Trip Reports

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

Grotte Saint-Marcel

Ardeche trip – Day 2, Grotte Saint-Marcel

Team A: Damian, Chris

Team B: Tom, Scott, Jasmine, Maz & Will

Thanks to some pre-trip planning, Tom had negotiated with his local contact to collect the keys for various entrances into Grotte Saint-Marcel. This huge system comprises of kilometre after kilometre of huge open passageway filled with formations to stroll along. There are 5 ‘Networks’ in total, and today we worked our way through most of Network 1 with Team A focusing on the horizontal options and Team B doing the same plus a look at the series of SRT pitches that connect Network 1 to Network 4.

The trip started with spirits high, despite yesterday’s ‘warm up’ cave that would easily be granted a Grade 4 difficulty or higher back home. Break them in easy, ey Tom?! From the parking, both teams head for the natural entrance to Saint-Marcel which was a relatively easy 10-15 minute walk downhill to a large natural gated opening in the wood. Once inside, we locked the door behind and a brief 20m stoop opened up immediately to a huge open passageway. Team A quickly sped off, whilst Team B took a more leisurely approach taking in all of the surroundings and comparing the differences to yesterday’s excursion. Maz was immediately satiated as there were bats all over the ceiling and formations, at one point we had to be super careful not to head butt them off the ceiling! The next couple of hours were filled with easy romping down expansive passageways sometimes filled with formations, sometimes not. On occasion, we were guided by a cordon or had to navigate around huge formations and gour pools. We were treated with both filled, flowing and empty gour pools, and some were so deep you’d disappear if you hopped in! It wasn’t too long before things became ‘showcavey’ with concreted walkways, cabling, lights (sadly turned off as currently closed to the public), stairways, etc. We found the showcave entrance, where a huge steel staircase leads to a concreted slope and steps back to the surface. An obvious junction, here both teams made the final onward and exit plans before pressing on with adventures. So far, team A had been leading the way, with team B trailing 50 or so metres behind. We’d all regather when passing formations or obvious areas we felt we must photograph, before moving on. We carried on this them whilst we worked through more passageway, around Boas corner where the passageway takes an obvious 90 degree right hand turn, and if you put yourself in the very outer corner of the bend, you can capture both passageways leading in opposite directions – so we did, with a few cavers for scale!

After more of the same, we saw team A working their way off to the left, but I spotted a short climb up into another huge passageway leading off to the right. So team B opted to explore this first. More huge, expansive and decorated passageway to go at and so we did. We found our way to a lake indicated on the survey as such and could see that up ahead was more, and more, and more of the same. Literally, we could have spent days down there. And this was only Network 1, of 5. Scott and Jasmine were ahead exploring whilst Scott, Maz and myself quickly took a knee and a team meet. We could see from the survey that the way team A went quickly turned vertical with not much else on offer, where as the way we were heading was more of the same horizontal we’d been in for the last 3 and a half hours. We opted to pull back and rejoin team A, in a hope they would continue the exploration we had started, whilst we could have a look at the vertical stuff we’d carried 4 tackle sacks with us for. As expected, we soon found team A retreating from the chasm they had found, but had found our first pitch head for us. Clearly, they were spent and ready to make for their exit, so after we said our goodbyes they set off and Tom and I scrambled the formations in front of us to find said chasm. It certainly didn’t disappoint and the view was immense, more than once I crept to an edge and made it know we certainly had no rope long enough for that way on!

After a little bit of searching through boulders, whilst being directed by Tom, I found the first pitch head and I think it was fair to say I was nominated for rigging. I think the lack of CNCC resin’d anchors didn’t impress the others. I didn’t bring any threads, but after our Estevan-Barbette outing yesterday I did through a couple of spits in my bag, so I quickly knocked up the first ‘Y’ hang with a spit and a dyneema sling (courtesy of Maz) poked through an 8mm thread. I had no idea where I was going, Tom said an 8m ab and then a 15m climb but that was the extent of the description. So I worked my way down through the boulders on rope to where I thought I should be before coming off rope and crawling between boulders, and up a 15m climb as instructed. Convinced I’d nailed it, I came around another huge boulder to find Tom and Maz, at the top of the first pitch waiting for their turn to ab. I relayed my cock up to Scott who was following, and he relayed to Jasmine behind him. Once Jasmine (now in front of me) said off rope, I quickly whipped it back up from behind her and started ab-ing in a different direction over boulders. This time correct! We worked our way through the first pitch, followed by a short scramble to a ledge for the second pitch. This looked way bigger than it actually was, with a slope of flowstone that then dropped to who knows where. Again no anchors to suitably please my partners, so I knocked up another ‘Y’ hang this time fully natural with 2 slings and worked down the slope. I found a loop of rope tied through the flowstone and so opted for a quick re-belay before going over the edge I still couldn’t see the bottom of. Once rigged and passed, the floor was only a few metres away so before long I was down and the rest of the team in tow. We were now stood at the top of steep sloping breakdown in a large chamber with a few exposed edges. We scrambled around the top and then found some in-situ ropes. A 7metre climb to a ‘Y’ hang, pass the ‘Y’ hang onto the next rope up 8m through a deviation to another ‘Y’ hang. Normally no issue, but this one had a number of them! The rope was pretty old and caked in clay like mud, the ‘Y’ hangs didn’t look great and the only one we could see was rigged with someone’s shoe lace. Again, no one seemed keen, so off I went hoping the French use strong shoe laces. Whilst I was only a few metres off the ground, a fall here would of resulted in a 30-40m steep slide down, hitting a lot of hard things on the way. Needless to say I wasn’t moving quickly! Half way up the first rope there was a loud pop from the anchor and I dropped an inch or so, but as I was mid move it made more sense to push up to the ‘Y’ hang where I could see a ledge I could just and so stand on and inspect the anchor further. It didn’t look good, and one of the bolts had moved on me during the pop. It wasn’t possible from here to see the next ‘Y hang as it was obstructed by a shelf about 8 metres above me, but I could see the deviation half way up. I could also see the ridiculous drop to my left that had now come into view, or rather I could see the bottom of it at all. I stuck the next rope in my chest ascender and took in some slack and quickly learned the way on was a swing over this drop and up to the rebelay. The question in my mind now was do I want to do that, on a sh*t rope, on ascenders, with doubt in the anchors and this time no vision at all. Even if I did get up this rope, there was a further 3 pitches ahead before we even entered Network 4, and I wasn’t being followed so that would all have been on me. No chance! I very slowly ab’d down the clay rope back to Tom and Maz, before shouting over the discoveries to Jasmine and Scott. Whilst they worked their way back il the ropes and through the boulder pile, I scrambled down the sloped breakdown to find the huge hole I saw from that ledge above. Another little peek over from the other side and still I couldn’t see the bottom at all and I was now 30-40m lower than my previous viewpoint!

Once we’d all made it back up and Tom had de-rigged, we had a quick snack and kit sort before heading back through everything we’d already come through. Again, head torches were flashing low on battery, and we were all pretty low on battery also – a good job we hadn’t made it through the pitches to Network 4 as we’d still be in there now! Refuelled, we were soon climbing the steel staircase at the bottom to the showcase entrance before hiking up the ramp to the door, which we were praying team A had left open as planned. Keys located, door open, sun in the sky when we surfaced. What a fantastic way to finish day 2! Surely we must return in future years to explore more of these networks?

Write up by Will, photos by Will and Chris (Chris did the better more professional looking ones!)

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

Grotte Estevan – Barbette

Ardeche trip 2025 – first trip

Estevan – Barbette through trip

Team: Tom, Scott, Jasmine, Damian, Maz & Will

After a few days of various travel plans, we all arrived at the correct place for the first adventure of the trip. Initially Tom had sold this to us as a nice easy warm up, a single entrance pitch followed by much walking amongst formations with the odd crawl in between – perhaps a statement that may come back to haunt him!

A short walk in found us quickly at an entrance, where we eagerly dived in, clearly showing we’d all spent far too long in cars, planes or both to get here! The problem was that we’d actually found the exit of the through trip (Barbette cave), not the entrance. A brief down climb through some narrow passageway finds you in a beautifully decorated chamber with many off shoots, which would be the theme for the rest of the trip also. After a quick recce about and some photos, we headed back out to find the actual entrance, which was only a further few minutes up the track.

Estevan had one of the tightest entrances I think I’ve seen, one which almost turned some team members away from the get go! Warm up cave was it?! Tom lead the way and quickly had the pitch rigged – there isn’t the luxury of CNCC resin’d anchor bolts over here, in fact the topo/description also isn’t what we’re used to, so there was definitely a lot of ‘have a go and see’ going on. Once inside and down the 8m ab, we were in possibly the largest chamber of the day. When I say beautifully decorated, there are so many formations that you struggle to navigate your way through them in places. Columns easily of 2-5m diameter everywhere, millions of stal’s, huge heli’s, it really had everything and everywhere. We were breezing past formations as if they weren’t there, but had we been back in the Dales they would have been the focal point and probably named. I can’t stress enough, from start to finish, they were everywhere, and the colour/variations of colour were incredible.

Having completed most of the main area, we found the ‘Jonction Barbette’ sign which indicates the start of the crawl and onward travel for the through trip. Remember though, this is a warm up trip and nothing too serious… Well, this was where I really thought something was off, because normally the room doesn’t go silent waiting for me to lead the crawls but here I was out front having a go. Route finding was relatively straight forward, the squeezes and flat out crawls were self explanatory, and the decorated chambers in between were well cordoned to keep cavers away from the formations showing the onward direction nicely. Occasionally we were thrown a choice of directions, I followed my nose, sometimes to a dead end or a viewing platform outlined with more cordon – someone’s certainly been very busy at some point, as the signage was also quite impressive! After a few more squeezes to navigate as a team to get everyone through, we were in another huge decorated chamber and quickly found the final onward crawl section that linked back to the first chamber we visited going in the exit right at the start, literally 25-30m away max. Just one problem, it was tight, proper tight, and clear why the route description we had called this the crux of the trip. Tom had a look and didn’t seem keen, I thought I’d found a sneaky bypass but sadly it quickly choked. Our only other option was to work our way back through the series of squeezes and crawls we’d navigated so far and we were about 3 hours in and all getting pretty tired. It was noticeably hotter in this cave, I had a tshirt and long sleeved tshirt on under my oversuit and was dripping. Some of the team had an undersuit on under theirs and they all regretted it! I followed Scott into the crux crawl as I could see that where he was 3 or so metres in it was ever so slightly wider, maybe by an inch or 2. From there, I watched Scott fight his way forward through some gnarly looking stuff including some flooded pools and a bit where he only just made it with fully exhaling. Once we established that there was the ability to turn around, in the worst case, I let Jasmine pass by me as she was chomping at my heels and I knew this was way more her territory than mine! What a pair of legends, truly awesome to watch them take it to that next level! Behind me, I think Tom and Maz had already made the decision that they weren’t coming and to make for the entrance pitch again. Scott’s final words echoed through the crawl that he thought I’d make it, and that Tom and Maz wouldn’t enjoy it, but should give it a try and I’ll be honest I wasn’t keen! I also had 2 team mates that had just given everything to get to the final 25/30 metres to find out they had to go back, de-rig and at the bottom of the entrance pitch was all of our SRT kits we’d stripped after the ab. So I retreated from the crawl and rejoined Tom and Maz. After yelling our intentions through the crawl, we then realised that Tom’s headtorch was really low as was mine, and neither of our backups were working, and we had all of those squeezes and crawls to navigate. We all understood the assignment and after about 30 mins and all losing a third of our body weight in sweat, we were at the bottom of the entrance pitch donning harnesses for the climb out. Up the chaps went while I bagged up the other SRT kits and then de-rigged on my way out.

We surfaced to a full on thunderstorm and torrential rain that had started almost immediately after we went in, which we clearly hadn’t had any effects of inside thankfully! The short walk in meant we were back at the vehicles in less than 10 minutes and it certainly wasn’t more than that again before we were all changed and inside out of the wet. Whilst we were on this trip, our final team member Chris had arrived so tomorrow we will be at full capacity.

Although by no means was this a warm up, it certainly was an incredible cave. If the formations on display were anything to go by, we’re really in for a treat or two this trip, and if that means the helmet has to come off a couple of times then so be it. Our campaign has well and truly begun, stay tuned for the next one!

(Write up and pics by Will)

By Ami S In Day Trips

Lancaster Hole – Wilf Taylor’s Round

James, Dave, Pete, Paddy, Ami

At one point 11 people had suggested they might attend this one, resulting in some frantic alternative trip planning. But between illness and the glorious weather just 5 brave souls arrived to a beautiful sunset at Bull Pot.

It was the best kind of trip – the kind where none of us really knew where we were going. Once past the lovely, straightforward pitch at Lancaster Hole (anyone know what the MANY other bolts all the way down are actually for?) and once again resisting the intriguing passage half way down, we set off towards Kath’s Way. We were collectively confident at this bit, if not at the integrity of the way-marking scaff bar.

The description called for a slight detour to rig the short pitch we would eventually take back up into Fall Pot. Dave rigged this short pitch (he wasn’t given much choice) over the in situ rope, but a look about suggested some of the slightly longer alternatives might be more fun next time. We ignored the advice to go to the bottom of Fall Pot for a recce, confident we’d had a decent enough look from the top.

We continued on – a strangely short ladder leading through an awkward hole to the muddy passage beyond. Even if we hadn’t previously done this bit, the smooth mud gives the route away, and is also lots of fun to slide around on. We soon reached the beautiful bit of passage at the T junction, and stopped for a breather as we were all feeling rather warm. After Story time with Paddy (as he had the description) we began the Round, with no idea between us who Wilf was (creative ideas were proposed – so good I have purposefully not looked up the reality).

The route was very dry, but the stream-way rock is beautiful and full of fossils. There’s some in situ ropes to help you along some awkward climbs, but the route finding wasn’t hard. We found ourselves in Main Drain and had a quick look at the sump, before heading off to the supposedly tricky boulder climb that we hadn’t checked out earlier. We made the right choice! No real trouble – just keep going up – and before we knew it we were back in Fall Pot and heading out, with Paddy derigging.

A lovely little trip. And the tiniest piece of Easegill ticked off. We’ll be back.

By Will Burnett In Day Trips

Alum Pot

Long Churns & Alum Pot (report and pictures by Will)

Team: Ami, Chris A, Scott & Will

We’d been planning this Alum Pot trip for a few weeks now as Ami had yet to tick it off and sadly she missed out last time when John, Dave and I tackled the NW route. Chris was also eager to get his second trip with KCC bagged so eagerly opted in whatever the trip. Scott was also on board when he heard of our plans, no surprise there, and we hoped that Sophie may be able to join us too but sadly it wasn’t to be. Despite us both having taken on Rift Pot the day prior, Scott and I were still feeling good in the morning and although some unfortunate Sunday morning issues caused a little lateness, the four of us arrived at Selside in good spirits. As with most weekends, it quickly got busy with a couple of other groups gearing up all eagerly eyeballing each other to see who would begin negotiations. One group with some SRT novices were planning a trip down Dolly Tubs, another heading for the SE route, and as at this point we were still awaiting Scott’s arrival we told them all to go ahead and we’d work our way around once we had a plan. I already had a plan! It was a little naughty, but I packed my ‘big rope’ (John & Dave know it well) with a hope to hoodwink the others into the NW route as it’s by far my favourite. From my experience, if you don’t tell people what they’re doing and just send them a location they usually turn up. The second you mention a 65/70 metre pitch with maximum exposure, people start to sleep in or feel poorly! Given the other teams chosen destinations it would have been ideal to go for the NW route on this occasion, being the only route with no traffic for the full day. However, my sneaky secret didn’t go down to well when I proposed it, and I’m certainly not one to push so we quickly repacked and came up with a new tactic. I’d rig Dolly Tubs because I’m lazy and would rather take pictures, Ami would rig the traverse and bridge, Scott would rig his ‘under the bridge’ variation, and finally Chris would have his first attempt at rigging and de-rigging on the final pitch. Plan set, and to give the other teams a bit of space, we stashed the ropes and headed for the top entrance of Long Churns to give Ami and Chris the full tour.

After working our way through Churns and feeling nicely warmed up, we picked up our ropes and set about the days main task. The other teams had rigged the split pitch in Dolly Tubs, so we went for the traditional ab and it wasn’t long before we were all stood in the window taking everything in. It was evident that, even with our Long Churns trip, there would be no avoiding traffic sadly – but such is the case if you choose Alum on a weekend! Let’s be honest, where else would you rather be stood for a short period awaiting your turn to descend than the window of Alum Pot. From here on, no matter what way we went, it would be impossible not to share anchors with other teams. A few weeks ago, Ami had a really good day of rigging in Aquamole (no sarcasm at all, she rigged top to bottom through a variety of the usual anchors) but had she paid attention to the location of Rupert’s in-situ ropes, Ray would also have had a good day of de-rigging instead of trying to untangle spaghetti junction! With that in mind, Scott and I set Ami straight to work rigging with a few reminders along the way. We discussed a few different things and ways to do things better, safer, or more efficient and I think it’s fair to say we all came away having learnt something! Winner! Absolutely nailed it she did, rigged behind the other team’s ropes all the way even in awkward places. After negotiating around another ascending team along the traverse, we had a clear shot at the bridge and then Scott took over to lead us underneath to the 40m ish free hanging option there. Another team was ascending on the other side of the bridge at the same time, so luckily when we touched down we had the last pitch and the sump all to ourselves. Chris was up next for his first attempt at rigging and he eagerly got to work. John showed Dave and I the traverse along the left to another Y hang (not on the topo) which I now prefer as it keeps you further away from the water for the last abseil. Also, if you do the NW route with a 100m rope you can get straight onto this variation and make one extra big pitch from the top to the bottom. It also has a little bit more rigging involved, perfect for Chris. I followed him along the ledge ready to answer any questions he had, but he took to it like a natural – clearly his IRATA skills are giving him confidence on the rope and kicking his caving career off with the ability to tackle some epic trips. We pushed on to the sump for the obligatory sump photo before heading back to ascend out, de-rigging the pitches we rigged on the way in. Ideal for me, as I could head up first and get some good shots of the others coming up now we had the place to ourselves.

In no time at all we were back on the surface heading for the cars, discussing the days events and recapping what we’d learned. Thank you to the guys for joining me on this one, we shall be back here soon with more members and more ropes for the AGM, so make sure you join us if you’re not already planning to!

By Scott In Day Trips

New Rift Pot

Will, Scott

Excellent trip into New Rift today.  The weather was dry, but not sadly dry enough to expunge the puddle that gets you wet in the flat out crawl after the entrance pitch.  There follows a climb down, and then the next one is best tackled backwards on your front.  One more climb down in a smooth tube leads to the top of Route 66.  

The first drop goes to a good ledge, where the routes diverge. We opted for the right hand traverse over a blank wall, the better to do battle with a filthy in situ rope. A hang leads to a pendulum to some new IC anchors, then a deviation pulls you towards the opposite wall before the rift opens out into the immensity of Coates Cavern.

We spent a bit of time looking at the various routes leading off (as long as they remained spacious and comfortable, which wasn’t for long).  All Fools Passage is well decorated, and apparently leads on eventually to Low Douk and Ireby Fell Caverns.  Another way from Coates Cavern leads to the Eldon Extension in Large Pot.  We also had a look into Crosspatch Inlet, which had a traverse rope in place and contained a fine dry crystal pool.

Will valiantly offered to derig while I borrowed his phone to document his labours.  Forcing a bag of wet rope back through the awkward entrance series inspired us both to some creative swearing, but it didn’t take too long to reach the surface.

Another grand day out, will no doubt be back to explore more soon!

 

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Dry Gill Cave

 James, Jim, Jess, Ami, Jason

I’d come across this cave in the guide books some time ago, and thought it looked to have a lot going for it.  Ok, it’s a bit crawly and ducky, but the reward was supposed to be some fab formations.  Plus it’s a very short walk from the road and no SRT whatever is required.  Just my sort of cave!

It had been on the meets list before, but I’d been thwarted by bad weather – did I mention that it’s apt to flood?  But the forecast was dryish, so off we set.  And we found the (small!) entrance quite easily.  Ami nobly volunteered to go first, but quickly came out, doubting that it could possibly go.  So James stepped, well inched, in and his wellies soon disappeared so it was evident we’d have to follow.  It started small, tight and awkward, and remained so.  At one little climb, I managed to get up, but my wellie didn’t follow.  So we made gradual progress, with a lot of huffing, puffing and cursing.  At the next climb, I was convinced I wouldn’t make it, but with James’ and Ami’s encouragement and guidance, I did.

Now we were in the Obstacle Course, which continued in the same vein.  Surely we must be near the streamway now?  We were, but there was just one tight bit in the way.  This time, I really couldn’t fit through, despite strenuous efforts.  Worse – it took even more effort to back out, and then Jim and Jess whizzed through, making it look easy.

So I turned to retrace my ‘steps’ (if only!) and it was just as much fun on the way out, but it was a gorgeous moment when I finally popped out into the pleasantly cool (2° C) air to see Orion looking down on me.

I got changed and was guiltily wondering if it would be out of order to set off home, or should I wait to make sure the others got out, when I saw – much to my surprise – some torches coming down the hill.  It was Jim and Jess, and the others were not far behind.  Apparently the stream was so low, that it was hard to tell which was downstream.  They came to a duck and went through it, getting soaked, but – was it the right one?  And then there was a climb, but was it the right way or would it lead to an agonising crawl which just closed down?

In the end, they evidently decide enough fun was enough, so weren’t all that far behind me and I certainly hadn’t been rushing.

So a trip ticked off?  Yes and no – definitely one to return to and do properly, if you’re hard (and slim) enough!

By Scott In Day Trips

Ireby Fell Cavern

Chris A, Will, Scott

A warm Spring day saw three of us tackle the classic route to Duke Street. It was Chris’s first trip with the club, but he obviously knows his way around an SRT kit, and we made excellent time down the first pitches. Bell pitch was almost dry, making a mockery of my behooded rigging style. We had been told that Pussy, Well and Rope pitches were pre-rigged, but the rope was missing from the final drop of Pussy, and the rope on Rope was a sorry sight. We muddled through though, and soon were bounding down Duke Street. I obviously didn’t sell the muddy crawl to Ireby II very convincingly, and we made a return to the surface without further ado, with Will derigging. A very straightforward trip this time – no nipple-deep wading in icy water to find Ireby 23 – just a nice walk back across the fell in the sunshine.
Thanks to Chris and Will for an excellent day out!

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Rowten Pot

John, Will, Ray

This was a quick trip following my favourite route: In through the Eyehole, descend the main pitch from the 1st y-hang in the bottomless rift, swing over onto the wall for a few of the rebelays on the normal Gully route, all finished off via the Flyover.

Both John and I had done Rowten many times (although this precise route was new to John), but it was a bit of a step up for Will. Having done a few of the West Kingsdale potholes, he was suitably impressed by their “big brother”.

We were down at the bottom in no time. Will couldn’t be persuaded to dive the sump, which is just as well as he started by looking at the upstream sump. Neither John nor I had any intention of diving any sumps!

Will did an excellent job of derigging. All was going very well indeed until I started to prussic the entrance pitch. The tackle bag I was carrying became tangled round the rope, so I hauled it up and started passing it around to free it. Unfortunately, being a bit depleted these days, I ran out of energy & strength halfway through this manoeuvre and let the bag drop. This was enough to break the donkey’s d1ck attaching it to me and it fell back down the pitch. We had 2 bits of good fortune here: (1) it landed on the ledge without rolling off down the main pitch, (2) I was only 6 or 7m up, so could easily pop down to collect it.

Will finished off the derigging in no time and we exited to glorious sunshine. Will tells me the whole trip took 3 hours, 20 minutes from car to sump and back. Not bad for a couple of old duffers… and a young tiger.

Photos by Will.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Oxlow Caverns

Ray and his non-KCC friend John Bown

Will had planned this as a day trip to the Peak, but no-one apart from me signed up. Not to worry – Will and I would still have a great trip. Until Will pulled out, that is. Now, I’m not so easily put off, especially since I was due to be down that way anyway. So I set about finding some other friends to go with. Only John answered the call. Still, that would be enough.

I packed all the tackle and set off south, via Vikki’s parents in Chinley, meeting John in the 5-Ways launderette cafe in Buxton (one of his favourites) bright and early on Saturday morning. What the cafe lacks in quality it makes up for in cheapness.

Suitably satisfied (in quantity at least), we moved on to the parking spot, where we both had issues trying to park on the same side of the road as the cave. The drop off from the tarmac is getting more extreme every time I go there. It’s now much better to park on the other side of the road, unless you have substantial clearance.

When we eventually got parked, I emptied all the tackle we would need out the back of the car… as did John. Hmmm, perhaps our communication could have been better. Interestingly, although we had packed ropes for the same trip, John somehow had a LOT less rope than me. Ah yes, he said, both the CCPC and the DCA rigging guides are overly generous. So we essentially took John’s tackle as he goes there more often than I do and presumably knows the rigging better. We didn’t take any rope for the West Swirl Ramp as it’s always rigged. We had a half-plan to look up into Pilgrims Way, which needs a bit more rope than the 5th pitch, so we swapped out John’s 15m for my 19m, which would do both pitches (not at the same time obviously). All ropes managed to fit easily into 2 bags. In fact, one of the bags was even quite empty! I liked this approach.

On arrival at the entrance, John informed me that, while he knew his rope lengths were sufficient, they would be a bit tight. Ahh. I started to like his approach a bit less… especially when I realised that he had brought 30m for the entrance pitch, whereas I had packed 45m. John set off rigging. On my way down the entrance shaft, I noted that I passed 2 anchors, presumably for deviations or rebelays to avoid rope rub. John had also passed these anchors. The rope did rub a bit, but to be fair it’s only really glancing off relatively flat rock. Certainly nothing worth worrying too much about. At the bottom of the entrance shaft is another y-hang for a short 4m drop. No need for the y-hang John informed me, rigging off a single anchor. I could soon see why when his rope literally just reached the bottom. A y-hang would have left us dangling. So, it turns out the entrance pitch can indeed be done with a 30m rope – whether it’s wise or not is another matter.

As we were going to make use of the fixed rope on West Swirl, we weren’t sure exactly how long a rope was need to get us there. In the end, we conservatively estimated that 60m should be enough for the 2nd, 3rd and the swing onto the ramp. John set off rigging the 2nd and I took over for the 3rd. The deviation on the 3rd was pre-equipped with tat and even a krab. The swing onto the ramp was easy enough and then a very short bit of descent down the ramp to reach the start of the fixed rope. As it turns out, 50m would have been enough. At this rate, John will be down to a single bag for his next trip!

I shot off down the ramp to get the pitch at the bottom rigged, only to find that it too was pre-rigged. The rigging wasn’t great, but it was preferable to rigging our own rope. The trip was going very well, and very quick so far.

We regrouped at the bottom of the pitch up into Pilgrims Way. Having made such good time to this point, there really weren’t any excuses for not popping up. So we tied our rope onto the polyprop cord and hauled it up through the ring at the top. There are 2 anchors for an inverted y-hang at the bottom. I was first up and was glad to see that there is a fixed traverse line at the top.

Neither John nor I had been up here before, so we were quite excited to get going. It starts as a low crawl, but soon enlarges to easy hands and knees crawling, a bit like the crawls from Bar Pot to GG main chamber. It does go on a bit though, passing many side crawls along the way. We didn’t poke up any of these.

Eventually, the going gets a bit more flat out for a very short distance, complete with puddle for maximum unpleasantness, before we entered the bottom of an aven (Mecca Aven?). The connection to Giants Hole, via the Chamber of Horrors, goes off to the left here. Fortunately John didn’t fancy looking up here on this occasion. I certainly didn’t! Thankfully, this marks the end of the crawling. From here it’s mostly walking in a passage that gets progressively bigger.

In North Chamber there was a rope heading up. We pondered on what may be up there, but left it at that. It turns out that this rope leads up to the Crusader Series, which seems well worth a visit at some point. We knew that just around the corner was North Pitch. We had decided not to bring a rope for this pitch, largely because we couldn’t be bothered carrying it through the Pilgrims Way crawl, but also because I suspected it would be pre-rigged. Rounding the corner, we were pleased to see that our gamble had paid off. It was rigged. As with most fixed ropes, however, it wasn’t easy to get on to.

I went down first and waited for John, excited to see what lay beyond. Sadly, my excitement wasn’t warranted. What lay a very short distance beyond was a miserable low, wet crawl. Neither of us could quite remember the description, but thought that this was a sign that the sump was close, with only a short wet crawl and some ducks between us and it. This didn’t seem appealing, so we decided to call it a day. In fact, this was the start of The Sewer, a 46m miserable wet crawl leading to some more big stuff, before 3 dams and then the sump. May be worth pushing on next time.

As we turned around, we felt quite a long way from home, especially with the prospect of the long Pilgrims Way crawl ahead of us. Dismounting North Pitch was as entertaining as we expected. Shortly after, there is a rather annoying little climb up, complete with stacked rocks to make it slightly easier… but not easy enough. We both struggled on this. Apart from that, the journey back to the top of our rope back down into West Chamber went surprisingly well. We were both surprised by how quickly we got back through Pilgrims Way, so much so that John crawled straight past the side passage leading to our rope.

The journey out from here went quickly, with me derigging and it was good to pop out into pleasant sunshine. The throngs of people on top of, and on their way up, Mam Tor across the valley were something to behold. A quick stop off at the Hanging Gate pub for a debrief completed the day nicely.

I would recommend this trip to anyone. There’s so much more to Oxlow if you go up the pitch into Pilgrims Way. I hope to go back at some point for a look into Crusader Series. Who’s up for it?

By Dave In Day Trips

Rumbling Hole – Where was the Rumble?

Dave, Ami, Ray, Scott, Jasmine, James, Jim, Jess

After missing out on this trip on the previous meets list, an intrepid team met at the layby on Leck Fell, then the farm, then the layby again, for as a quick a change as possible due to the Leck Fell being true to it’s reputation. 

Dave, Jim, Jess & Ami headed off the find the cave and make a start on the rigging as surface conditions weren’t ideal for loitering, not sure where the photogenic views from the top were. Dave quickly got tied off to one of the remaining fence posts, and the tree hadn’t succumbed to die back, so off he went. Until the second rebelay where there was some confusion and head scratching. Finally getting untangled and dropping down into the shaft, this was also the last time the whole team was together until we got back to the cars! The deviation was troublesome for anyone not doing the rigging so Jess kindly re-rigged it to the rebelay under the rock ledge and that seemed to make the procession of descending cavers move a bit quicker. 

Conditions down here were much more hospitable, not much water down there at all, Dave quickly got the traverse and end of the first pitch rigged, then followed by Ami headed off down the rift for the 2nd pitch, as we’d been assured we couldn’t get lost. So we went down the cascades, which were very dry, and got to the sporting crawl over the drop to the 2nd pitch, with some fun rigging Dave got down to the bottom of the 2nd pitch. A phrase that fittingly covers this whole trip is, “THAT F’ING BAG”, as anyone carrying one seemed to find the same bag shaped capture devices that nature had woven into as many places as possible. 

The 3rd pitch was an interested drop down a narrow slot, the team made light work of this and made light work of the next drop, only to find the last anchor for the 3m drop to the flow stone was wobbly, so Dave made the call to turn back here. Only he’d somehow managed to drop the bag and Ray’s rope down the 3m pitch! The team quickly devised a cunning plan to rig off naturals and get Dave down to retrieve the rigging, which was great, but climbing back out was not so graceful and a good breather was had whilst the rest of the team headed off back up the pitches. 

Jim made light work of de-rigging and we got back to the surface to find a howling gale driving rain that felt like buckshot, pointing in your face all the way back, luckily the walk in/out isn’t too far, and Ami marched on like a trooper, with absolutely no rumblings about two bags. 

All in all, Rumbling is a fantastic cave, although oddly dry based off the route description, with testing rigging and some lovely formations and fossils, and i can only assume Scott, Ray and Jasmine has as much fun as the front half of the squad.