22/04/21
Survey team: Rob and Jeff.
Photo team: Luke, Jon, Dave and Joe.
After our hard-fought connection last week we had decided to celebrate this week with the first through trip, in Cussey and out of the Sough tail. The plan was that Rob and Jeff would go ahead and first survey Black Draught then through the connection and tie it in with a survey up the Wet West and what we think is the other end of Black Draught. The rest of us would have a steady bimble down and take photos.
After meeting in Stoney and having a good catch up over some pre-beers we all piled into my van and I drove up to Cussey, saved us having to walk up to Eyam. Rob and Jeff set off to do their thing and the photo team slowly made our way in. First photo stop was the Shattered Dreams squeeze, after Jon had finished telling me I was doing it wrong we finally got a photo that looked okay.
Luke in the Shattered Dreams squeeze, by JonP
Next, we moved on to the second pitch. After a lot of faffing around, flash guns not working and none of us really having a clue how to do photography we decided to move on. The big photo we wanted for the night was Inglorious. Joe and Dave had gone down to the bottom of the chamber with a flash gun as I set off down the pitch, Jon tried his best to get a good shot, but the pitch head is horrendous, and he really struggled to get a good shot. So, we changed the plan and he tried to get a good shot from the bottom looking up. Kind of worked!
Looking up Inglorious Bastards, by JonP
Now the next part of this story is where it all changed. Going through the connection crawl is at best a very shit crawl. The plan was that Dave, Joe and Jon would go through and I would come through last for Jon to get photos. Lucky for me I messed this up and Jon ended up behind me. Having been through the squeeze last week I really did not think I would have any issues, so I confidently said to Jon I’d go through let him past and return though the squeeze and repeat to get the photos. Oh, how I was about to royally fuck this up. The mud in Loper Lust is like mud I have never seen before it is just so sticky. In my brand-new PVC suit, which I had been bragging about only 30 minutes ago, it was making it very difficult to even move in the mud. As I got to the pinch point, I got very stuck. I would lift up my weight to move forward and not move an inch. I then got my elbow very stuck and could not even move back. I’ll admit I was starting to panic a bit now. Obviously, Jon behind me was not taking the piss or laughing. I dumped my helmet thinking this would give me a bit more wiggle room, it did not. I had managed to free myself and moved backwards. I shouted to Joe up ahead that he would have to come back and drag my ass out of there. He set off back along the flat-out crawl to come and save me but halfway along the crawl he decided I wasn’t worth saving and he was getting too hot so he turned around and left Jon and I to fend for ourselves. Cue Dave coming through to save the day. He passed Joe and got to the other end of the squeeze. After a shit joke about he would be able to offer me moral support but couldn't help due to social distance he lent me his hand and with Jon pushing my feet and Dave pulling me I finally got through. Cheer’s boys. Now Jon made it look easy and he quickly got through the squeeze. He did ask if I would go back through so he could take the photo I very quickly told him to fuck off.
As I sheepishly climbed down the bendy ladder, I was glad that my friends were there to give me support or take the piss as it turned out. We were all through though and now it was just the long slog down the Sough to freedom.
From the bottom of the ladder in the sough it took us 15 minutes to reach the base of Cliffstile and a further 15 minutes to reach the Rock Cottage entrance and then a long slog of 25 minutes to be finally greeted with a stary night at the sough tail.
All in all, a great trip. The first through trip and probably will not be repeated many times. We now have to come up with some sort of plan as a team on the way forward.