Tag: Leck Fell

Ami, Darren, Gareth, James, Jason, Louie, Maz, Pete, Scott, Sophie, Steve, Tom  (Report by Maz)

In what might be classed as festival sized numbers for KCC, 12, yes 12, members made an appearance on Leck Fell for a mid week jaunt down one of my favourite caves.

We clearly weren’t the only ones feeling it, as a small group of other cavers were setting off for AKA pot, and another 3 were heading down to Short Drop.
All assembled, a counsel of war was held in the car park and it was agreed to rig both entrances to Gavel. This led to guest caver Louis being sent back to his car for karabiners and rope. That is how we welcome new members!

The main challenge began with the task of finding the entrances in the descending fog. Soon we reached Short Drop and the group split into a pair of sixes.
Our group consisting of myself, Steve, Scott, James, Tom and Jason began our descent. I like Short Drop. Its winding passages are easily navigable. There’s lots of little side bits to explore, some interesting features and a bit of a slither early on.

There was a bit more water than we expected and the wet crawl was exactly as it said on the tin. It wasn’t long into the twisting meanders where we met other cavers; the group of three including a 7 year old were on the return. A bit of negotiation, rather akin to meeting another vehicle on a single track road ensued. By weight of numbers, they backed up a bit until we were able to pass.

Soon we reached the fixed rope and slid down avoiding the bulk of the water, any moment expecting the other party. Still no sign, and it was mooted perhaps they’d missed Gavel entrance and were drifting around somewhere on Leck Fell.

Rounding a corner, I noticed lights above which signalled the B team about to descend the pitch. After a bit more shuffling and abseiling, a well organised and slick change over, and the exchange had occurred.

Next, we were on the rope and up the pitch. Tom and Scott de-rigging. The fog had switched to rain and we headed home, narrowly beating the others back by a few minutes.

Thanks to Ami for rigging Gavel and hopefully writing up the other half of this report. Thanks to everyone for a fine turnout

Dave, James, Maz, Steve, Tom

Simpsons rained off yet again 🙁 Instead we decided to head to Shuttleworth as a few haven’t been down yet, and it’s good to go in pretty much any conditions. 

It was definitely a case of 5 people who really didn’t want to be out in the heavy driving rain, but not wanting to let the others down. Maz hid further up Leck Fell Lane in the fog texting and hoping (as we all were) that we’d mutually cancel, but sure enough we all congregated in the typical Lecktember weather for an uncomfortable change and a hoods-up march across the moors to the entrance.

Dave was on the rigging tonight, and quickly had the entrance pitch roped and we shimmied down. Round the corner and it was time for the 60 metre. This is awkward in places to rig over the top of the in situ rope, which has been hanging around for a couple of years now waiting to be retired from its misery, but Dave did a cracking job in getting us down the Diver’s Pitch in comfort and style. 

We discarded our SRT kits and headed up the mud bank and into the pretties. It’s always a nice wander up here, with formations like volcanoes and cupcake cases and piles of green sheep shit. Upon reaching the entrance funnel into My Newt Passage, James found it impossible to resist the warnings of its difficult escape, and slithered down to claim his newty trophy. Steve and Dave were also chomping at the bit and after some token hesitation they joined him. Maz and I enjoyed watching the cardio challenge that followed, with all three choosing different but equally exhausting techniques to make their escape from the muddy funnel.

After a look at the now-powdered dog bones and the cloud of straws at Dogger Bank, we made our way back through it all to the base of the pitch. The roaring waterfall of the House of the Rising Sump had become an eerily silent sump pool in the time we’d been looking around, and we began heading out. With the exception of a toxic chemical spill in the entrance shaft all went well, and we slogged back across the moor knackered, with some getting home past midnight. 

Photos by Dave

Maz, Ray, Tom 

Report by Maz

Whenever I had spoken to people about Cupcake, the response was either “haven’t done it” or “it’s a bit muddy down there.”

With such an enticing sounding name, surely a bit muddy, meant, well, a bit muddy. Research had garnered that the eponymous Cupcake is a rather cakey looking calcite feature somewhat near to the entrance. Sounded lovely.

Ray hadn’t managed to get many takers for this and had floated alternatives. I, however, was keen to see this fine piece of geological patisserie. Tom kindly offered to show us the way.

According to the description, Cupcake is a series of pitches connected by various highly decorated crawls, rifts, ducks and passages, eventually joining up with Notts 2 at the superbly named Count Lazio Stroganoff’s Aven. Our plan was to give some of it a go.

Our descent began when Tom was tempted by the entrance in situ rope. A few feet down and the shout up was this was a quick one. I’m not keen on those sort of ropes, so Ray was persuaded to rig one especially for me. Quickly down, through a shored section, and we were on to one of several crawls. This culminated in the famous Cupcake feature. I do like these looky likey type formations and while I appreciate some resemble their name only vaguely, cupcake does very much look like a cupcake.

Mission accomplished, it was time to explore. Tom had been down to just beyond pitch 3 before and was keen to further his knowledge of the cave. Some more crawling, this time with added mud, we descended via Splashdown pitch into Pool chamber. That’s where the proper mud began. Not so much of a splash, rather a gooey splat. The journey though was made better with some excellent formations including wonderful translucent straws. A tight downward rift then led to some nice traversing. Tom leading down the unpleasant slope that was mud pitch. There was no avoiding the horribleness here and soon we were caked.

This point marked Tom’s furthest exploration. To move on, we needed to escape the chamber. We knew there was a tight rift climb at the far end. If we could get someone up onto the ledge above, they could rig a rope down for the rest of us. Brilliant! We soon spotted a scaffolding pole 30 or so feet above. That was the way forward.

What followed was a genuinely impressive free climb by Ray up a tall, vertical, extremely tight, exposed, muddy rift. Upon gaining the ledge, Ray informed us that the scaffold pole we were relying on, was in fact just tape. He did find the bolt however, and rigged the pitch. This was Limbo Pitch

I ascended first and did OK for a while. At the top, the pitch narrowed and my progress slowed. Soon I was down to short movements, gradually inching up, using, elbows, knees even my head, to aid my progress. I arrived exhausted. By the time Tom’s head popped up, I was just getting my breath back and heart rate under control.

We were keen to continue. Some hugely impressive formations followed and along rifts and easy traverses. Sludge Crawl lived up to its name. tight, squeezy and muddy. Very, very muddy. Ray dumped his SRT kit and Tom left the tackle sack. We carried on through this hell hole to pitch 5; Slither Aven.

Although the way forward looked perfectly fine, this became our terminus as time was getting on and I was aware that was becoming knackered.

Back through sludge crawl. I regretted leaving my knee pads in the van. Formations gazed at on the way in became a blur as we soon reached the descent down Limbo pitch. Gravity and a very muddy rope soon had me on the bottom of the pitch. Ray downclimbed the rift to meet us. I don’t know how he got on with it, as I was already on the mud slope. Progress on this return journey seemed very quick until a squeeze literally stopped me. On the way in I’d just wriggled through. After a bit of effort, I was free, Tom and Ray offering encouragement.

We breezed past the Cupcake and soon we were out to a setting sun. Our clothes, rope and SRT kit covered in mud.

Would I do it again? Probably. Was it worth the mud and crawls? Back at home 24 hours later, I’d say yes. Would I recommend it? Like many things in life, you just have to see it for yourself.

The moral of the story? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, don’t judge a cave by it’s name. Cupcake, my arse. Mississippi Mud Pie more like. Thanks to Ray and Tom for rigging.

Jason, Pete, Ray, Steve, Tom

Thwarted by the rain yet again, our planned trip to Scanty Lardos was diverted to Lost Johns. Some of us were seeing the looming Berger expedition in July rapidly approaching, and a fast energetic trip down Dome route to the blind Sink Chamber was exactly what we needed to reassure us that we might be able to manage at least some of the Berger. 

Pete’s been keen to start learning some rigging, being a competent de-rigger now, and he made light work of stringing up the Shale Cavern pitches for us. The waterfall from Monastery route was really thundering into Sink Chamber and hand gestures were the only way of communicating down there. 

We were surprised to get back out into sunshine, with the sun not having set below Casterton Fell yet. Summer caving season is upon us, hopefully with some warm spells so we can finally get stuck into something other than wet weather trips, which we’ve really done to death over the past year 💦