Tag: Nidderdale

Having visited the jewel of Nidderdale (aka “Stinky Goyden”) on a number of occasions, I was interested to try out John Gardner’s new route at https://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/route29.shtml which promised to show off some of the more esoteric parts of the system.  Ray hadn’t been before, but said he didn’t mind where we went, which he may have regretted before the end of the day.

From the entrance, we headed towards Cap Left crawl, to find the entrance well-blocked with timber, but the guide assured us there was an easy bypass up a rift on the right, and indeed there was.  We visited Pillar Pot, just to look at the sump at the bottom, then returned to Cap Left Crawl, Cap Left Tunnel and a “cosy” crawl leading to the ladder at 10’ climb.  But no ladder for us, more crawling via Pool and Boulder and Carbide Tin passages through the Labyrinth, the way marked by a helpful high-vis jacket someone had left.  “Navigation is now straightforward” says the guide, and it might have been had we spotted the step up to the bottom of the 20’ pitch.  Despite it being “elegant”, we managed to crawl past it twice before Ray spotted it.

After luxuriating in being upright for a moment, we headed off to Mud Pot, thence to a climb up to a “wriggly” passage. The guide says “enter this with difficulty”, and it wasn’t kidding!  I adopted my usual thrutch and flail technique, which eventually worked, then you have to perch on a rock flake and post yourself into the wriggly passage, without slipping head-first down the 5m drop below.  Ray looked at this and sensibly decided he didn’t fancy it, so after a bit of wriggling, I turned round and had no option but to dive down the climb.  Fortunately Ray did a good bit of catching, so I landed safely.

Now what? I thought it would be fun to climb up the 20’ pitch (it was) and then there’s some pleasant walking passage and we arrived at the top of the 10’ climb, which is only a few metres from 5-ways chamber, and an easy way out to the main chamber via Labyrinth passage.  However, despite having a survey (albeit now sodden and disintegrating), I’d got disorientated and confidently led off in the wrong direction, arriving back at the 10’ climb after more flat-out crawling.  Fortunately Ray had a cooler head and correctly deduced the right way (basically, the only one we hadn’t tried yet), and we were soon heading for the sound of the main stream.

Then it was a fun romp up the river (still low) and the climb back out to the entrance, and the welcome sight of daylight!  It turned out we hadn’t been underground as long as it felt, so we treated ourselves to a pint in The Crown in Lofthouse, which was most welcome!

Thanks to Ray for the photos.

 Manchester Hole – Goyden Pot       Chris H, Jason

I’d been keen to have a club trip to Goyden for a while as it’s relatively close to me in Harrogate.  So much so, that I’d been on a route-finding trip with my daughter Rosa at Easter.  We followed the route at http://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/route17.shtml – although any number of variations are possible, this being a fairly complex system, Braemoor’s route is a good tour of much of the cave with plenty of interest and variety.

So, it would have been nice to have had a better turnout, but at least Chris came so I could see how much of the route I could remember.  It was a fine day, with low water and no rain forecast, so we entered Manchester Hole cheerfully.  There’s not a lot to this and we soon found ourselves facing the forbidding ‘false sump’, which you ignore and take a sharp right into an uninviting duck (not too bad at all in these conditions).  Passing by the dive line of the real sump, you come to the beginning of the connection to Goyden dug out by the Black Sheep Diggers from the other end.  This is an entertaining mix of bedding plane crawls, wet boulder chokes and at one point, so Chris informed me, a squeeze.

Before too long, we emerged into the impressive main streamway of Goyden, from where Braemoor takes you on a romp around the system.  The caving is very varied, a lot of walking, some crawling, a little canal section and a surprisingly awkward 4-foot climb!  There’s no SRT required, though there is a 20-foot climb provided with a bit of knotted tat when we were there (it was removed soon after as being ‘too dodgy’ !).  There’s little in the way of calcite formations, though there is a lot of chert, often bulging out of walls in bands, giving the appearance of bin liners stuffed into crevices.

We came eventually to the main entrance of Goyden,  where Chris took some nice photos, we spent a few moments in the warm sunshine before somewhat reluctantly turning back to take the quick route back to the streamway and out via Gaskell’s passage to Church Pot.  Before we exited, we decided to have a look at Sump 2.  It turns out that you get there via Pinnacle Climb, which is partially roped, but the bit that isn’t looked highly exposed, with a tight passage at the top, so we wimped out and turned back for Church Pot.  On the way, Chris decided to investigate to investigate a narrow, grotty little dig, I’m not sure why…

Shortly after, we found the right way out, which is hinted at by several excellent fixed ladders taking you up the rift – but not all the way, the final few meters is a sweaty vertical thrutch which emerges from a capped concrete pipe in the bed of the Nidd (which was completely dry here).

So – 3 hours or so of fine and varied caving – much to be recommended!