Another cold, stormy Thursday night, perfect conditions for another trip underground to Oxlow Cavern. We met in the layby just before Winnats pass (if you’re coming from Manchester way) at 6:45. I (Josh) was the last one to arrive and found the rest of the group (Luke, Chris, Jon and Jim) in a van, huddled like a gaggle of nuns. Upon giving the usual greetings, I was immediately robbed of the £4 I had in my car to pay the farmer, and we set off to a closer layby to kit up.
Getting into my harness began well: I managed the foot straps on my own. However, the side loops were another matter. The rest of the team, already suited up, took turns trying to wrestle the loops into place around my central maillon, a scene that must have looked deeply questionable to the passing drivers. Eventually, we were successful.
Luke and Jon had already headed to the entrance to start rigging the pitches. The rest of us: Chris, Jim and I, followed, though not without first walking too far up the steep hill. We course-corrected and arrived at the top of the entrance shaft. Chris descended first, then it was my turn. Fortunately, before I could go anywhere, Jim noticed that my setup was completely wrong. I don't know why, but I know it was important. Off came the harness we’d spent so long adjusting, and after another painstaking five minutes, I was finally ready.
Pitch 1 (≈16m)
A brick shaft that transitions into blasted mine walls. Then a small drop while still roped in leads to a roomy passage with a high ceiling. You eventually find yourself down a smaller passage which ends in a sheer drop through a hole in the floor: this is the second pitch.
Pitch 2 (≈12m)
This is more exposed with no walls close to you. This went well, apart from my ongoing habit of incorrectly threading my descender, which continued throughout the whole descent. Thankfully, Jim was there to correct me.
From the bottom of the second pitch, you make your way down a small slope until you see the vast black space of East Chamber looming ahead. You come to a ledge halfway up the chamber with a waterfall running off it, and the third pitch is the way down.
Pitch 3 (≈14m)
Before jumping off the ledge, I got a small lesson on how to deal with a “deviation”, which is a separate piece of rope attached to the wall with a carabiner on the end. The main rope then goes through the carabiner, which pulls it away from the wall and stops it from rubbing on the edge of the ledge. I also got a quick lesson on how to lock off my descender, which was quickly in one ear and out the other. Hopefully, this will not be needed later on...
Off I went, just as the two pitches before, only this time, the thin rope, wet conditions, and my old, well-used descender made for perfect frictionless conditions. This meant that no matter how hard I pulled up on my braking crab, I was still slowly but surely going down. This normally would not be an issue except for the fact that I had to stop myself from moving when being sufficiently high to unclip the deviation from the rope under my descender, then reattach it over my descender. To make matters worse, I then found myself slipping down even quicker as the hand I used to pull the rope up through my braking crab was now being used to experiment with finding the way to lock off my descender.
Fortunately, I eventually was able to successfully wrap my rope around my descender to lock it and stop myself from moving. Unfortunately, I was past the point at which detaching the deviation was feasible, and I was then struggling to get the carabiner off the rope. I eventually gave up with my arms getting tired and stayed strung up like a pig in a butcher's shop, helpless.
In hindsight, I could have just put my ascending gear on the rope, but this did not occur to me at the time. Instead, I admitted defeat and called Jim to help. Jim, who had been similarly stuck on the rope in our last trip, was the recipient of a few unflattering remarks in my most recent cave report. Therefore, it would have been well within his rights to take a moment to gloat at the irony of the situation and give me a good dose of karma. Despite this, Jim was fully locked in, used another rope to come down and help me, and soon made light work of helping me out of the mess I had found myself in.
After that debacle, I eventually got to the bottom of the pitch, where you still stay roped in, turn away from East Chamber, and make your way down West Swirl Passage. The passage is an impressive calcite cascade at a steep incline with a stream running down it, a very high black ceiling above, and darkness ahead. This brings you to the fourth and final pitch.
Pitch 4 (≈20m)
Like the previous pitch, this is a ledge with a waterfall running off it. It was at this point that Chris shouted back that this pitch would be pretty difficult for me to get right due to the technicalities, and there was no easy way to have someone next to me to guide me. There was then a good few minutes where the others around me discussed how I could get down this pitch without it possibly going horribly wrong, as I sat in the stream completely in limbo. It was eventually decided that Chris would go on ahead and bring Jon back to help me out.
Jon made his way back up the pitch on a separate piece of rope, and I made my way down to the start of the pitch. What followed was a blur of clipping, unclipping and moving around ropes in ways I cannot begin to explain. Jon talked me through it step-by-step until, at last, I was free to descend.
West Chamber
We regrouped at the bottom and crawled into West Chamber, the highlight of the trip. West Chamber is an over 100m high, vast cavern that eventually links to Maskhill Mine. We paused to take in the scale of it, while Jon then pointed out Pilgrim's Passage, which is a hole in the wall around 5m off the ground. This passage is the start of the famous connection to Giants Hole, which goes through the infamous Chamber of Horrors, where, as Luke said in his own words, “I’m not going back in there; I nearly died”. Luke does not strike me as one to exaggerate, so it must be quite the experience.
We chatted briefly about Oxlow’s extensive mining history, dating to Roman times, and Jon recounted the story of an Eldon member who was accidentally left behind during a trip, only discovered missing when his wife asked where he was days later. The others then returned to find him sitting in the dark, singing hymns. Honestly, what else can you do?
The massive West Chamber, photo by Luke Cafferty
Journey out
It was then time to make it back up the pitches and out. To make an already long story slightly shorter, by the time I got to the final pitch up, I was completely shattered. I consider myself to be a fit, healthy and athletic man in my mid twenties, so can somebody please explain to me how these middle-aged men go up these pitches, totalling over 100m, like they’re taking the elevator. Meanwhile, I am absolutely dripping in sweat and can't feel my arms, stopping every minute to catch my breath. My ego was well and truly bruised by the end, as the last pitch alone took me about 20 minutes to get up.
Once out, I inhaled some well-earned Tangfastics and ran to the car. It was too late for the pub, and even late for my mandatory “all OK” text home. We then de-kitted and went our separate ways.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The setbacks made it feel “proper”, and the cave itself was genuinely breathtaking, both because of the level of fitness required and the sights. Huge thanks to the lads for their patience with my questionable brain-to-harness coordination, and particularly to Jim for rescuing me without a single sarcastic comment (again: well within his rights).
Already looking forward to the next one, once my arms recover.