Yorkshire IV
Chris Hayes, Jan Kożuszek, Wojtek Sowinski, Julien Jean, Laura Temple, Jergus Strucka, Edwin Fernando, Salwa Ahmad, Magor Pocsvelier, Thurston Blount, Aurelia Eberhard, Remi Soubes-Goldman, Leonie Siepmann, Hannes Reichle, Josie Skirrow, Esther Mueller
Friday
Packing the minibus took us a while, mainly because every seat was taken, and all the backpacks, sleeping bags, and gear needed to be arranged. Unfortunately, the rope packing wasn't to well coordinated and delayed our departure a bit. But in the end, everything and everyone made it into the minibus or onto its roof. The drive to Yorkshire felt long and was delayed further by construction work as well as the world's slowest and most annoying self-checkouts at the Tesco Extra in Ilkeston, near Nottingham. We arrived after Midnight and I was happy to go to bed as soon as I could.
Esther
It’s already after Easter tour and I still haven’t written up Y4 so I should probably do that. Not much happened on the drive, except it took us an absurd amount of time to get out of London (even more so than usual). Also, the M6 was closed so we had to go the M1 route.
Jan
Saturday
FOUL Pot: Julien Jean, Jergus Strucka, Josie Skirrow, Esther Mueller
I woke up to a lovely sunny morning in Yorkshire. Most of the people would go and see abominable images of fractured bones with Sean, meaning that there was a chance to swing the entire bus to Fountain's fell and visit Curtain pot. Normally, there are too many people caving to visit Fountains fell, making this a unique chance. I suggest Curtain pot to everyone caving, Laura seems in on the idea, Remi buys in, Jan has always been of the opinion that this would be a great. I pack all the required rope into alphabetically ordered bags with utmost care, nothing can spoil my plans. We write names down into the red book: Laura, Jan, Remi, Julien, Josie, Edwin, Esther, Wojtek, and I. Reality dawns on me - this human centipede cannot enter Curtain pot which is loose, has 12 pitches, and should be a relatively long adventure. In an attempt to save my plan, I suggest that some people can visit FOUL Pot, falsely remembering Fiona extoll the virtues of this cave. Annoyingly, people are excited to do Curtain now. Team re-shuffling, further team re-shuffling, FOUL team is eventually decided: Julien, Josie, Esther, and I. Perfect. Dreams crushed. Credit to Josie's impeccable judgement for having an actual choice between these two caves and choosing the superior trip. As I have already packed rope for Curtain, I request that others pack for FOUL - Josie volunteers. This action awards her 50.1% of the blame for our later rigging successes.
We drive off to Fountain's fell. Laura types "Fountains fell" into mapy.cz and guides us somewhere. The minibus parks in the correct place after much directional confusion and an even larger number of bikers in their sixties. Weather takes a turn for the worse and is drizzling, Curtain should not be descended during moderately wet weather. Remi questions their choice and pulls a true UNO reverse card, suggests a human centipede down FOUL pot. Hm. Sun re-appears, we assume that this drizzle fulfilled the MetOffice prediction of 0.1 mm rainfall for the day and follow our original plan.
We change, I blame an unknown thief for losing my gloves only to find one under my tacklesack; to make a pair I steal someone else's glove. Ready. Julien uses his GPS watch to get us efficiently to the cave entrance - I rig a handline and proceed through. As I go through the initial grotty crawl, I realize that my progress is not slowed down by any tackle sacks. I request that Josie brings one. This improves the noise levels from the crawl significantly, and Josie is soon across with a black tacklesack that is meant to have the first two ropes. This makes much sense. Esther yells across the crawl asking which way to go, Josie responds that there is only one way, Esther is unconvinced and says that she only sees a rather grim wet crawl. This is met with a united approval that she clearly sees the right thing.
I continue forward, rig around a big block, go down about 10 meters and proceed to crawl over a bunch of rocks until we get to a pitch head. As we are moving quite fast I ask Josie if she wants to rig it - she nods, rigs the pitch excellently and at a fast pace, but the down-rope crosses the traverse line awkwardly. I suggest she just pull the down-rope to the other side. Josie does this and mentions that it is a lot of rope. I nod to this statement fully mentally checked-out, "yes, ropes are long". This statement awards me 49.9% of the blame for not bottoming the cave. Ropes should not have 40m spare at the bottom of the pitch.
Below this pitch, there are two squeezes that I found quite fun with my central maillon undone, Josie passed through just fine and aided Esther who has done a really good job given that this was her first SRT trip and a Yorkshire pothole (a fact that has escaped me during planning). We all climbed down an awkward handlined climb and met a bunch of other cavers. Esther asks if she should wait and help Julien, I say that this is definitely not necessary. We chill and chat inside of the Keel cavern listening to Julien's thrutching. Eventually, he yells for help claiming that he is stuck. Refusing to take his SRT kit off, he has wedged his SRT bag in an unfortunate location that precluded any progress without a significant likelihood of his reporoductive opportunities being significantly affected. This is resolved relatively quickly and Julien passes through.
Shortly after, we crawl towards the next pitch (rigged with >50 rope) and I pull a 45m rope out of the bag. Fully unaware that a 65m is currently sitting at the bottom of a 20m pitch elsewhere in the cave, this does not compute. Josie willingly takes the blame, but we figure that it is still possible to rig the indirect route with other ropes at the cost of not bottoming the cave. This takes long enough that Esther and Julien are not terrifingly motivated and we turn back. Josie somehow learns that the other cavers clipped a braking crab to one of our tacklesacks and also find another carabiner that they simply lost. We get back at pace only to discover our folly at the incidentally-65-metre-rope pitch.
We get out of the cave at 4:35pm, it's still sunny. I sunbathe for a few minutes in the glorious sunshine. We go back to the bus where I realize that I forgot any sensible clothes to change into. With the possibility of waiting until 10pm for the other team, I change into a random assortment of available garments. We snack, we go for a walk, the other team returns also valiantly failing their task. Perfect. We go back to a nice evening of shepherd's pie and chats.
Jergus
After a short and very warm night, everyone was woken up by Chris at 7 a.m: eight very privileged people were to attend first-aid training with Sean Whittle at the Scout’s hut in Ingleton. Luckily, breakfast was already prepared, so the many tired cavers could successfully start their day. After the minibus left with the first aiders, it turned out that organizing groups for caving wasn’t as easy as expected. However, after some discussion, it was agreed that Jergus, Josie, Julien, and I would cave in Foul Pot in Fountain Fell, while Laura, Jan, Remi, and Edwin would form the other group.
I was excited to go caving – it would be my first SRT trip and my first official trip with the club – so I helped Josie pack the rope so we could depart soon. I was optimistic because we were very early, thanks to the others attending the first-aid training, and I had been promised a dry and relaxed cave.
Jan drove us confidently to Fountain Fell, only hindered by the many many bikers that came down the street one by one, and we changed quickly before heading off to the cave. To my surprise, it didn’t take long before I couldn’t find the right hole to follow Jergus and Josie deeper into the cave. It turned out to be a wet and very low crawlway, which I didn’t expect in this form. Being allowed to complain while the front of my body got soaked I made my way through. More tight holes and crawls followed until we reached the first pitch. This shouldn’t really be called a pitch but rather an assisted climb up a wooden ladder, and it was not a real obstacle.
The cave continued in the same fashion, with Julien managing to get his helmet stuck right before the second pitch. This was about to be my very first proper pitch in a cave! I was quite excited to test the knowledge I had gained from tree training just a week ago. Since I had never entered a pitch from the top, I asked Julien to talk me through the process, and we descended smoothly and efficiently. Very satisfied with my overall performance, I was eager to continue caving, but soon realized that Foul Pot had more challenges in store. At first glance, the rift in front of me didn’t seem wide enough to allow my body through. I was quite skeptical, and both Jergus and Josie seemed to notice that. I was advised to undo my central maillon to reduce the bulk around my hips and to bend my body forward so my head would align with my hips as I passed through the rift’s widest part. A very dubious position to be in! I tried my best but came to the conclusion that I didn’t know where to place my feet without getting my legs stuck, or where to push to move forward. It took several attempts and a lot of patient guidance from Josie before I finally got through.
That was tough!
Happy to have passed the obstacle, I followed Josie down a few meters, only to see the second part of the rift... At this point, I was very unhappy. Putting the harness back on would add bulk around my hips, and the way it hung around my knees blocked my movements. I couldn’t imagine getting through the rift, especially since I saw Josie struggling in front of me. Fortunately, removing the harness completely and altering Josie’s technique did the trick. Once through, I felt my hands shaking and decided it really was time for some chocolate.
More time passed, but Julien seemed to have disappeared. It turned out that he was really stuck in the second part of the rift, and Jergus had to come to his rescue! After that, the cave changed its appearance. We crawled through a stream (yes, it was indeed a very dry and easy cave...), admired the ceiling with pretty small formations, and reached the next pitch. This turned out to mark the turning point of our journey: the 65- meter rope had mysteriously disappeared.
The way back was smooth and enjoyable, even the rift had lost some of its challenge since I simply took off the harness before entering it. After ascending the second pitch, Josie noticed that she had accidentally used the 65-meter rope to rig a 20-meter pitch… this mystery was resolved rather quickly. After experiencing how features in a cave feel different when passed in the other direction, we made it out after about 4.5 hours underground and could enjoy a bit of sunshine next to the cave’s entrance. The walk back was relaxed, and it didn’t take too long before the other group returned and we could drive back to enjoy dinner.
I definitely enjoyed this caving trip, despite feeling miserable while getting through the rift and the cave being much more difficult than I expected overall. I am grateful for everyone’s patience and help and I would be happy to go caving with the club again. :)
Saturday evening included a short safety training session led by Chris. I now feel almost confident in my ability to cut a rope to lower a casualty to the end of a pitch and can confirm that it is very uncomfortable to have someone stand on you while being stuck on the rope!
Esther
Curtain Pot: Jan Kożuszek, Laura Temple, Edwin Fernando, Remi Soubes-Goldman
Or how the best-laid plans of Jergus and men often go awry.
The day began with an early morning as the first aiders had to be driven to their course. Meanwhile, Jergus began advocating for a trip to Fountains Fell, where I had never been, but all the descriptions seemed to suggest caves there were kinda awful. This of course would never stop Jergus’s sheer determination, as he advocated for Curtain pot, an hour’s walk from the nearest parking and also filled with loose rock. Funnily enough, by the time he got his way and we all agreed to go there, he had switched to go to Foul instead (the club had been there before. Judging by the old reports, it was not a particularly enjoyable place).
It was an interesting drive, particularly with Laura doing an absolutely awful job with navigation, and we had to wait for a cavalcade of senior motorcyclists to pass before we could turn around, go up and down steep inclines on some narrow roads, and finally arrive at the correct car park. The tops of the fells were swallowed by grey clouds and rain was seeping from the sky as I tried to find some mobile signal to check if this weather would persist. It seemed that it wouldn’t so that it was indeed safe to go to Curtain. We rapidly got changed and set off on the hike.
The walk didn’t take as long as we expected, and the directions we had were entirely sufficient, though I wouldn’t like our chances of actually finding the cave entrance itself without a GPS. The cave itself immediately started to go wrong for me, as I kept getting tangled in my own rope and limbs, and a few of the initial crawls were a little uncomfortable, even despite the clearly visible marks from where they were enlarged during the exploration and the big rescue that actually made the cave well-known. I would also be remiss not to mention that the cave is named not after some lovely formation but after a tarpaulin curtain that hangs in the second pitch to provide a little separation (though mostly psychological) between the descending caver and the heaps of loose rock on the other side.
Nonetheless, once we made it to the ‘sandy slope’ the cave became a lot nicer, with large passages and formations. Still, there was another sketchy climb under some huge boulders and an unsecured traverse before we saw some straws and decided it was probably time to turn around. We weren’t even halfway down through the cave, but we’d taken so long getting there that our agreed turnaround time had come and besides, everyone seemed keen to get out. The way back out went much more smoothly, so I got back to the entrance pitch several hours before we planned. I emerged into perhaps the most glorious sunset I have ever witnessed in the Dales. Note to any future trips – try to time your exit with the sunset and you won’t be disappointed!
Back at the bus it turned out that the foul trip also lasted a lot shorted than planned, so we got to the NPC with plenty of time for food and some rescue practice led by Chris.
Jan
First Aid: Chris Hayes, Wojtek Sowinski, Salwa Ahmad, Magor Pocsvelier, Thurston Blount, Aurelia Eberhard, Leonie Siepmann, Hannes Reichle
Slovenia’s peaks were calling me, so I trained for emergencies. With gauze and tape, we learned the way to keep the worst of wounds at bay.
The slides were filled with blood and bone, yet Sean explained in steady tone. His lessons clear, his voice so sure, we practiced skills to help and cure.
The pot was full, I cooked too much, couscous spilling past the clutch. We laughed, we learned, the days flew by, prepared to help, should need arise.
Hannes
Sunday
Shuttleworth:
5am fire alarm??? Everyone sleepy, people confused, it takes a long time to turn off. Back to bed.
Morning. First aiders driven to course. Then faff, faff, faff, and miscommunication, and faff. Acting on some words I misunderstood I did not check whether Shuttleworth was booked, so immediately after the long walk from the car park to the entrance we found that someone was already down there. We descended the entrance pitch only to find that the other group was just about to exit, and they were pretty numerous by judging by the sounds. Because of the excessive faff it was by now too late to wait for them to get out, so we simply bailed on the trip and started the long and windy walk back to the bus. Another time, Shuttleworth!
To recoup some of the lost morale I convinced everyone that it was a great idea to use the remaining time we had to go to the cheese shop. There we found the Davey gang waiting for the pizzas that they now serve in the restaurant at the back. They use the funky cheese shop cheeses! What fun! We immediately decided to join and had a lovely meal before we had to rush off to pick up the first aiders. The drive to London went without incident despite nearly constant rain.
Jan
First Aid: Chris Hayes, Wojtek Sowinski, Salwa Ahmad, Magor Pocsvelier, Thurston Blount, Aurelia Eberhard, Leonie Siepmann, Hannes Reichle + Esther
Sunday began with a fire alarm at 5 a.m. that woke everyone up. Still bruised from Foul Pot the day before, I decided to sneak into the first-aid training. To my great surprise, I was allowed to stay for the whole day and was able to learn a great deal about accidents and first aid in caves and outdoor situations in general. Luckily, we were quick in cleaning the hut and loading the minibus. At around 6 p.m., a group of exhausted first-aiders and cavers left the NPC and arrived at Beit at midnight without any delays.
Esther
