Tag: Leck Fell

Tim D, Tim K, Steve, Pete, Bob, Ray

A classic Dome-Centipede exchange, with Tim D rigging Centipede, followed by Bob & Tim K, and Ray rigging Dome, followed by Steve & Pete. All went smoothly and according to plan on the way in. Water levels were surprisingly low, not that it matters once you get past the entrance series. Team Centipede were at Dome Junction first, as would be expected, but they didn’t have to wait too long. Everyone did the full exchange, with Tim K derigging Dome and Ray derigging Centipede.

On Centipede, Steve went first, with Pete in the middle. Getting back to the cars, Ray was most surprised to find a Steve, but not a Pete. There was really only 1 possibility – Quicksand Passage! Obviously Pete must have zigged on the way out, when he should have zagged. There was nothing else for it – someone had to go back in to find him. Unfortunately, as Steve was already changed, it had to be yours truly. Thankfully, Pete was easily found and shown the correct passage.

Meanwhile, things weren’t going quite as planned on Dome. Bob had somehow managed to get lost while trying to locate the short prussic up to the window near the bottom of Dome pitch. The result was that the Tims had to partially derig the pitch and lower the rope to Bob. Bob was also a bit cream crackered for the rest of the exit, not having done much caving this year due to his broken shoulder.

Another great Wednesday evening trip!

Darren, Tom, Scott, Yolanda, Ray

This is one of those caves that didn’t exist “back in my day”, so I’d been keen to have a look ever since hearing about it following my return to caving. Yolanda had also been eager to explore a new way in to her favourite cave (Notts II). Tales of the formations in the Haywagon were also interesting, so this trip had been eagerly anticipated ever since Darren put it on the meets list. It didn’t disappoint.

There was, of course, a bit of faff to find the entrance. Luckily Darren had previously left a pole sticking out of the wall at the appropriate point. Well, not so lucky after all, as the pole had either been removed or we just failed to spot it. Anyway, we eventually found the entrance and Darren set off down. The climb down to the 1st pitch is rather snug, but we all managed with just a bit of huffing and puffing.

At the bottom of the pitch we set off to marvel at the Haywagon… SRT kit off and being very careful! It’s certainly well worth a look, but I think we all felt a little nervous about the potential for damage. It’s probably something that every caver should see once, but only once. Tom then set off out as the Haywagon had been his goal for the evening. The rest of us continued towards Notts II.

Pitches 2 & 3 follow almost immediately. They were pre-rigged (as was pitch 1), so we didn’t bother to rig our own pull-through rope. On the 2nd pitch, it would be easy to continue down to the bottom if you didn’t know any better. Luckily Darren knew that we were supposed to swing off to the right partway down to traverse out to the proper pitch 3.

The passage between pitches 3 and 4 is basically a long crawl. I had been a bit concerned about this, having heard tales of tight, awkward crawling in water. But it really wasn’t that bad at all. The start (just below pitch 3) was the tightest bit, but soon opens out (relatively) to a hands and knees crawl. There’s just enough water to make it a bit unpleasant, but nothing scary. Further on, the passage becomes a bit more rifty and it’s just a matter of finding the right level. Staying low for most of it seems to work.

Eventually, we magically popped out at the top of the 4th (last) pitch (Oliver Lloyd aven in Notts II). This wasn’t pre-rigged, so Darren rigged our pull-through rope. He seemed to get down to the big ledge near the bottom without a hitch, so I followed him down, with Darren shouting some instructions that I couldn’t quite make out… until I saw the issue. While the live end of the rope just about reached the ledge, the pull-down end certainly didn’t. Luckily I was carrying the spare rope, so was able to tie it on as I passed. I still don’t know if this was precision rigging by Darren (with the live rope JUST reaching the ledge) or incredibly good luck that he didn’t have to prussic all the way back up to rerig. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

From the ledge there was just another short drop down into Notts II Inlet 7. Everyone made it down uneventfully and we all set off, with huge grins, for the Notts II main streamway. The streamway was as stomptastic as usual and we were all soon up the entrance climb.

This was a great trip and one that I will certainly be repeating. I reckon it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours with a small party and you don’t stop to look at the Haywagon. Cheers Darren!

Darren, Helen, Ray

It really is a cracker! After quite a bit of stomping around on the surface, we (well, Helen) eventually managed to find the entrance – an interesting hatch in the side of a shakehole. Bunker-like, as one description has it. It was my 1^st time in this particular hole and I wasn’t disappointed. The description mentions an awkward wriggle 1m above floor level to reach the head of the 1^st pitch. This may be necessary in wet conditions, but it was quite easy (even spacious) to crawl through on the cobbled floor. All 3 pitches are very nice indeed. While swinging for the 2^nd deviation on the 1^st pitch, my SRT kit issued a rather disturbing bang and I fell a very short distance (probably only a few centimetres). It took a while to work out what had happened. The fabric loop on the side of my harness, to which I usually connect my braking krab, had broken. Luckily the lock on my descender hadn’t come off, especially as I use a Simple! I decided to quickly complete descent of the pitch without clipping the deviation.

The 2nd pitch (Park Bench) is particularly scenic. Helen’s blood sugar monitor started playing tunes, so she stopped at the bottom of this pitch to eat in an attempt to raise her levels before prussicking out. At the bottom of the 2^nd pitch, the trick is to stay as high as possible, climbing up and over some large blocks until the way on is a slot doubling back against the right wall. Then the famous wedged scaffold pole facilitates rigging the 3^rd pitch, dropping past the Kendal Flyover ledge (the way to the Tate Galleries) and landing at the bottom of Boxhead. An exchange with Boxhead would make a great evening trip, taking no more than about 2 hours, I reckon.

We had a very brief look around at the bottom, identifying a miserable hole that Darren had been down previously (not the way to the Tube), the actual way to the Tube and the low-level route to Fourways Chamber, avoiding Crest Run. Helen and I (with Long Bob Reilly) had previously pushed this from the other end, deciding it was a bit too low to call fun.

Then it was back out the same way, with Darren derigging. Helen was still prussicking up the 2^nd pitch when I reached the bottom, having failed to raise her sugar levels. She managed to make her own way out, accompanied by some particularly catchy tunes on her monitor. It later turned out that her monitor wasn’t working! Darren made short work of the derigging and we were soon back at the cars. Darren followed Helen home to make sure she was ok. All in all, a great evening out… sugary issues aside.

Photos by Darren.

A few months back, I read an online report of a pull-through trip from Lost John’s, exiting from Notts II (Iron Kiln Pot, if you want to be pedantic), I thought “Really?  That sounds fun!”.  Having got the new Northern Caves book for Christmas, there seemed to be enough information to find the way.

The quiet period between Christmas and New Year looked to be an ideal opportunity for a proper trip, but only Bob and Tony took the bait.  We discussed doing a pull-through, but in the end caution prevailed, and we rigged normally following the Centipede route. 

At the bottom of Centipede, well near the bottom, I was surprised to find – the end of the rope.  Odd, the topo called for a 60m rope, and I had brought a – oh! – a 50m rope from the tackle store.  Well, that 5 on the label looked awfully like a 6 without my glasses.  A good shelf allowed us off the rope, but the final 3m is sheer.  What to do? Sacrifice the rope allocated to the final pitch and abandon the through trip?  In the end, we tied on a piece of cord I carry ‘just in case’ and that was just enough to get to the ground after Bob had taken all the slack out of the rope from Mud to Centipede.

Not long afterwards, we were at Groundsheet Junction, where we stopped for a welcome cup of tea and bourbons (thanks, Tony!).  I’ll describe the route from here in case anybody fancies the trip.

Turning left upstream, the next landmark is Lyle Cavern, which none of us knew (apart from Bob, who had been there 40 years ago!).  It’s about 200m upstream – look for a small roped climb on the left. (You’ll see a rope on the left over a big calcite buttress about half-way there – ignore this). 

Follow this rope about half-way and turn upslope to the right – this is the bottom of Lyle Cavern (we went to the top of the rope and spent some time fruitlessly looking for the way on – there’s plenty of passage there, but not the one we wanted – I was keeping an eye on the time and voted to head back out Lost John’s, but fortunately Bob spotted the way on as we were retracing our steps).

Going up the boulder slope, there’s a calcite slope on the right, described as an “exposed 3.5m climb” but there was a rope, so we used it.  Further up, a rope hangs down from a high aven.  This is supposedly a 19m pitch, but it seemed quite a long 19m.

At the top, go straight on up a rift, with some lovely helictites – called Helictite Rift (!).  This involves some steepish climbs, but nothing too challenging. As it levels out at the top, you reach a prominent T-junction.  Left leads into Boxhead, but straight on is West Passage, tall, decorated, easy, although there are big holes in the floor.

At the end is a boulder choke.  It looks unpromising, but if you stay on the right-hand wall and crawl upwards, you come to a small chamber.  Then go up again, over where you came in, to reach a second chamberette.  You now look for a slot down against the left-hand wall, but it’s not the first obvious slot (I confidently went down here and was dismayed to find the way blocked by rubble – had the choke collapsed?  Would we have turn back? No…).  You go a little further and find a tight calcite slot.  Now is the time to take off your SRT kit, as this is the start of engineered route through the choke to Notts II.

This goes on for quite a long time (apparently 140m, but that doesn’t sound long enough!).  It’s often awkward and squirmy, never spacious, but never desperately tight either and there’s never any doubt about where to go.  The amount of scaffolding is quite awe-inspiring.  Quite a bit of time was spent passing the tangled web of SRT kit between us – a small tackle bag to put it in would have saved a lot of effort.

Eventually, the choke ends and there’s a short crawl through muddy puddles which emerges into big passage.  This is (at least I think) Bruno Kranski’s, where the pitch from Voldemort comes in, and running water can be heard.  We felt elated to be on, or near, familiar territory. Very soon we were in Sir Digby Spode’s Inlet, and a knotted rope handline took us down into the Notts II streamway.

From there, it was a familiar meander downstream, up the rifty inlet on the left to get to the engineered climb emerging into a frosty night.

It had taken us 7 hours.  This was a bit disappointing given that the guys who had written the original report had (so they claimed!) taken only 3, but had we followed the way unerringly it would have been an hour or so less.  Possibly more importantly, if Bob and I were 30 years younger, we might have been a bit quicker!