1994-1995
Write-ups from two logbooks. As these were typed up in 2024, some of the less "politically correct" descriptions of antics from the original reports have been omitted (typically sexist descriptions, occasionally racist epithets).
Restarted log book October 1994.
First Freshers Trip 14-16th October
Longwood (August) Hole: Jim Evans, Mark Evans, Oliver Mann
Good trip, quite long - 8hrs with 3 beginners on their 1st trip who came out wanting more.
We went down Longwood to streamway. Downstream (without doing Reynolds passage!). Upstream back up August - fucking wet, back down August up Longwood and out for 11pm in time for last orders.
Jim
GB Cave: Dave Mountain, Anthony Woods (Pants), Tony Hayden (Tonx), Dan, Carole
What a big surprising hole, where we [illegible] gradually went down! The narrow pathway, narrow and narrow again! Before entering the cave, and finding the way to the entrance, Dave was not sure to be able to find the way to the locked door. BUT WE DID IT!!
My knees didn't like the places where we had to crawl, but we had to face the situation. What a crap, where, on the back, with or without any helmet and felt the nasty water coming down along my neck. But it was too late. After many efforts, I was finally wet. The water was coming through my oversuit (presupposed waterproof) with many big holes in it. We looked several ways for the Big Cave, and decided to go back crawling. But we met another dirty goup, which knew the way to go. Therefore we followed them and saw THE PLACE. Once out, we could profit of the air and the nature. What a peace! And Dan had to empty his boots thanks to its natural holes (of the waterproof boots).
Carole
[Editor's note, 2024: Parsing this report was hard. I tried.]
Swildons (to Sump 2)
St. Cuthberts - Sazza and Gavva's encounter with Andy Cave
Excellent cave and great formations. Jim wasn't there so it stayed that way. Thought it was going to be a nice easy trip. Then I saw the entrance and negotiated my first bladder in a wetsuit.
Sarah
Sarah, elegantly dressed in a rubberised two-piece wetsuit, climbed with [editor: written as c̅] the lithe proficiency of a lumbering, asthmatic elephant-seal. [illegible] Gavin - the paradigm of all creations fashion higrachey [editor: hierarchy?] / paradigm of [illegible] / style child / enemy of the state / most beautiful of the children of heaven / sex god / kebab king / etc was much better.
Gavin [I presume]
Sunday 15th
Eastwater: Jim Evans, Anthony Woods (Pants), Oliver Mann, Tony Hayden (Tonx), Frank Cooke
After lots of talk about wetness of Eastwater it proved surprisingly dry. However, after a few initial scrambles the sun began with a rather tight 45 degree traverse in which the carbide flame decided rather inoportunisticaly to go out when my battery was somewhat flat! After this initial scare the cave proved to be quite fun; a quite tight free climb followed by 40' Dolphin Pot and then onto Bold Step. The trip proved to br quite demanding being my only trip with the club, the initial traverse caused a slight degree of "freak out" but after that it was thoroughly enjoyable, although not attractive as GB the cave was by far more demanding and ultimately enjoyable cave than GB. We exited the bunkhouse at around 1900, the last rays of sun on our by now muddy faces, another conquest for the IC3 complete!
A superb, poetic commentary by
Pants (slightly soiled)
Second Freshers Weekend, 21-23rd
Sat
Swildon's Trip: Pete Eland (CV Pete), Tony Hayden (Tonx), Tim Rogers
After struggling into our wetsuits, we were dumped on a wind-swept village green and shown an old barn, (with friendly dog!). In pouring rain, we tracked miles (!!) over fields to reach a small concrete box!!! At this stage, 5 people went pass us fully geared in jeans and tshirts whilst we were still struggling to put on our gear! Finally in the cave
Anon
, there was a sense of being out of this world and we concentrated on negotiating a sudden fall. It then continued with a dry passage, before we joined the stream. This took us along convoluted passages with the stream always underfoot ie. in our boots. It came out eventually at a drop where the experts attached a ladder, expertly using a PULLEY left by another group. All smiles at this stage, only hands feeling a little raw from the gleaming calcite all around.
Anon
Rapidly down to sump 1, which was a sump. After a spot of faffing and wimpering sump 1 was passed by all. Met two divers at sump 2 with lots of diving litter. They intended to go digging in sump 12. Interestingly they had one set of gear each... Fled rapidly in case they wanted a carry. Hit turbo boost on the way out to gain pitch head before countless hordes of knobheads. Was wearing wetsuit hood at the time so ranted a tad loudly at them. Met even more knobheads on the way out. Top tip - buy shares in Warmbac - every university/outdoor club seems to have bought them. Saw so much shiny gear I thought I was watching a fashion show. Entrance chamber considerably rearranged by autumn floods.
Pete et al.
GB Cave: Mark Evans, Christian Roberts (Sos), Joselyn Visconti, Joel Gustavsen
Oh dear, GB again. A crack team entered the cave at about 11:30. Being unable to lock the door afterwards we left the bastard open! Taking the easy route down through the wet squeeze into the main chamber. Highly impressive as ever.
Mark
Friday evening, Jim and Mark asked: Who wants to go to a dry cave, tomorrow? The ideal cave was of course GB! Such a dry cave! Ask Chris, Joel and Greg... it was really dry... We just had to swim in a squeeze (E-twat). The conclusion of the trip is that for Mark, it was a really dry cave because the first thing he said was "PUB, PUB, PUB!" Really thirsty...
A nice cave... I hope my pictures will not be too bad even if Greg was completely frozen because of my fucking bloody japanese camera...
Jos
GB is bloody wet. My suit had no crotch so it was fucking cold. Scratched bollocks in neck at end. Using ears as plough in wet squeeze was dead smart. Came out of GB ready to kill Greg, and remove 2 tons of mud from face and helmet (bloody funny it was too, to make me look like an allotment). Pretended it was really quite difficult in pub; but no-one believed me. Beer was crap.
Chris (The Lincolnshire Sausage)
Bloody Longwood again (strangely inappropriate as LW has yet to be mentioned)
Sunday 23 Oct
GB: Dave Mountain and presumably other people
Again you bastards!
DM
Eastwater: Oliver Mann and presumably some other people
Sharp, black, but after a horrific first experience in Longwood-August quite a pleasant pastime - with many laughs at "wrong hole" pants along the traverse. A quite exhilarating free climb up the chimney after dolphin pot on the way up, given my previous ineptitude at climbing and knee wobbling vertigo. Would have enjoyed knee and elbow pads.
Oliver
Fireworks Meet, Yorkshire (NPC), 4th-6th November
Selgill: Christian Roberts (Sos), Richard Anderson (Chard)
Many examples of Rich knot seen at Y-hang entrance to cave after 10 mins of totally worrying inability to get knot in rope, finally SRT'd down first pitch, surprisingly dry. Nice intro to SRT, with purposefully rigged complete bastard rebelay. Chard had a bloody good chuckle at my falling onto safety rope. Quite short, with small inlet at bottom. Retired to Inglesport caf after cave, where foolishly cheap chip butty resulted in mild food poisoning. Small beer in pub, followed by 2 mile assault course back to NPC. Avoided several missiles (mistakenly called fireworks), and saw maiden voyage of SUper Ted (complete with rocket pack). "Altogether nice atmos really" - Eddie from bottom.
Anon
Heron Pot: Gavin Hayman, Mark Evans, Frank Cooke
Day began well, picking up barrel of Dent bitter from the brewery. Had a quick pint in the Sun Inn before being vetoed on a second. Returned to Kingsdale where it took considerable effort to avoid sampling the aforementioned brew but finally got kitted up. Gav looked dapper in his designer wetsuit - he insisted on wearing an oversuit as well but took advice about not wearing an extra wetsuit top! As he pointed out, Gav's fat reserves are minimal and extra insulation is a must! The trek to the entrance began, references to the OS map being necessary on several occasions. We failed to find the exit - Mark's map reading scores 3/10, and I saw down, observed the flaming sunset (4pm+), smoked a joint (I wish!), had a piss, and left it to the others to find the entrance. This done, we set off.
There followed approx 800m of meandering downhill passage, narrow enough to necessitate occasional crawling. After turning Left at a T-junction we soon encountered the first pitch. Mark was left to rig this, my rigging still being at fresher level despite 4 years in the club!!! A dry hang was obtained by traversing over the pitch head to a small ledge from which Mark lifelined the 6m ladder climb. Even though the hang was as dry as possible, the last 2m were wet as it had rained for days and the water level was quite dry. The second pitch followed immediately, Mark again rigging as dry a hang as possible. This still looked wet as the lower half (5m) was well within the spray/body of the waterfall. A suitable plonker was found who would be willing to see if he could reach the bottom. The intrepid adventurer/fool put his foot on a rung and descended.
Deeper and deeper into the depths of the earth he went until 6m later he encountered water. Quickening he raced for the bottom. When under the water he paused for a millisecond considering the possibilities. To die or not to die, that was the question. Preferring the latter, our hero considered descending further to be even more foolhardy than taking up caving in the first place. Deciding to return he shouted 'climbing' to the belayer before beginning the ascent. Oh no! it had been so easy to descend - suddenly he weighed 500lbs. An exhausting 3m later, clear of the spray, superman had to rest - balanced by Jools (Mark), our hero let go of the ladder and took full use of the lifeline! Semi-conscious he dragged himself by sheer willpower up the final couple of metres, before being grabbed from behind by
Frank
a raving sex maniac called Mark who could control his lust no longer
Pants
Suitably satiated Mark left our focal point in the story (i.e. hero) to get off the pitch head. Thanks Mark!! Where-upon it was decided that the pitch should not be descended and an uneventful return was embarked upon, although Benoir and Gav did manage to go the wrong way at the T-junction!
Relieved to see daylight the real-life Indiana Jones proceeded to get pissed on Dent bitter and enjoy the excellent fireworks that he himself and Chard (+ others) had provided. This was followed by an excellent water-fight and much later by a not so excellent hangover. The Sunday was spent recovering in Mr. P. Evans distinguished company before a late night drive back to London.
A most epic weekend,
Frank
A most epic report!
Dave M
Sunday 6th
Dow Cave: Gavin Hayman, Dave Mountain, Tony Hayden (Tonx)
Large hangover, small cave, take a wetsuit!
D.M.
Swinstones: Anthony Woods (Pants)
Wet descending 'cos I don't know how to use a deviation yet!
Pants
County Pot (Easegill): Iain McKenna, Kathryn Atherton, Rob Lea (Blob), Andy Radcliffe (Rocket man), Ruth
Being such a total SPOD! I missed the first two freshers trips due to the pressures of work. And so, the time came for me to "lead" a freshers trip. Therefore, I somehow managed to get onto a trip without any freshers, bar Ruth - Mrs Rocket Man or should that be Rocket woman to be.
We got to Bull Pot Farm (or whatever its called) and realised that we had no permit (or had we forgotten it - I wasn't sure). Anyway, we assumed the name of Bristol CC for the rest of the day, as Andy had seen their name on the official board.
We took the long, tortuous route avoiding the fell to the entrance and were stopped on the way by some fellow cavers who asked if we were going to Pippikin. Iain reckons that we must have looked pretty hard! My wellies are severely worn (that's my excuse) and so I must have slipped over 5 or 6 times on the way to the entrance. We passed an impressive waterfall on the way, and as we traversed round to the top stream feeding the falls, I took a short cut through the stream and fell flat on my face inches above the water to everyone's amusement.
Iain and Catherine shared a harness and SRT kit - not at the same time although that might have been an attractive prospect to Iain. We slid down the entrance entering a fine rift polished smooth and scalloped by the water. The rift was quite wide and tall and one of the best, most impressive I have yet seen in view of its fine curves and [illegible] glistening in our head lamps. A beautiful piece of passage. We came to a small pitch with 3 ladders rigged onto. Ruth managed well with her SRT kit, as it was her first ever caving trip. We then came to another 2m drop down to the streamway, which looked a bit dodge to me, although we all safely made it down. The stream was quite strong and we followed its course to a junction, where we turned left and carried about 100m further down the rift. Ruth had no wet socks and so began suffering from cold feet. Mr Rocket was unsure of the way and then realised that we should have turned right at the previous junction. We made our way back up the streamway - all good fun and took the other passage. Eventually, we reached a climb up thru a slot about 3m above. The slot was around 50cm wide. We had to wait for some middle aged cavers coming in the opposite direction and Iain and Catherine mysteriously disappeared for a few mins. Iain was obviously showing her a few fine formations. Incidently we saw a funny looking stal shaped just like a thing!! This is particularly comic as Iain tells me he has a thingy shaped just like a stal!! (Blackadder II rip off)
Rocket Man shot up the slot - just like a rocket funnily enough; to be followed by Ruth, who stood on my shoulders. I followed on and almost got wedged by my huge tackle sack - Chortle! Chortle! We then entered a crawl to another pitch (I think?). By this stage, Ruth's feet were freezing and she felt sapped of energy. We followed the streamway to the turn off for Wretched Rabbit and all turned our lights out to proclaim in unison "Oh! Isn't it dark" - a must for everyone's 1st caving trip. Then, we carried on up the streamway until Ruth got pretty fatigued. So, I swapped her Mars bar for my life giving "Spring Foods" flapjack - the ultimate cave food. Re-energised, Andy escorted her out thru Wretched Rabbit, while the rest of us climbed up above the streamway and followed the course along the fossil passage. A labyrinth of turns and huge passages and chambers comprised this section. Some very pretty straws and stals with horizontal extensions. Then thru the Minarets. I was intrigued by the name as a mineret is the large cylindrical tower from which the faithful are called to prayer at a mosque. They comprised of two straight parallel passages with extremely flat walls and a solid mud/clay floor. The passage was a perfect triangle and reminded me of some of the tomb passages that I have been in, in Egypt - keeping the Middle Eastern connection. Both minerets were linked by a flat crawl (short) which was dived down through in a few seconds. (no water) A peculiar almost man-made passage unlike anything that I have seen before.
We continued thru the fossil passage dropping down to the stream again after bypassing a sump. We then negotiated a couple of boulder chokes heading towards Lancaster Hole. I happened to glance at my watch and on realising the time - 6:20pm we headed back to the Wretched Rabbit turn off, managing the lose the way once or twice.
Wretched Rabbit had previously flooded to the roof the night before, althought the water level was much lower now. Andy had left a few markers, so we navigated our way out with minimum fuss. Catherine chose to stand on my head and shoulders on the final climb out and I feel as if I've shrunk 3 inches. Success! We made it out. But which way is it back to the farm? Iain to the rescue, we followed the fence, turned right up to the fell and headed at 10 o'clock (angle) across it looking for markers. Fortunately the fireworks party at the Red Rose Club guided us although Iain and Catherine reckoned that I kept heading off 30 degrees to the left instead of straight on. SOmething wrong with the old internal navigation system, but at least I remained on two feet this time.
We reached the farm to be greeted by Ruth and Andy, pints in hand. Bloody 'ell, that tastes great! Quickly changed and headed for the Martyn Arms for some grub. Then on to the New Inn, a few jars until fireworks back at the NPC and water-fight. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Rob Lea (S.A.S) my lads
Sunday 6th Nov
Bull Pot: Iain McKenna, Kathryn Atherton, Christian Roberts (Sos), Rob Lea (Blob), 3hrs
Aha! at last, caving with some freshers - well one actually. My first "big" trip rigging since Slovenia. Quite rusty but picked it up wuickly and learnt quite a lot from Iain.
We missed out final pitch as we couldn't be bothered to bring the final rope. Used a 90m for 2nd-4th pitches went down thru the Slot. Met 3 groups down there. One group took half hour to derig the penultimate pitch as we waited to go down. The other two passed us on our way down, as they came up. But since we were 10x as fast with Iain's rapid derigging we overtook one group as we climbed up thru the Slot.
Cave was quite wet - especially as the 4th pitch wasn't deviated - whoops!
Hammered out in a total trip time of 3 hours. Christian enjoyed himself - his best SRT trip to date.
Katherine had her own SRT kit this time - well D.M.'s. So no need to share Iain's.
Quite enjoyable
Rob L (Blob)
Hagg Gill (Photo trip) Langstroth dale
Nice little cave if not a bit far away! Small entrance on brow of hill overlooking road and river. Entrance is close to Langstroth Cave (site of the infamous accident), not far from Sleets Gill. (Anon note - yes it bloody is)
Entrance is a dug, shored shaft of about 10ft with scaffolding inside. A slight constriction makes the return awkward (best suited for ladders). Obviously we were SRTing it. (Ladders? What are they) After the constriction the shaft opens out and drops a further 10m (or so).
Below there is nice stream passage and attractive decorated galleries. Good freshers trip!
Flash [on the basis that the signature is the same as one I have attributed to Flash below]
Sunday 20th November - Day trip to Mendip
Dave, Rich, Jim, Gavin + Carrol[?]
Eastwater Cavern - Dolphin Pot/Twin Verticals Exchange: Jim Evans, Gavin Hayman, Dave Mountain, Richard Anderson (Chard)
Set off on the 8 o'clock side of 9 i.e. 10ish. Do not trust Richard Anderson to turn up on time early in the morning! Hit Warminster for Brunch and were almost overcome by the urge to drink beer. Pressed on to the Belfry however, and were safely underground by about 3pm. Plenty of water flowing into the entrance ensured a wet descent through the boulder ruckle, but everything dries up once you reach the rift traverse. Gavin and Jim headed off for twin verticals while Rich, Carrol and myself descended Dolphin Chimney and Pot, and somehow we all met up at the bottom of the second vertical. Swapped routes and all met up again at top of first vertical before strenuous exit. Fine trip all around, and home in time for breakfast!
DM
Yorkshire 4th-5th December
Simpsons--Swinsto Extraveganzer
- Jim, Harry (in Simp out Swin)
- Tony, Chris, Pete E (in Simp out VE)
- Jos, Dave M, Flash (in Swin out Simp)
- Pants (in Simp out Simp)
Fairly ok trip. We (Swinsto) forgot to put in an extra rope for the waterfall into the Great Aven. Used end of Simpsons rope. There were a few loose rocks in this chamber which came loose and caused a bit of a scare. Pants's light failed about half hour from entrance. HA HA
Anon
A very nice exchange, even if the rocks falling are a little bit noisy and frightening! Anyway, it's very funny to see 6 'Rosebuds' waiting for a rope at the top of a waterfall.
PS: A very impressive timing! The two teams arrived at the bottom exactly at the same time and went out of the caves at the same time. Impressive! Mark organised a little joke for us: a dead battery for the van!
Jos
Vespers: Iain McKenna, Kathryn Atherton, Rob Lea (Blob), Frank Cooke, Carole
[2024 editor: Carole's handwriting, which is beautiful but incredibly hard to read, is also French for this report. I cannot.]
Bar Pot - Flood Entrance
Bar Pot: Mark, Sarah, Flash
Flood: Jim, Chris, Tony, Beccy, Jos
The second exchange of the weekend! Very good as well. The main Chamber is especially impressive. Such a big chamber with such a flat floor doesn't exist in Vercors! Very spectacular waterfall!
Jos
Very spectacular rigging by the one with the gleaming harness. Lots of exploring to do and well worth the hours walk back.
Sarah[I think]
Good trip. bar is short and fairly easy. sazza first rig down bar.
Jim
After parking the van in Clapham and sloshing our way up the path to the Gill system caves, we went to our respective cave entrances. I was quietly confident that we would have to turn around fairly quickly. The amount of water that had fallen in the last day and a half! The rivers were overflowing and the moor was swimming in water. Surprisingly there was very little water in Bar at all! The first pitch and slopes were completely dry. On the big pitch (35m) we rigged it by the ladder route (by accident) which should have been very wet, but it wasn't! If you're interested the correct route is as follows.
(sketch of topo)
Instead of following the handline down between the boulders go up and to the right. You can see the bolts on the far wall, this can give a free hang down the centre of the shaft!
Flash [by deduction]
Derbyshire 17-19th Feb '95
Saturday
Eldon Hole: Mark Evans, Anthony Woods (Pants), Flash
Eldon Hole is a large shaft on the south slopes of Eldon Hill, just above a small wood.
A beautiful daylight shaft! It can be rigged on the north south or east sides. We did the north due to lack of long ropes. A 30m scramble leads to a freehanging 40m pitch. With one rebelay at about half way, landing on a rubble slope. The base leads to a muddy squeeze down through loose boulders to chamber.
Mark
After an exhilarating bit of first rigging to the free hang I resisted the suicidal urge to rig the rest and let Evans do it instead, on reflection maybe we should have let Flash do it + bugger off when he got stuck/plummeted to his death. A magnificent daylight descent. Twas a bit of a let down that we couldn't get into the new section but we didn't fancy the free climb of 5m to join a rope to the potentially dangerous Eldon pothole rope. So we stormed out, only waiting for me to sort out my buggered chest jammer on the rebelay. Such a shame, Flash and Mark froze their bollocks off waiting for me to derig.
Pants
Giants Hole: Jim Evans, Dave Mountain, Greg, Pam + Mike (infiltrators)
Beyond first pitch - down crabwalk until we reached sump 2 where we met up with a large group from UW. Faffed around for some time before Pam and I (Dave) decided to wait, and Jim and co continued on to Geology Pot and beyond. Water levels fairly high, so the whole trip was fairly cold, involving short climbs through water. Pam and I sat in the car trying to warm up until the others arrived - upon which Mike realised that the electronic central locking remote control thing for his car didn't appreciate a good soaking. Finally drained it out so he could access his dry clothes - just ignore the onset of hypothermia.
Dave M
P8: Iain McKenna, Paul Wilcox, Sarah Wingrove (Scuz), Oliver Mann
A short trek across a muddy field, not far from Giants and you reach a stream cascading into a hole in the ground. Go under the waterfall, you're wet from the start, so you may as well continue. It's well worth it. There are 3 short pitches and a few wet climbs but there's a fair bit to see out of the water at the bottom and sumps and formations and things to see. Sorry. Excellent cave but I'm bored of writing about it.
Sarah
Sunday
Giants: Mark Evans, Paul Wilcox, Anthony Woods (Pants), Oliver Mann
Another wet day in the Peak District!
Plenty of water in the streamway and crabwalk. Comic Cascade was like a solid wall of water. We went down to the 1st stream sump and then returned by the high level route (giant's windpipe etc). This is a real classic!
From the first sump, on the return take the first left turn up a 5ft climb. Crawl through a waterfall and up a 2-3m freeclimb up a waterfall. Take a right turn up the stream, up a 5m freeclimb to the foot of ghost rift. This is a climb up (10m) which is rigged but don't go up this way! The way on is down and through a short low crawl, which is aptly called the giant's windpipe. This is the worst part! But don't be put off the duck is really short. Take the first right and follow the sound of the streamway. The climb down the rift is tricky but no probs if you traverse first.
A cracker. Pant rating 4
Flash or Pants
With the wet experience I had gained from my first trip to Wales, I was well prepared for caving on a Sunday morning after Saturday night. So, with a large greasy breakfast just about staying down and a slight pain behind my eyes, we headed off in the van, taking in the glorious scenery and a kerb or two on the way. Donning my stylish caving gear; still wet from the dry cave of the previous day we waddled gracefully the couple of hundred yards from the track to the cave entrance. Then you wander along for a hundred yards (ish) following stream in a wide airy passage with some pretty rock things. Then you come to a waterfall which goes down and where you climb down a rope ladder, which is positioned just in the floor so you don't get too hot. Then comes the very long and rapidly very boring crab walk which is a 10" wide zig zag passage cut by the stream. Then it becomes a bit more complicated, with some waterfalls which you have to climb up and a couple of climbs. Then you crawl along a hole called Giant's windpipe and it was here that our glorious leader was all for turning back but pressure from Ollie ("I'll go if you go") made us press on through what I believe is a sump. Eventually you come out at the top of the crabwalk about 50' above where we were. The fear involved by this climb down can be intensified considerably if you traverse along it for about 40' first. Then it's all plain sailing back to the van, and that's all I can be bothered to write. Quite good naturally.
Paul
Carlswark Cavern: Pam Murphy, Dave Mountain, Sarah Wingrove (Scuz)
The perfect sunday cave - no tackle, warm, and a cafe next door!
DM
Yorkshire 4-5th March ("The Dave Elliot Weekend")
4th March 95
Grange Rig/Christmas Pot Exchange
Grange Rig team: Andy (Rocket), Sazza, Fwank
Christmas Pot team: Mark, Kathryn, Tone, Paul Wilcox
Christmas is really nice and cosy. Starts with a crawl through an oil drum. Severe lack of bolts but loads of "nice" naturals to rig from. Very Slovenian style rigging. Some slightly awkward bits but on the whole pukka.
In contrast, Grange Rig is a hell hole! Full of flatout crawls in water, committing squeezes, tight rifts and difficult freeclimbs. but well worth a try!
When we got out there was 4 inches of extra snow and we had no idea where we were! After spotting a couple of cap lamps bobbing through the mist we found 3 ULSA cavers. The first thing they asked us was "Do you know where we are?" Eventually we all stumbled upon the right path and spent some well earned hours in the New Inn.
Mark
Sun 5th March
Rumbling Hole: Malcolm Barr, Mark Evans, Sarah Wingrove (Scuz)
After the majority of the club wimped out cos of the weather we decided that since we had a Leck Fell permit we had to use it. It was still very wet on the fell with a fair amount of snow still around. The daylit first pitch is awesome, with a freehanging rebelay at the top. The rest of the pitches are equally nice with some classic naturals and deviations lower down. A real corker. Thoroughly recommended.
Mark
Mendips
St Cuthbert's Swallet: Andy Cave (leader), Duard, Claire, Mark Evans, Dave Mountain
"Not a cave for novices" they said - but I went down anyway. "It's just the entrance, a 20m rift downwards, that is a BIT tricky" I was told. Will I ever believe them again? Having negotiated the entrance and the numerous obsticals thrown in, the sights to be seen were definately worth the pain and anguish suffered.
Anon [maybe Claire]
Daren Cilau trip
[This trip was written up properly in ICCC newsletter 20 page 27]
Jim with Andy Cave, Angie Cave, Ivan? Bec? - Rock Steady Crew
5 days over Easter '95
Summary: spent 5 days (4 nights) in Daren camping at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Day 1 - went to Camp (10 hours)
Day 2 - sorted Camp (not visited for 2 years) and tourist trip to little gem and the Blue Queenies
Day 3 - went to End of Cave and set off explosive at 'Spade Runner' 8 hour trip
Day 4 - another Bang at Spade Runner which appears to have a void further but still too tight 8 hours
Day 5 - went [illegible] got out 12 midnight monday night (10 hr trip)
Food - mainly dry food all vegetarian [illegible]/TVP; currys [illegible] Pita bread cheese and pickle - very good
Very interesting going on the trip with some of the original explorers of much of the cave, hearing stories etc.
Jim
Yorkshire 22-23 April
Jim, Mark, Frank, Andie, Iain
Saturday
Pippikin to the Mistral on ladders: Jim Evans, Mark Evans, Iain McKenna, Frank Cooke
JMFAI + Mr T (Andy Tharratt) and Alien (Andy Goddard) both NPC
Carried bottles for Alien who dived sump checking out for future exploration of 2nd sump. Turned back near end of sump due to bad visibility and strong current. Caving trip fairly short 3-4 hours with 1 ladder (10m) nice trip although fairly short.
Jim
fun. Too knackered for beer in evening!!
Anon
Sunday
Birks Fell
JMFAI.
Decided not to do cave at car park (due to apathy) and went on a walk to located Moss [illegible] Langcliffe instead - failed to locate either cave due to not bringing the book - then went for cream teas. Unproductive day but quite enjoyable.
Jim
Yorkshire 6-7 May (not the Dinner Meet)
Sat
Cow Pot - Lancaster exchange
Cow: Jim Evans, Dave Mountain, Oliver Mann, Mark Evans, Paul Wilcox, Sarah Wingrove (Scuz), Joel Gustavsen
Nice day. Decided to avoid sunburn by going underground. Arrived at BPF at midday. A sweaty hike to cave entrances (with Lancaster crew). Nice entrance pitch (30m) rigged by Sazza. Drops into a sizable chamber with a tight slippery climb down in top corner.
A bit of crawling in stream gets bigger and comes to deep slot in floor.
"Intimidating traverse" over the black bottomless void leads to main pitch. Rigged from middle of traferse. Rebelay (-10) followed, deviation (-20) leads Y hang between walls. This drops spectacularly into final chamber.
Mark
Lancaster: Jim Evans, Dave Mountain, Oliver Mann, Mark Evans, Paul Wilcox, Sarah Wingrove (Scuz), Joel Gustavsen, Claire
Lancaster Hole is a delightful jaunt, it begins with a 30m pitch excellently rigged by Jim and actually quite nice to descend. No problems were encountered on the journey to Fall Pot which included a small rift, a bit of crawling and a muddly climb, due to the great expertise of the leader and his ability to follow a draft.
A bit of a nasty traverse precedes a small pitch to get to the bottom of Fall pot. Wandering up and down stream reveals some of the nicest passages you'll find in Yorkshire (so I'm told).
Trying to find the way out did however pose a few more problems than anticipated - the navigators being Oliver and I (and much less experienced might I add) couldn't quite remember exactly the right route out but did get there in the end, after travelling through a surprising small amount of wrong tunnels given our limited navigational skills. All in all it was a jolly decent journey with an exceedingly pleasurable bottom tunnel - nice and smooth, easy. Sunday afternoon stroll with pretty formations (even though it was Saturday).
Well wot can you say, it was a cave yes, um, and not too stressful, and pretty gud if you want to practice navigating.
Oh yeah the pub was nice in the evening.
Anon
Top Sink (pull-through) to County Pot: Sarah Wingrove (Scuz), Joel Gustavsen (and Jeremy, Malcom, Jill and Ian from the NPC)
A splendid trip... bit of a route march/SAS outing. Left the NPC before midday, drove in frightening manner to the cave entrance without the fashionable stop at Inglesport ('cos that would have wasted some time). Changed at a rapid rate and ran single file (in step) to the cave, packing the ropes on the way. Thrust ourselves head first into the cave entrance and crawled for a while (not long - remember we're in a hurry for some reason) to the first pitch, already rigged by Malcolm to pull-through. Got rope burn on our hands from going down the rope so quickly. Then some more tight rift passage at the speed of light to a second pitch in a waterfall. Joel somehow found the time to take some photos in this cave, his camera was protected by JJ's underpants... wrapped in these no-one else would touch it! Anyway, this second pitch was also a pull-through, and the last pitch of descent. We spent 2-3 hours down this cave system without doubling back on ourselves or coming to anywhere I recognised (even though we'd done a cave in Easegill the day before). Very varied. Large passages, small ones, muddy or clean, flat out crawling, formations, small climbs, etc, etc. Shame we were in a rush... just like I am now to finish this write up. 'Poets' climb was quite entertaining, and the passage with all the straws is well worth a special trip. Very easy to get disoriented though. Out of cave in time for tea and cakes in Bernies.
Sarah
Amazing decorations in some parts, very unspoiled
Joel
County Pot - in and out: Phil Hay, Mark Evans, Dave Mountain, Oliver Mann
Second trip into Ease Gill system in one weekend - third in my life - an excellent bit of cave - this bit especially suited to a SUNDAY TRIP! Simple route finding until 'poetic justice' - an interesting climb up after 1st pitch to gain access into ledge above 2nd pitch. Descend and follow stream into 'Eureka Junction' with main stream. We followed this upstream (or was it down?) to 'Stop Pot' which allows access into the fossil series - very large and impressive. Journeyed as far as 'Monster Chamber' before returning on the same route to wait with a crowd of lost cavers from the Forest of Dean. Out in time for tea before the 'alternative IC3 dinner meet' with the old lags - it's not like the good old days is it?