Team: Chris H, Luke C, Rob E
After reading some recent reports online I’ve assumed that some golfer-type has upped their game and started potting walling stone down Whalf Climbing shaft. I never understood golf.
A blockage near the top was cleared the next day by Gaz but the base of the shaft was proper blocked. Digging this open from above was not a realistic option cos you’d likely get squashed by some of the rocks that get hauled out, so it'd have to be poked at from below. Enter Team Awesome.
Me n Chris had never been down Whalf so were keen to go for a trip and Luke's only been a caving a few months so it'd be good practice for him. Rather than taking the direct route down the Engine shaft we opted for the scenic route via Hillocks.
I asked my Katie for some quick directions and off we went, post pre-beers and surprisingly unweird Mexican pork scratching, with and joined by Colin the collapsible ladder! Indeed it turns out to get to the bottom of the entrance shaft, where the collapse is, you need to climb up the second pitch of the climber series which is probs not rigged. At ~8m this was a perfect opportunity to finally put Colin to some underground use. Unfortunately however Colin couldn’t step up to challenge and refused to fit through the tight bit at the bottom of the first pitch in Hillocks. Maybe we should have used the Engine shaft entrance after all, but I figured we’d continue on for glory anyway.
End of the road for Colin
After freeclimbing down the second pitch (which we only realised we’d done once at the bottom!) we then literally followed our noses to the base of Whalf Engine. Something dead here lies, but we couldn’t find it. I was glad to be wielding my big crowbar, just in cases.
Following my poor memory of Katie’s directions we somehow went straight to the bottom of the climber. I took a quick look up the bottom pitch and figured it was probably an ok freeclimb. Tied the end of a rope to me and scrambled up it. To be fair it wasn’t that bad, although the top bit was a little sketchy as it opened up to the next level up. I rigged the rope and the other came up to join me.
Chris went first for a look at the blockage and he seemed pretty confident it wasn’t a big job. I dived in and started pulling out rocks, chucking them back to Chris without smashing his fingers, he passed them to Luke without smashing his, and down the pitch they went (we pulled up the rope first!).
View of the blockage from below, defs blocked
The rubble was mostly walling stones, but a single large branch had snuck in there also. Maybe it was the flag? Once that was mostly all pulled out, with only one bit colliding with my face, I slipped through into the black space beyond and started passing rocks back to Chris. This is easy cave digging, unusually satisfying. We eventually got all of us up for a quick celebration and then started heading back, high on the fact we’ve done something totally selfless for a change (still glory grabbing, obvs). A quick pull through later and we were heading back through the scenic landscape of Whalf and up the pitches.
What a cool passage
Colin was still waiting for us at the first pitch and he came out with us happy in the knowledge that his fat arse will continue to sit in my shed for another year without being used. The surface was still and beautiful, with the last of the light setting over the limestone plateau around us, we skipped back to the cars and straight to the Bull Shead to ponder over our newly found purpose of doing some good in this world.