards, we came to a pile of stones beneath a climb and I suddenly, and for the first time, recognised our location: we were at the end of Spiral Staircase passage. From here, it was the familiar meanders and the final gymnastics of the Big Rift to the Wretched Rabbit exit.
Exiting in warm sunshine, I was immensely chuffed to have finally made this trip, found that it more than lived up to my expectations, and it took well under 3 hours underground. And that included a number of photo stops – thanks to Tony for taking the trouble to document the trip.
Jason reports:
A County/Lancaster exchange on a Wednesday night? We wondered if we were being over-ambitious. But a splinter group kindly volunteered to rig Lancs, have a shorter trip and come out the same way, so the rest of us set off remarkably promptly at 6pm. We had a close encounter with a barn owl on the way, probably having disturbed his tea. Oddly enough, a dead vole lay on the lid of County – we put it to one side in case the owl was still hungry.
I utterly failed to trace our route on the survey afterwards, but I can reveal that we went via Battle of Britain Chamber, the Trident series, dropping into Lower Pierce’s Passage (a nice free climb, though some faint-hearts called for a rope!), thence to Eureka junction where we stopped to rest and pose for some photos. The water was still fairly low; the dry spell had broken a few days earlier, but there had not been much rain that day.
From there to Stop Pot posed the only navigational challenge – the dry route through the boulder choke seemed no longer to exist. In the end, we just had to follow the water and get wet (the horror!). Onwards through the high-level caverns (Monster, Snail, Corne’s and Oake’s – at least the survey told me that much), admiring the many stalactites, including the Halberdiers. Apparently the French say that it’s raining halberds instead of cats and dogs, which arguably makes more sense…
John showed us the Minarets bypass, whereupon we all followed him rather than enjoy the usual delights of those passages. Soon we reached Oxbow Corner, and having decide to take the wet route out, John announced that the next bit through the boulder choke was a bit complex, so keep together. If I’d have said that, it would be the prelude to getting thoroughly lost, but he led us unerringly through. A splendid romp through down the Main Drain followed.
There was plenty of foam on the walls at the downstream sump, so water levels had been higher. I scooped up some foam and applied it to my chin, trying for a Santa look, but it didn’t really work.
Up Fall Pot and to the entrance pitch, it was good to see that it was still rigged! But looking up, what was that? Blimey, daylight! It seemed like we had been underground for ages, but it was not much after 9:30. The good time was less due to our rapid pace than to the expert route-finding – an excellent trip.
Photos courtesy of Darren.
We all got to the bottom safely and off we went through into Fall pot, we went at a steady pace so Ali could take it all in, we eventually ended up taking some great photos at Bob’s Boss and the Painters Pallet then with a bit of memory searching for the way on we eventually made it to the Minarets without finding Diamond hall first, I took some backlit photos to try and do my best to copy the Northern Caves photo it wasn’t perfect but I thought it would do, we then stuck ourselves through the link into the way on to Retched rabbit etc.
