Tag: Leck Fell

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Voldemort Hole

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!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Notts Pot

Darren, Chris D, Tim K, Gareth, Sophie, Sedgey, Ray

It was AGM day and Sophie had tried to arrange a day of fun in Chapel le Dale, with trips to Sunset and Meregill. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, so we settled on Leck instead, with parties going down Notts, Notts II and Shuttleworth. Aren’t we an active club!

The plan in Notts was to rig 2 different routes down to the Lower Streamway, then recombine for the lower pitches. I rigged down to Threeways Chamber, where we all reconvened for a discussion of who was going where. I ended up rigging down Twilight Zone, with Gareth, Sophie and Sedgey following. Chris rigged Adamson’s, followed by Darren and Tim.

It’s probably 30 years since I last did Twilight Zone, so my route finding wasn’t as slick as it could have been. A few metres down the 1st big drop, I tried to swing over to where I thought the route went. A lot of effort and some very big swings indeed all ended in failure… which is just as well as I was apparently trying to swing over to Centre Route. You live and learn. Further down, I completely missed the passage I was supposed to swing into, instead following the water down. It got wet. It got very wet indeed. An improvised deviation off a natural helped a bit, but lower down it got very wet again. There was no alternative but to prussick back up and, strangely, the correct way on was obvious. All this pointless up & down and swinging to & fro took exactly the right amount of time as we got to the Lower Streamway at exactly the same time as the Adamson’s party. Almost like it had been planned!

Tim was having a bit of back trouble and decided to head out via Twilight Zone, so at least he managed the exchange. Gareth took over rigging for the lower pitches and all were soon at the bottom… apart from me. I decided to forego the pleasure of the last big pitch to speed things up a bit. There were already 5 people down there!

Everyone exchanged on the way out. Darren & Chris derigged Twilight, Sophie and I derigged Adamson’s. While derigging Birthday Pot, I managed to get the rope snagged, so had to down prussick to free it. Poor Sophie got the job of derigging the nasty little down climbs near the top… with virtually no whimpering at all. She carried on derigging the entrance pitches from Threeways. I think I may have detected some language when one of the ropes got snagged, but luckily I was mostly out of earshot.

On the surface, we were vary surprised to find everyone stood around waiting for us, including Tim. Personally, I would have buggered off to get changed. An almost perfect day was rounded off by too much beer and food at the Station Inn after the formalities of the AGM. I’m already looking forward to next year.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

It’s A Cracker

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 1st 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 1st 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 2nd deviation on the 1st 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 2nd 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 3rd 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 2nd 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.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Gavel Pot Conservation day and BBQ Mackathon

Lots of folks attended

Conservation trip to Gavel Pot after reports of muddy mitts having mucked up Glasfurds. We borrowed the CNCC conservation gear and headed down for a few hours of scrubbing, rinsing and pressure washing.

Afterwards we filed back to Darren’s for a Barn-B-Q with far too much food, mixed with drinking and a bouncy castle for a messy ending.

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By Tom C In Day Trips

Lost John’s to Notts II

Bob C, Tony B, Jason

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!

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Voldemort – 6th July 2016

Darren M, Jason 

I was surprised that no-one else had signed up for this cave, whose location was a closely-guarded secret until fairly recently, and it was a pull-through, so ‘all downhill’ (almost).  Perhaps it was the “very snug” billing in the meets list?

Meeting Darren in the car park, we quickly set off up the fell – and quickly stopped when Darren suddenly remembered his SRT kit was still hanging up in the garage.  Doh! Fortunately, Emma was in, and agreed to bring it over in her car, which she did, still smiling!  What a star!

Now fully equipped, we parked, changed and went straight to the obscure trapdoor that marks the entrance.  We left the kit off for the entrance crawl, but it’s really not that tight, and you soon reach a perch before the short first pitch where you can kit up comfortably.  Having got to the bottom, we pulled the rope through but neither of us noticed the small overhand knot in the end of the rope.  Small – but not small enough to go through the hangar!  Double doh!

What to do?  Strangely, the option of leaving the rope there and using the longer rope (intended for pitch 4) for pitches 2 and 3 never occurred to us.  Instead, Darren very gently prussicks up – remember, the rope is held in place only by an overhand knot jammed in an anchor – while I stand at the bottom, arms outstretched to act as a crash mat.  Fortunately, I was not needed!  And we were soon on our way again. 

The Hay Wagon is off to one side at this point.  We had intended to have a good look at it, but as it’s necessary to de-kit to avoid damaging the formations we decided to give it a miss to save time.  I just had a quick peek from the start, and the straws did indeed look spectacular.

A bit of rifty passage leads before long to pitches 2 and 3.  The second needs a particularly bold step to get onto, but a modicum of safety is provided by an in-situ traverse line – it must have been hairy indeed before it was installed. After pitch 3, there’s a long, winding hands-and-knees crawl in water.  Today it was quite low, so not a problem, but you wouldn’t want to discover the airspace was restricted because of high water after having pulled-through 3 previous pitches; hence it’s not a wet-weather cave.

The relief at being able to stand up again is short-lived, as the next section is an awkward rift passage – this is the “very snug” bit.  It’s actually not that tight, but here’s a tip: don’t try and drag your tackle bag behind you – it gets stuck in the narrow section at the bottom, then you can’t turn round and free it… well, you can picture the scene.  Eventually, by dint of thrutching and strong language, I managed to get through to join Darren, who had been patiently waiting, unable to assist.

This brings you to final pitch, for which we had a 70m rope, knotted in the middle for the pull-through.  Darren said it should be long enough… hmmm.  In fact, the unweighted rope dangled about 6” above the ground, so it was exactly the right length!  A muddy walking passage soon leads to the familiar territory of the Notts II streamway.  I normally enjoy the romp out, but was finding the unaccustomed tackle sack a bit of a hindrance, so when Darren offered to take both bags for the final climb, I gratefully accepted.  Without it, I almost kept up… so that’s another pint I owe him!

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Notts II – 13th Jan 2016

13.01.2016 Notts II          Damian, Andy (Damian’s friend), Gareth, Tim D, Jason

After the recent weather I feared the we wouldn’t get far, but as my last trip was way back on Hallowe’en I signed up.  As it turned out, water levels in the stream were pretty much normal.

 

Heading upstream, I had to investigate Inlet 6.5¾. The stories were quite true – after about 10 metres the passage is completely blocked with sand. No doubt someone will take this on as a digging project – the sand looks very easy to move, but it’s impossible to tell how much there is of it, possibly many tons!

We continued to Curry Inlet (I think – I’m never quite sure which inlet is which), which was even prettier than I remembered, although a tide mark around head height is visible on some of the stal. There were plenty of photo opportunities for Gareth.

At the far end of the inlet, a dig seems to be in progress, in disgustingly gloopy mud.

Turning back, we had a quick look up inlet 2b (or not..?) giving Gareth another opportunity to photograph Damian up to his chest in the canal.  The accompanying artistic shot is in a drippy bit of streamway on the way back.

Good fun, and nice to be underground after the long break.

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Notts II (Inlet 6.5¾) – 19th August 2015

Notts II – Inlet 6.5¾: Tim D, Darren, Jason

The advertised trip was Voldemort, which was why I bothered with the 2½-hour drive from West Bretton where I’d been all day.  But on the way, the rain set in and the prospect of pulling-through to find the snug crawl full of water was a little off-putting, so we decided to look at inlet 6.5¾ instead.

This was some consolation, as I’d never been there.  The water levels were back to normal from the torrent 3 weeks earlier, and we quickly came to the junction on the right of the upstream passage.  Some easy passage soon leads to the sparkling white stal formations.

A little backtracking leads to a left turn which links to inlet 5.  On the way are yet more fine formations, one or two sadly besmirched by a careless muddy glove (a mini conservation project is called for here – half an hour with a bottle of water and a nail brush would make a big improvement!).

Unfortunately, it also involves some crawling in disgusting gloopy mud.  There are compensations, though – as you wallow on your back there are some solution cavities in the ceiling a few inches away.  These contain some beautiful crystalline deposits and helictites.  I was reminded of the Oscar Wilde quote “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Returning to the streamway, we continued upstream to the canal in inlet 2b (or not…?).  A good opportunity to wash the gloop off by avoiding the traverse above the canal and having a bracing wade, and even a brief swim at one point.  We warmed up again by a quick march downstream and out. As a final bonus, it actually stopped raining long enough for us to get changed!

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Notts Pot – 15th February 2015

Notts Pot: Andy G, Scott, Jason

Meeting in Cowan Bridge car park, Andy revealed the 5 tackle sacks that would be needed to bottom Notts Pot.  Rapidly calculating that this worked out at over 1.6 sacks each, we soon decided that a leisurely trip to the streamway was in order, so we could leave two of them behind.

When it came to getting changed, Andy had second thoughts, no doubt wanting to put all his rope-bagging time to good use, but I soon talked him out of such reckless bravado.  I was already glad just walking up the hill to the pot!  On the way, we chanced upon an attractive bird (no, a fieldfare actually) feigning injury to lead us astray, then the perfect, but dead, body of her mate a few steps on.  Later, on our return, a small pile of feathers was all that was left – nature red in tooth etc….

The entrance drop was quickly rigged, although it almost looks short enough to do without a rope.  Almost.  Then a short crawl leads to a little climb down, described as “awkward”.  Andy had therefore brought a rope, but it was no more than a brief slither – what was the fuss ?  A nice section of typical meandering rift leads to the short pitch down into the Main Chamber.  From here, there are all kinds of choices for the route onwards.  We’d opted for the Centre Route.  A short rebelay gave a fine free hang without needing a long deviation recommended by the guide – a benefit of the recent dry weather, no doubt.  The second part of the pitch follows immediately, starting with a memorable belay round a big rock column.  This is also split into several sections.  While waiting for Andy on the last section, Scott and I heard voices from another party, but did not see them.

Then, to our consternation, Andy called up to say he’d taken a wrong turn.  Where could we have gone astray ?  But it turned out, he’d just descended the ‘wrong’ side of a big rock flake half-way down.  He had reached the streamway – but just on the ‘wrong’ side of a duck, which no-one relished tackling.  Shortly after, we all reached the streamway and had a quick look further along the high, narrow rift.  This would have been the way on, had we brought the rest of the rope and climbed up, but we were happy to turn back from here.

Andy led back up with Scott and I derigging.  Interestingly, we heard the other party’s voices again – this time from below – it showed how riddled the pot is with different vertical routes, and sound carries from one to the other confusingly.  The return trip was uneventful, apart from the “awkward” climb near the entrance, which I found fully justified its description – despite having seen Scott ascend effortlessly in front of me, I somehow managed to find a far less elegant route.

We all agreed it had been a satisfying trip of around 4 hours, and were happy to leave the full descent to another day with a bigger party of porters!

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Cupcake to Committee Pot – 28th October 2012

The Cupcake – Committee Pot: Richard M, Tim D, Jason

I’d been looking forward to this trip: the combination of one of the newer discoveries in the Three Counties system, some nice pretties and a through trip was enticing.  But I knew my companions would take some keeping up with, they being well-known members of the species Homo Ferrous Troglodytes.

According to Richard’s informant, all ropes were in place except for the short entrance pitch, which was a bonus, so we were quickly at the bottom and able to see The Cupcake in all its glory

– along with many other pristine stal formations and a host of long straws.  Care has to be taken to avoid these on the next little pitch, and more fine formations follow.  The following pitch is aptly named “Mud” and is a portent of things to come, but the going is still easy although a generous coating of mud does nothing for one’s SRT kit.  Then there’s an upward pitch, short but made longer by having to wipe gobs of gloop off the rope at each prussik step.  The next section of passageway is reasonably roomy but requires great care to avoid breaking or clarting-up some more nice formations.  It’s hard not to see this section deteriorating with more visitors.

From here the trip showed its less agreeable side; crawls in sharp hardcore, then mud, then some tight bits before we came to Bendall’s Dilemma.  We had understood this to be a hard squeeze, but we passed it with only a little thrutching and cursing.  We were rewarded by emerging into the fine large chamber of Hubert Carstairs II.  Following on into Hubert Carstairs I,we were presented by a choice of ascending ropes.  Richard took the right-hand one and after some doubtful mutterings, Tim investigated that on the left.  I thought it important for someone to stay in the middle to relay messages (and avoid unnecessary climbing).  After a while, Richard located a third rope, much shorter than the other two, which was the way on.  There swiftly followed another short ascent in a rift.  Short, but tight and awkward, bloody awkward – at least to me.  Richard cheerfully said “you got your money’s worth out of that one!”

Not long afterwards is the “Inverse Superman”squeeze, a U-bend followed by a constriction with a lump of rock cunningly sited at chest level.  A curious balletic episode ensued.  Richard goes first, passing through like an eel.  Jason makes a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to remove his SRT kit, attempts the squeeze, jams his croll against the lump, retreats, advances, jams and retreats again.  Tim reaches over and manages to divest Jason of his harness.  Jason advances – and passes!  Two sets of SRT kit and a helmet are passed forward. Tim advances, jams and retreats twice, then calls for Richard to push from behind.  Jason lies down, Richard crawls back over him.  Somehow his mere presence encourages Tim to a final, successful push. Then Richard crawls over Tim and back through the squeeze to retrieve Tim’s descender which had parted company from him in the fun.

After that, I’d like to say it was all plain sailing.  I’d like to, but it was actually a long grim crawl.  Not without variety though; sideways thrutching, flat-out crawling in mud, flat-out crawling in water.  And all the way pushing a ball of tangled straps and mud that was the SRT kit.  Eventually – eventually – we reached the top of the pitches at the top of Count Lazlo Stroganoff’s Aven.  At least one could sit up, just, though I found untangling my kit and putting it on in that position took so long that by the time I got to the bottom Tim was considering mounting a rescue.  On the last couple of pitch sections, the noise of rushing water became more noticeable.  Could this be the Notts II streamway ?  It could – it was.  Hallelujah!

Richard had already headed out to derig, so we were faced with the quandary of which way to go.  Knowing the inlet (Sir Digby Spode’s) was between the exit and Curry Inlet, it should have been obvious to head downstream.  But by this time, I was beyond rational thought, so we headed upstream for a bit against quite a sporting current (which cleaned up the gear a bit at least) before Tim decided we’d gone wrong.  After rather more streamway than we’d been expecting, we found the familiar passage and headed out for the jumble of scaffolding, ladders and breeze blocks – and daylight.

I was quite surprised, having felt the trip to have gone so long I was expecting darkness, but it was only 4:15.

So, a trip I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone – as long as I don’t have to come with them!

PS – If, like me, you’ve wondered at the origins of the colourful names of the various inlets and chambers of Notts II, you can find some clues here: http://loveandliberty.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/rogue-male-in-trap.html