Trip Reports

By Tom C In Day Trips

Smallcleugh Mine

We all made the long drive in a timely fashion and by 11.30am, we were heading up through the old mine buildings towards the Smallcleugh mine entrance leaving Emma, who had sustained a double ankle injury in a fight with the bottom stair of a spiral staircase, to her own devices in the car park. On the way, Andy managed to persuade some unsuspecting visitors to join one of the mine society’s Open Day trips and we took the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the volunteers from the Mine Conservation Society and to bag our cake choices for our return. We were also advised to avoid Luke Hall’s sump as the metalwork had collapsed and the walls were in danger of joining the metalwork.

Smallcleugh horse level was followed through to Smallcleugh Flats. (I thought we were Wheel Flats & promptly turned everyone westward along a passage that led directly to Luke Hall’s Sump!) Phil continued along the main passage and discovered a sign hailing entry to Wheel Flats and so we continued without further ado to the infamous Ballroom Flats. The main mineral in evidence was galena—as you would suspect in a lead mine. The arched passages, handcrafted by mine workers, were quite spectacular and large enough to only require limited stooping (except in areas of collapse), and the water was rarely over ankle deep—so a comfortable start to our journey.

After Ballroom Flats and a Darren photo shoot, the size of passage decreased to a belly wriggle where crawling in the roofs of arched passages was necessitated due to infill. Once more we encountered Luke Hall’s sump and thereafter we peered expectantly into each sump looking for the ‘only rigged sump on that level’. A 17m descent down a tube brought you out on the edge of Proud’s Flats where a slight swing was needed to reach secure ground. We all investigated the Flats and the 3 obvious passages, discovering wheels, shovels, an almost entire carriage and an ammunitions box.

A ladder had been installed the previous week to replace the final rope pitch and henceforth the water was followed over a good kilometre of passage in Rampgill mine to exit in the car park. The formations and mineralisation on this long section of passage were magnificent and put the Painters Palette to shame. (The collection of bottles at Whiskey Bottle Junction was something to be admired as well). The final wow factor was the Brewery Shaft, just over 100m deep.

A trip taking around 3h20 was ended splendidly with homemade cake and a cup of tea for the whole team (including Emma) with the Mine Society. Andy found a contact who was willing to open the Brewery Shaft for a future KCC trip and, lured by cake, we started to plan a 2 day excursion to coincide with a future Open Day….the potential agenda comprising a longer through trip on the Saturday and a descent of the 105m pitch, ascent to Rampgill and exit via Smallcleugh on the Sunday. Unfortunately, it does seem that bunkhouse accommodation at the mines is not available on the Open Day weekends so we will have to rethink potential dates. If interested in this possible excursion, please get in touch.

It would seem useful to remind club members that mine artefacts (as with natural formations in caves) should be treated with respect. They definitely cannot be replaced once damaged/destroyed and we are very fortunate to be able to go underground to see implements in positions where they were once used.

By Tom C In Day Trips

County to Lancaster

Jason reports:

A County/Lancaster exchange on a Wednesday night?  We wondered if we were being over-ambitious.  But a splinter group kindly volunteered to rig Lancs, have a shorter trip and come out the same way, so the rest of us set off remarkably promptly at 6pm.  We had a close encounter with a barn owl on the way, probably having disturbed his tea.  Oddly enough, a dead vole lay on the lid of County – we put it to one side in case the owl was still hungry.

I utterly failed to trace our route on the survey afterwards, but I can reveal that we went via Battle of Britain Chamber, the Trident series, dropping into Lower Pierce’s Passage (a nice free climb, though some faint-hearts called for a rope!), thence to Eureka junction where we stopped to rest and pose for some photos.  The water was still fairly low; the dry spell had broken a few days earlier, but there had not been much rain that day.

From there to Stop Pot posed the only navigational challenge – the dry route through the boulder choke seemed no longer to exist.  In the end, we just had to follow the water and get wet (the horror!).  Onwards through the high-level caverns (Monster, Snail, Corne’s and Oake’s – at least the survey told me that much), admiring the many stalactites, including the Halberdiers.  Apparently the French say that it’s raining halberds instead of cats and dogs, which arguably makes more sense…

John showed us the Minarets bypass, whereupon we all followed him rather than enjoy the usual delights of those passages.  Soon we reached Oxbow Corner, and having decide to take the wet route out, John announced that the next bit through the boulder choke was a bit complex, so keep together.  If I’d have said that, it would be the prelude to getting thoroughly lost, but he led us unerringly through.  A splendid romp through down the Main Drain followed. 

There was plenty of foam on the walls at the downstream sump, so water levels had been higher.  I scooped up some foam and applied it to my chin, trying for a Santa look, but it didn’t really work.

Up Fall Pot and to the entrance pitch, it was good to see that it was still rigged!  But looking up, what was that?  Blimey, daylight!  It seemed like we had been underground for ages, but it was not much after 9:30. The good time was less due to our rapid pace than to the expert route-finding – an excellent trip.

Photos courtesy of Darren.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Illusion Pot

Wednesday night saw us taking advantage of the dry spell for a bit of caving in Illusion Pot, Kingsdale. After exploiting a variety of parking options – mine as usual seeming to be the furthest away from the actual cave – we met up, walked and began the search for the covered entrance in a shakehole.  In this crack team of speleo-explorers were Darren, Ali, Jason, Tony and myself; Tony and Ali had the excuse of never having been down Illusion before, and I mumbled something about it ‘being all snowy the last time I was here’, leaving Jason and Darren to put us on the right track.  After some determined searching they found the way in, and we all descended the fixed ladders into the underworld.

Muddy passages led to a bailable duck, but today the water levels were low enough to get through without any difficulty. Refreshingly moistened, we continued into the impressive chamber of the Missile Silo, and then Ali led the way up into The Pretties…  Here are some beautiful straws, curtains and even helictites, which we were careful not to sully with our muddy hands.

We had a look at a dig in the floor that led to a flat out crawl, then retraced our steps into the Missile Silo.  At the far end, passing some fine orange speleothems, is the way down to the sump.  Jason, Ali and Darren went along the roped traverse while Tony and I waited and marvelled at the cobbles which were stuck to the chamber walls by only a thin calcite cement – the remains, we supposed, of a past floor at a higher level in the chamber.

The three returned with reports of a final squeeze (which Jason had explored), and we then made our way back out to the surface, emerging to a cloudless evening.  We bum-slid back down the steep hill to Darren’s car (which was great fun, so much that Tony went back up again!).
All said, Illusion is a good and varied trip, and definitely worth a look if you haven’t been before.  Thanks for an entertaining evening fellas!

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Hay Time – 25th January 2017

Dave G, Jason

Before we went, I couldn’t find much information about Haytime online, and Northern Caves doesn’t give a lot away about where to find it. It turned out not to be too hard, even in the dark, but for future reference, you walk up the Pennine Way from the Crown in Horton for about 1km, where you come to a gate.  Carry on for another 100m, then go up an obvious dried-up streambed on your right.  After  maybe 150m, there’s a big shakehole with the entrance to the left.

The entrance crawl is very short, so short in fact that I ignored the unpromising hole in the floor of the first little chamber and continued crawling through an uncomfortable squeeze on the left.  This progresses to a squalid low passage before getting ridiculously tight.  Dave sensibly suggested seeing if the hole was the way on – it was, and I spent the next ten minutes inching out of the squeeze backwards, by now well covered in crap.

The hole on the right turned out to be generously P-hangered (a bit of a clue) but you really don’t need any aids, it’s a simple free climb.  Honestly – it’s a snug rift with plenty of holds, though warm work on the return.  This pitch and the following climbs do have some loose rocks, but we took it carefully and didn’t have any problems.  The last climb is probably the hardest, but there is a decent resident  handline, so there’s no real need to take any tackle.

From the survey, it appears that there’s a direct, wet route, and a longer drier route, both meeting shortly before Helm’s Deep, the final chamber.  The plan was to go down dry and come back up wet.  The actual layout is more complex than the survey suggests, but anyway we went on a long meandering rift – well decorated in parts – to reach a T-junction that was apparently not on the survey.  We turned left, expecting it to quickly choke, but it went on and on, feeling as though we were heading back to where we’d already been.  But abruptly, we found ourselves in the impressive chamber that was undoubtedly Helm’s Deep, whence a short crawl leads to the attractive sump.

Returning, we started up what ought to have been the short, wet route but seemed to be a different dry meandering rift leading to where the other had started.  Whatever.  It was a good fun romp (apart from the unnecessary squalid interlude at the start) in under two hours, and I’d happily return to try and figure out how the passage related to the survey and explore various side passages we left for another time.  My thanks to Dave for turning out and not moaning at my slow pace, I hope we’ll be seeing more of him!

On a less happy note, we were dismayed to find the Crown shut – I hope this isn’t permanent!

By Tom C In Day Trips

Dowbergill

Gareth and Darren, knowing that we had undertaken the traverse from Providence Pot to Dow Cave on 2 previous occasions, had asked if they could be included on a further trip. What further trip?!! Was my response. The first time had taken us 6 and a half hours and was replete with arguments caused by neither of us knowing at what point it was safe to descend, several wrong descent decisions, a very scarey traverse and feeling bloody cold. The second time had been faster (just over 4 hours) but this was more by luck than judgement. We didn’t find the scarey traverse and instead found a rigged line down to the streamway. We had ventured along to the swim under the boulder but, without having read up on how long a complete submersion was needed, we retreated and climbed up onto the Gypsum Traverse in a near hypothermic state. On the positive side, it was a sunny day and we warmed up considerably with the long walk back to Kettlewell.

This time, the date chosen followed the snowfall and coincided with the snowmelt. Andy and I checked out the possibility of leaving a car at the end, feeling sure Gareth had a 4 by 4. He doesn’t—so even the drive to Dow was quite eventful! We almost got the correct gear in correct cars. Gareth was left at the end without shoes (& I’d left home in wellies, so had none either) and the flask of hot drink was left in the car at Kettlewell. But beer and tea bread were ready for us on exit.

A beautiful walk through the snow was followed by a swift passage through the entrance series. I could remember it all—except the Blasted Crawl through muddy water—how could I forget that! About 1.5h into the trip saw us enjoying hot chocolate in the 800yd Chamber—the half way point in distance terms. I had managed to get very wet and so was beginning to feel cold but everyone else had successfully navigated the climbs, traverses and squeezes staying relatively dry.

‘Is this Brew Chamber?’ was the much asked question over the next 2.5hrs. We did several boulder choke climbs and several squeezes at stream level, but still nothing fell into place. And it was only a short distance on the survey. We knew when we had reached the choke though. A dodgy handline stretched 12m up the vertical rift and was navigated without (major) incident by Darren and Andy. Gareth and myself had considerably more difficulty. By the time Gareth had reached the top I had tried on 3 occasions to squeeze myself through the very awkward short cut (an upwards and leftwards squeeze that wouldn’t let me through) and I had lost functional use of all points of contact before it was my turn to climb. Needless to say, Andy and Darren did a fantastic job of hauling me up the difficult bits and soon (ish) we were all in Brew Chamber.

We found the line down to the stream again and so, 20 minutes later we were standing in water, in an impressive rift passage varying between sideways walking and thrutchy traversing just above the water level. The levels had risen in the time we’d spent in the cave and the final portion of the passage to the sumped boulder necessitated a helmets off, chin (just about) above water level approach. On arrival at the boulder, there was no going back—we were far too cold by this point. So, aided by Andy’s leg as a dive line, one by one we submerged and re-emerged, ecstatic at having survived the ordeal!

Dow Cave is an amazing passage and we did stop twice for Gareth’s photo shoots but, teeth chattering uncontrollably, we probably didn’t appreciate it’s full geological worth….well there was a beer and tea bread waiting!

By Tom C In Day Trips

Lancaster Hole

We all got to the bottom safely and off we went through into Fall pot, we went at a steady pace so Ali could take it all in, we eventually ended up taking some great photos at Bob’s Boss and the Painters Pallet then with a bit of memory searching for the way on we eventually made it to the Minarets without finding Diamond hall first, I took some backlit photos to try and do my best to copy the Northern Caves photo it wasn’t perfect but I thought it would do, we then stuck ourselves through the link into the way on to Retched rabbit etc.

By Tom C In Day Trips, Expeditions

Christmas Meet 2016

A great Christmas “Do”, a trip to Wet Grooves mine followed by great company and food. Thanks to Helen and Andy for leading the mine trip and for the use of Hardraw Old School Bunk House

Wet Grooves mine is not as unpleasant as the name might imply and when we visited it was dry as a bone until the lowest level. There is an interesting climb down a cork-screw shaft but care is needed as it is loose in places. There are a few side passages and short loops to explore and there is plenty of geological interest.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Roger Kirk Cave

A Ribblehead classic, but neither James nor I had done it before.
Found the East Sink entrance ok (thanks, Garmin), and as the water levels were fairly low, we made it through the Tube without flipping onto our backs, thereby keeping a small area round our shoulders dry.
Kudos to James as he hasn’t got a proper undersuit!

Found our way to Middle Entrance, popped out, admired the view, back down again to the lower entrances – both of them although the last one did seem like wallowing for the sake of it.

Back to the cars as light was fading, and we had our photos taken with the viaduct in the background by a nice lady who said we looked incredible. But we knew that!

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!