Tag: Ingleton

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 Ami S In Day Trips

Tatham Wife Hole

Team: Ray, Scott, Connor, Paddy, Sophie H, Billy, Yolanda, Ami

The scheduled trip was off the cards, but KCC turned out on a beautiful chilly day for the epic walk to Tatham Wife Hole.

More uphill than any of us hoped for, it was just before 11am when we went in. This one starts with some beautiful streamway, that you notice is heading rather steeply downhill. Ray had gone ahead to rig so the rest of us just had to follow and enjoy the series of impressive chambers and fun little scrambles before the first two pitches.

After these it all becomes a little trickier.  The CNCC description says ‘nothing too strenuous’, but the manoeuvres through the rift here are definitely awkward, even taking in to account the alcohol-fuelled Christmas break most of us had had since we last went caving. Some real pretties and mixed geology make it worth stopping to look though.

We finally reached the duck, where several party members had turned back on a previous trip due to wet conditions. As it was my first time in Tatham, I was determined to see the end and plunged through, grateful for the dry conditions. I was promptly followed by Scott, Paddy and Billy. Connor opted for the ‘bypass’ climb, which, having watched him do it, looks even less fun than a thorough wetting. It could possibly be less awkward if the right route was chosen, but certainly isn’t an easy alternative if anyone is considering it!

From here you briefly climb up above the water as the streamway is narrow, traversing some boulders before descending again and finding the final pitch, expertly rigged by Connor. Once down, you enter a crawl which I thought meant we were nearly at the terminal sump. But on it went. The stals were pretty but the water was getting deeper – getting me far wetter than the duck had – and before long only Billy and I were still preserving in the name of ‘terminal sump’. We made it all the way to a dive line, but as there was no air space here to do the final few metres, we called it a success and retreated.

This is one of those caves where you know you’re practically back at the level of the car, but to get to it you’ve got over 100m of Up to contend with. Derigging, I quickly established how out-of-practise I am, and I’m sure Paddy won’t mind me saying that both of us huffed and puffed our way back up, hauling the bags through those awkward rifts. We were very grateful to find Connor at pitch 2, on hand to lighten the load. It felt hard work, but I actually emerged into the sunshine (hope you weren’t too cold everyone) less than 3 1/2 hours after we went in. Not bad for a team of 8.

Passing Leeds Uni club, who blamed car trouble rather than hangovers for their late start, we were soon back at the car and even made it to Inglesport for some bargain rope and a bowl of chips. Great trip everyone!

Pics by Sophie and Connor

By Ami S In Day Trips

Long Kin West

Long Kin West, or Bolty McBolt face.

Team: Toby, John, Big Dave & (report by) Ami

Up the side of Ingleborough to a whole set of exciting looking entrances. John had been before and helped us quickly locate the correct entrance off a rock bridge. Having noted the description did not match the topo, Dave set off rigging first, expecting a roughly 50m pitch with one rebelay, then a rock bridge where the route continued. However, as I descended after him, I heard the call for the others to pause, as navigational challenges were to be found below.

I landed by Dave, on a rock bridge, but here, the walls were more bolt than cave, meaning an overwhelming glut of ways on. The obvious route was right in front of us, but the description indicated swinging around a corner, of which there were at least two, both with Y hang bolts. We debated for a while, and Dave continued down one option, which would have been another 50 metres, with a rebelay and a “essential” deviation.

In the meantime, John and Toby had joined me on the rock bridge. By now, Dave was shouting up that there were no further signs of life. We asked if he could pass under the bridge we were on, thus rejoining another of the route options without coming back up. Alas, he could walk under us, but found only some unfortunate ex-sheep, rather than any route. Poor Dave – back up he came.

Now we were four gathered on a small rock bridge, which despite every other wall in the place being bolted, had no real good safety point. We wonder if the description has one of those helpful bits about a feature that you actually want nothing to do with? So some strange rigging was achieved between us all to pass a line back the other way, meaning Toby – once at the back – was now on to rigging!

This route was more successful (for future parties – just keep going straight down) although we’re not sure what’s so essential about that deviation. Despite Dave’s shelf of dead sheep, the pitch is spectacular, with light filtering through from the many holes above. Another small pitch at the bottom leads to a really full sheep’s graveyard – watch your step!

I took the rigging from here over a fun traverse and down another wonderful pitch through some rock features. Tricky to get the Y hangs right to avoid rope rub, but with Dave’s help we made it to the bottom. A quick snack prepared for the long ascent back up. I’m really pleased we got to this one – it’s an awesome cave and wouldn’t take too long next time we know which bolts to aim for!

Pics by Dave