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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC) and Phil Baker (Masson Caving Group)

We arrived at the parking opposite Braida Garth in Kingsdale at lunchtime to find dry and settled weather. Phil had done Rowten years before but I'd never been in there so was particularly looking forward to this trip. We crossed the wall and headed uphill to find the very impressive Rowten entrance shaft. I rigged the first few drops to land on the rock bridge that spans the huge shaft. An easy traverse along a muddy ledge leads to another pitch head, a rebelay and then a short descent leads to a swing into a rift beneath the muddy ledge. Here a straight drop can be rigged from opposite walls of the rift allowing a spectacular descent to huge boulders jammed across the shaft. Impressive place this! One of the biggest open shafts in the country and it has a distinctly Jurassic Park feel about it. Phil took over the rigging here and a pitch head at the left hand end of the boulders leads to a tricky swing into a cross-rift. Here some easy traversing on good ledges leads to the final drop into the streamway at the bottom. We had a quick trip to have a look at the Rowten sumps before heading out up the rope. Despite not doing many big SRT trips recently, the journey out of Rowten didn't feel too bad. I suspect that's because the vertical sections are broken up by short sections of traversing which allow a bit of time to recover. The trip took three hours in total and we emerged to fine afternoon sunshine. We stayed the evening at the YSS hut, Helwith Bridge which provided excellent and reasonably priced accommodation.

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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Pete Pollard
Cavers: Pete Pollard (EPC), Nige Strong (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Dave Gledhill, Bill (RRCPC)

Me and Nige got a lift with Jase and we met up with Dave Gledhill at Inglesport. Over breakfast we had a quick chat with Bill who went through details of the trip. We entered Ireby Fell via a relatively new route called Bubbles, the reason for the name is interesting and very funny. Our aim for the day was to pass the sump at the end of Duke Street . When we arrived we found that ‘The Dingles’ had been hard at work building a large dam and installing a system of pipes and a brilliantly simple but effective pump. They had already been pumping for quite some time when we arrived and we got stuck in to give them a rest. There were about 13 of us all together and a great team effort paid off in getting the sump low enough to then pass a pipe to the far side and siphon off the dammed up water. The Eldon crew were amongst the first 10 ‘dry’ cavers ever to enter this new passage and we felt very privileged to have been given this opportunity. We were fairly restricted for time but did have chance to have a good mooch round the cave. Back at the Wheatsheaf we met up with some of the party we had entered with and had a bit of a chin wag. I know we all enjoyed it and would like to say a big thank you to Bill, Dave, The Dingles and all the others involved in making a thoroughly great days caving.

 
1. The team in Ireby Fell.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4112

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Chris Schofield (EPC).

Very enjoyable evening tourist trip down Oxlow to the bottom of Maskhill. Arrived at the parking around 7.15 pm to find that one team was already on their way down Oxlow and a Masson team were kitting up for Maskhill. We decided that since Oxlow wasn't too constricted we'd go in there after the other team. Short walk to the entrance and rigged the first and second pitches. Starting a big (100m) rope at the top of the third pitch gets you all the way down West Swirl Passage to the top of the pitch that leads into West Antechamber. Down the third pitch with some great ginging at the top and then the pitch with the deviation which lands on the col between East Chamber and West Swirl Passage. The deviation cord that's on this at the moment is much shorter than it need be so we added our own piece of cord to the in-situ stuff. At this point the other ropes disappeared off into the East Chamber so we had West Swirl Passage and the last two pitches to ourselves. Jase pointed out the wall that he and John Taylor had built years ago which keeps the passage below Pilgrim's Way from running into the slot that leads to West Chamber proper. We met the Masson team in Pearl Chamber and continued on to have a look at the sump and then set off out. We caught up with the other team on the last few pitches but were out by 10.30 pm leaving time for a drink in the Wanted Inn.

Really enjoyable trip! Good exercise and the start of training for the PSM in August!