Just Joe and I this evening and after scrapping around for ideas, eventually, we decided to venture down Intake Dale Mine. There was one last remaining lead I wanted to check out, tucked deep away at the bottom of the Engine Shaft. After agreeing a 90m rope would suffice and not knowing what bolts and hangers would still be on the pitch, we marched over to the entrance, armed with racks for a smooth descent.
Joe rigged and decided to lower the rope down, this seemed like a smart idea until realising it was the wrong side of him and managed to snag it on his helmet whilst passing it over! (FYI; 90m rope = heavy!) I told him roughly where the bolts/hangers should be and off he went. Turns out we had stripped the shaft when we left and only left a small rope up the slope to the start of the TAP series. I said there could be a couple more bolts opposite the level from the choke but on inspection these looked nasty and probably shouldn’t be used (or removed). So, 70m abseil it was! – Communication down this shaft is a nightmare. It sounds like people are talking through a tin can filled with paper. Once I could see he was clear of the bottom I made my way down.
We de-kitted and made our way towards my enticing lead. I remember it being a climb at the end of the level, with a cross-rift at the top and a football sized boulder blocking the way into it. Once I had confirmed we were in the right place, I sent Joe up through the final squeeze and passed him through the capping gear. It was crazy drippy so I kept my distance in anticipation of a quick breakthrough. Joe started to laugh… I asked him how it looked and he shouted back “SHIT!” He’d managed to remove a boulder from the roof which left a complete solid choke above. (Not a TA sort of dig). He popped out from the final chamber whilst I popped in. It’s a tight little hip grabbing squeeze through some nasty loose boulders to a further ruckle of debris with the saving grave being a sofa sized boulder above your head. Indeed the way on looked SHIT! I moved a couple of smaller boulders to see a tiny void above but nothing worth digging.
I apologised to Joe and we started to make a hastily retreat. The prusik out wasn’t to bad and were soon both back on surface. I made great effort crawling through the grass in order to alleviate my oversuit and SRT of mud which worked surprisingly well. We headed to the Stags at Wardlow for post cave refreshments – which didn’t disappoint.
New saying unlocked – “Caves are not how you remember them…”