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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Pete Pollard (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC)

The Dales had been dry during the previous week and the forecast for the day was promising with rain supposedly arriving in the evening. Three of us drove up to the Dales early on Saturday morning and met at 10:00 a.m. in the Inglesport cafe for a caver's breakfast. There was light rain floating around and lots of low cloud. It didn't look as though anything drastic was going to happen but the weather didn't look as promising as I'd hoped. Radio 4 had chosen this particular Saturday morning to broadcast an interview with Les Hewitt (he of the Sleets Gill rescue), which struck me as particularly insensitive given that we planned to be in the main drain later that day and it was raining. We drove to the parking at Braida Garth and squeezed in amongst the minibuses offloading their cargo into Valley Entrance. The rope and hardware got packed into three bags and we walked over to Braida Garth to ask permission. On the way we stuck our heads into the old NCC hut which is more-or-less derelict now. The old hut book is still there and Jase found an entry that he had written years ago as well as entries by John Taylor and Tony Revell. A short walk up the hill, found the entrance to King Pot and set off down the entrance climb. This leads to a small chamber with a P-bolt and Pete rigged a handline down the Rope Pitch. This led to the top of the First (Perfect) Pitch - a nice hang from double P-bolts in a pleasant circular shaft. From the bottom of this pitch a bit of a scramble leads to an easy traverse (with in-situ rope) and then a short, tight, blasted crawl. This emerges in a chamber and the top of the second pitch is at the far end. From here the rigging is all on Spits and the second pitch has a double-bolt rebelay on a small ledge. A bit of scrambling and crawling leads to a strenuous crawl-traverse. This is very awkward with a largish bag but fortunately doesn't last for very long. By this time we were down to two bags of rope, hardware and SRT kits which were a bit too fat for this kind of thrutching. Three smaller bags would have been better here. After that we dropped into Queensway and made our way downstream to eventually arrive at Emma's Pitch. This is a nice pitch down a rift and leads to a narrow winding passage (Festina Lente). At the end of this is a good-sized boulder choke. A devious route through this leads to King Henry Hall which is a very impressive chamber. Bloodaxe Pitch is at the far end of the hall and drops into another large chamber. Victoria Pitch follows quickly on and we set off crawling down towards Elizabeth Pitch. This is a tremendous pitch with a big limestone bar to protect the rigger who balances on top of a narrow rock spike just out from the pitch head whilst trying not to drop bolts and hangers. The pitch itself is a bit wet (especially near the bottom) and soon leads on to Jane's Pitch which isn't really much of a pitch. It's a short wall of rock that you climb up over and down the other side. Once past this the crawling starts and we headed downstream past some largish inlets. Soon we arrived at the impressive main drain and headed downstream to the final sump. Because of the weather we opted not to find the Grasshopper series so that will have to wait for another trip when the weather is a bit more settled. After a quick change of batteries we set off back out. De-rigging went without any problems and we exited the cave after eight hours underground.

We followed the description in Mike Cooper's book 'Not for the Faint Hearted' and found it to be excellent. King Pot is a brilliant trip which reminded me of Pen y Ghent Pot except King Pot has more caving between the pitches.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Pete Pollard (EPC), Dan Hibberts (EPC), Nige Strong (EPC), Jules Barrett (EPC), Chris Schofield (EPC)

I'd been halfway down Hungerhill Swallet's 40m Deep Space pitch before and turned around when I couldn't find anything to rebelay the rope to. I'd heard that there was a Spit somewhere but couldn't find any evidence of it (or any decent rock in which it might be placed). This was frustrating but when Pete said Dan was keen to get back in there I assumed that Dan had some clever way of rigging the pitch that I'd missed. Anyway, Dan, Pete and Nige went in around 7:30 p.m. under the impression that me and Chris were going down Streaks Pot and would meet them in the Miner's afterwards. In fact me and Chris had a last-minute change of plan and followed them down Hungerhill Swallet (although they didn't know that). We didn't have a description or any information about the route from the bottom of Deep Space but we'd work it out as best we could. We did have to be careful that we didn't go one way whilst they came out of the other and pulled the rope up leaving us stranded at the bottom of Deep Space. Anyway, we climbed down the entrance shaft and into the muddy crawl at the bottom. Through the squeeze and into the short section of streamway that leads to the top of Deep Space. A big (11mm) rope was tied to the one big thread and hung over the lip of the shaft in a textbook example of Indestructible Rope Technique; absolutely no mincing around with rebelays or deviations. Chris abseiled down first and I followed him trying to position the rope on the smoothest bit of limestone as I went over the edge. Deep Space is a tremendous pitch and there are a number of ledges as you go down. The walls are a very black limestone and a thick layer of calcite covers them where the water runs down. There's a lot of black mud on the walls and a fair bit of this heads south every time someone abseils. Once at the bottom we had a look at the small sump and then a climb up into the rift that leads to Elbon's Kram. Didn't climb far enough to see if Elbon's Kram is still open. Then climbed up into the Bag of Worms and had a poke around in the nice chambers up there before returning back to the bottom of the rope. Once on the rope we both prussiked very carefully back up then organised a bit of rope protection with a tackle bag for the other three. Just as we got that sorted we heard Nige's voice at the bottom of Deep Space and before long we were all on our way out of the cave.

Hungerhill Swallet is a memorable cave and it's great to do a 40m pitch so near to Stoney Middleton Dale. There is a big problem with rigging it for SRT, namely, that you can't avoid the massive rub point as the rope goes over the lip and it also rubs at various places down the shaft. Some of the rock in there is as poor as I've seen in a Derbyshire cave and that's almost certainly why Deep Space hasn't been properly bolted for SRT.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Simon Mee (TSG)

I think Ian Barker got it right when he described Winnats Head Cave as "...one of the greatest Derbyshire trips..." It's a magnificent cave with impressive chambers and rewards for those who get beyond the vertical squeezes in the second boulder choke. I'd been to the Wigwam Aven area at the top of the 'up' pitches quite a few times and always fancied having a look at the downstream pitches. The only thing I knew about them were that they're supposed to be like a Yorkshire Pot and the rigging was off Spits. Me and Simon had a midweek day off and since Simon hadn't been in Winnats Head before we went for that.

We met at the TSG hut at midday and sorted some rope and hardware. Drove up to park at Winnats Head Farm, asked permission and walked to the entrance in the little quarry. Suffered the crawl to the first small chamber and then continued to arrive in the Main Chamber. Dropped down into the first choke and threaded our way carefully through that. There are some huge boulders in here which don't seem to have a lot supporting them. Carefully made our way down to Cornwall Avenue and into the very impressive Pox Chamber. Dropped down into the second choke and down the first vertical squeeze with the in-situ handline. I dropped down through the second vertical squeeze and took the bags off Simon. Simon had a couple of goes at the squeeze but his chest wasn't having it and he kindly waited there whilst I continued on. I took one of the bags which had my SRT kit, first and second pitch ropes and some hardware. I'd use this trip as a chance to have a look at the state of the first and second pitch bolts and the last pitch could wait till another time. From the bottom chamber with the big sump pool I made my way through The Sewer on my back and put my SRT kit on at the bottom of the first 'up' pitch. Prussiked up the fixed ropes and crawled along to the top of the downstream pitches. Here the waterfall comes in from the 'up' pitches above and descends over the lip of the first pitch. Rigged the very easy traverse into the top of the first pitch and descended down past a deviation to land on a sloping floored chamber. Even though Derbyshire is very dry at the moment there was still quite a bit of water coming down out of the roof here. At the end of this chamber is the top of the second pitch so rigged this off a couple of Spits, then a rebelay to land in a wet passage with very dark limestone. My bolts had screwed into all these Spits fine. By this time I'd run out of rope and was very aware that Simon would be getting cold so after a quick look over the edge of the final pitch I got straight back on the rope and started back up; de-rigging as I went. Back down the rigged pitch, through The Sewer and back to meet Simon who kindly didn't complain at all about his hour spent sitting here on his own. The trip out was uneventful and we exited to clear skies and air starting to feel chilly towards the end of the day.