Intake Dale Mine
Discussions following on from the Bradwell Catchment Symposium and after reading reports from the 80's of natural rift and chambers, EPC members have re-descended Intake Dale Mine and embarked on exploring it further.
Blogs:
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- Written by: Dylan Kocher
- Hits: 1087
Intake dale mine
Dylan Kocher, John Pemberton, Sam Pemberton, Luke Caffrey
Intake dale mine is something I have only seen from the surface. It's quite a sight and has one of the best lids for any cave/mine in the region. Masterfully fabricated by Portobello Engineering it could be mistaken for a door ripped off the end of a tank. Behind its heavy doors lies a 70m engine shaft where all regions of the mine can be accessed John's mission is to cap a boulder above hobgoblins' way and possibly push a connection up into Brexit rift connected the midlevel mine to the natural bellow. With all other members of our crew feeling the effects of winter in full swing opted to take a weekend away from the usual projects and have some fun showing Intake Dale to the rest of us whom have never had the pleasure. A proposed exchange trip(the first in intake dale) with Rob and John dropping the Engine shaft whiles Luke Sam and myself enter through the higher opencut entrance. Luke leading the pleasant journey down the two pitches both needing care to be taken as Intake is somewhat fragile to put it delicately. Once off the rope we reach a junction at a drafty vein. The way down leads to mineworking’s with a much worthwhile chamber past Brexit rift. This is our first stop. Free climbing down we reach the scaffold choke dubbed Brexit rift. The route on is completely hidden blending in with the boulders and odd scaffold. A tight crawl where a haste is rewarded with threaded steel smashed in your shoulder. On the other side a small natural chamber that slopes to the lower level. Once we are though we all pause to listen for John and Rob. Luke and Sam start to hear movement resembling high heels on the cobbles Jon and rob must be getting adventurous beneath us.
Cut to John and Rob. They removed the boulder easily and got through into a small, natural boulder choke but all ways on are closed. It doesn't lok goes and without hearing the others they decide to take some photos and head up.
Once finshed the tour of the Eastern Intake mine the fun scramble up to Blackjack Choke ensues. Series of free climbs from the top of the entrance of Brexit rift lands you into a small chamber with a scaffolded hole. Completely stable bomb-proofed route through the boulder choke. This is all a lie don’t touch anything! The consensus portrayed by the team, however in reality its not the best nor the worst so exercise caution. Continuing forward reaching the engine shaft Rob and Jon succeed in a tight passing at the exchange. Up and out we go. A reasonable accent of fifty or so meters leading to the bosom of a great lid and of course a happy Rob and Luke smiling away. Rob and JOhn pass us and head out the other way, compleing not only the first ever through trip but also the first ever exchange!
Congratulations to Luke and Rhianna! Introducing us to the newest addition to Team Awesome Waverly Cafferty.
-Dylan Kocher
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- Written by: Joe Buck
- Hits: 1166
Present: Jon P, Jim T, Chris H, Rob E and Joe B
We started the evening in the Anchor to receive congratulations and prizes for the Peak District Cave Exploration Prize to which the DCA and Derbyshire Geotechnical kindly donated. It was decided we ought to have a photo of the occasion which took around half an hour of snapping away before anyone was convinced we’d got a decent picture of us misfits (we hadn't).
The plan was to head to IDM where Jon, Jim and Chris would make their way to the Tap Room to take some photos, while Rob and I would keep heading further to check outs some potential leads in the roof beyond Don’t Flatten Me. Katie had taken a trip into this part of the mine earlier on in the week and there were apparently reports of the ginging around the pitch down out of the Tap Room disintegrating with a loud rumble. We wouldn’t be getting far if that had decided to fail catastrophically, so we were going to make an assessment of that first.
Rob and I trotted down the dale ahead of the others naively assuming we’d have great success, (we needed all the time we could grab) and flipped the lid on the engine shaft. Rob did some dodgy knots and we dropped down to the rebelay. I had been into this part of the mine before, but had somehow forgotten all of it and couldn’t remember what was supposed to be a pitch and what was easy to use as a handline. This led to me down climbing the last pitch and flopping out in the Tap Room where I joined Rob. He was staring down the aforementioned suspect pitch, with the general assessment being it was definitely missing a few key blocks and was terrifyingly overhanging - one nudge and the whole lot could come down… Undeterred, we blindly carried on towards our objective.
We crawled through into Don’t Flatten Me, which contains the most incredible physics-defying cantilever block seemingly held up by nothing. The first aven was a few metres beyond this, above a section of natural off to one side where it looked as though a passage may be heading off in a bedding above. Rob shimmied up the rift to investigate, but unfortunately it did not amount to anything and appeared to just be a cavity only intersected by the miners.
We continued along to the current extent of the rift where exploration ended. Rob had previously been along the cartgate under where we stood and had found it fallen it at the end. We considered the possibility of climbing over the blockage and continuing along the rift at a higher level. I went first this time and awkwardly shuffled my way upwards to get a better view of the way on. Ahead, in the direction we wanted to go, the rift widened and the floor dropped away to around a 4m drop. It looked featureless and terrifying. Rob became impatient with my floundering and started to climb up behind me. He climbed in to a narrower section above, deciding it would be easier up there and, whilst showering me with loose rocks, bridged over the drop. In a fairly hair raising move where I envisaged him falling on my head and taking me with him, he made it into the gap at the far side, but this unfortunately did not continue above the blockage.
Our disappointment was tempered only by the realisation we’d actually make it back to the pub in time for last orders. So, with that in mind, Rob pulled the disto out, we surveyed our way back to the last survey station near Don’t Flatten Me and quickly made our way out. We joined the others in the engine shaft, where we found Jon and getting cosy by both dangling on separate ropes and climbing together. This proved to be a great decision as we were out in double quick time to make the Anchor.
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- Written by: Ben Marks
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Present: Rob Eavis, Rob Middleton, Jon Pemberton, Ben Marks, Helen Fairclough
This week’s Thursday night outing saw us head to Intake Dale Mine. After a few miles of careful driving on icy roads, I finally made it to the layby on the hillside at about 1845, where I met up with the others in the freezing cold. A quick and chilly walk down to the engine shaft was had – and to our surprise a rope was already rigged in the shaft – oh well, that meant we could have two ropes to speed things up a bit! Rob Eavis tied a poorly dressed figure-8 onto the belay bar, and was soon met by criticism from Jon over the lack of a backup anchor! Ironic considering how vehement he was on ditching his SRT kit as soon as he could and freeclimbing/ hand line traversing along some of the sketchiest mined passage I have been in…
A quick descent was had by all to a landing around 25m down from the shaft lid. The most dangerous part of this was the ice around the lid - It was slippery when trying to get in. We then made our way down a few pitches and into the ‘Taproom’, and on to the horrible ‘Taproom Traverse’. This is a fairly constricted traverse with no ledges, requiring a good deal of upper body strength to pass it and not end up falling down and getting wedged in the tighter part of the passage. To get onto the traverse in the first place, you must pass through a precarious funnel of stacked deads to make things even worse! After this traverse, yet more traverse lines over dark voids and false floors are ‘enjoyed’ before the next few pitches. We finally arrived in ‘Isolation’, a brown chamber with not much to write home about. The next few chambers were similar, however one had an excellently scary looking slab the size of family car which had departed from the roof and was wedged up by one small boulder. Rob Eavis and I thought it would be a great idea to pose for some photographs underneath this slab, and it occurred to me that the longer Jon took fiddling with his camera and flashes, the higher our chances of being squashed were! After some morbid conversation between myself and Rob over who would get splattered first, Jon finally gave up with his photographs – the weather conditions were a bit misty inside his camera lens apparently!!!
Ben Marks in Don't Flatten Me, by RobE
We had a look in the current terminal chamber of this side of the mine, and then swiftly headed out along the numerous traverse lines and pitches back to the dreaded ‘Taproom Traverse’. The two Rob’s and Helen headed out first, and then myself and Jon followed a little distance behind. As I came to prussik up from the end of the traverse through the funnel of stacked deads, the rocks suddenly began to plummet downwards with the most impressive sound! Shocked and a little taken back by the collapse that occurred just inches from me, I nervously asked Jon what I should do… At this instance, another hefty portion of the stack gave way and tumbled into the darkness below. His response of “If I was you, I’d get moving fast” couldn’t have been any better timed!
Panicking slightly and perplexed at Jon’s relative calmness, I prussiked up and out of the ‘Tap Room’ quickly and made my way back into the engine shaft. Jon and I chose a rope each, and began climbing out simultaneously – a little bit of suspended maypole dancing was required to sort out some of the tangles however! We were both soon back on the freezing hillside, and a brisk jog back to the van was had. We enjoyed a beer each accompanied with some sweets, and chatted long into the night about everything from digs, university, jobs and of course the inner politics of the TSG! All in all, a great trip was had despite some terrifying moments. I can’t say I’ll be rushing back to Intake Dale Mine, but it’s certainly a good trip to have ticked off – I was very glad to have made it out…
Ben Marks
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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We sat in the pub waiting for Luke enjoying our favoured pre-beer of choice. I'd bought some Chilli-twizzler's for post cave celebration, an idea concocted from last week's trip. After a few minutes of waiting with beer slowly depleting I asked Rob if he was sure Luke was joining us tonight? He was positive he'd be on his way but I thought I'd give him a tinkle just in case. He blasély shrugged us off saying he'd told us he wasn't coming tonight as he felt a little weak (problem with novices I guess?) So after a heated cussing we shook it off and headed to IDM for another AWESOME TAP trip.
It took us no time at all to reach Rate Angle where tonight's escapade would kick off. None of that fool hardy traversing above humongous gaps miles aways from your nearest point of protection for tonight we were to take some rope and a drill. We pushed west beyond Rate Angle where Rob descended down into the rift. He quickly dubbed the next traverse as easy and said it wasn't worth the rope - Brilliant!
He rigged a short rope anyway 10m across a 30m pitch head cum rift, from here a climb onto a chocked bridge covered in miner's tailings led to a further traverse with a prominent ledge. Deep below us we could just make out the rope on the climb above Isolation. At the end Rob climbed some 3m above the ledge to a slight continuation where he traversed to find a solid wall - shoot!
Rob then continued the climb some 8m above to a further traverse which again met a solid wall - Bugger! It looks like the vein just ran out here and progression west beyond our terminal point just beyond Stop Flattening Me would have to be pushed from a further westerly point.
Nothing else to inspect here from our point of view (heading west) we decided to de-rig, agreeing that "We'd completed it bro" from where Rob made a valiant effort after derigging, bridging back down the Rate Angle pitch and back to TAP Traverse trying not to die. He noted that he only once had a little free-fall...
We made our way to the surface with ease with nobody to hold us up (yes Luke that's you!) and was met with a clear moonlit dale which casted our shadows perfectly and with plenty of time spare we made post cave pub for once and enjoyed another pint with the Snelslow lot who turned out had rather a lack of communication for their failing digging this eve.
Next trip will be the climb above the end to hopefully progress west beyond our furthest point. Otherwise it's finish survey and start the big derig.
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- Written by: Joe Buck
- Hits: 1649
Joe Buck, Rob Eavis, Jon Pemberton
Having attended an Eldon trip to Yorkshire the previous weekend, I had obviously been a little too vocal about how much fun I had had. In an attempt to restore the balance of the caving universe, I now found myself in a gloomy lay-by with Rob and Jon promising me a truly miserable thrutching experience. We got changed quickly, carefully dodging an abandoned pair of pants on the floor in the lay-by (presumably from some other poor sucker who had been roped in to joining TA) and romped across the field to the engine shaft.
The intention for the evening was to continue exploration beyond Rate Angle and into the natural looking section of passage heading east. Having traversed over the top of the Rate Angle pitch, I followed Rob (at ones peril, I’m beginning to learn) as he began to squeeze up into a tight rift. After an extended period of thrutching and sweating onto the inside of my glasses, Jon announced that this was definitely the wrong way and proceeded to waltz round the staircase the other side… Starting to realise their promises were not made in jest, we soldiered on regardless to reach the previous far point just beyond the natural section. This high level section of the mine was first entered last trip and has been named Upinruf. I carried on exploring ahead whilst Jon and Rob surveyed the previous section. Faced with a relatively large rift and with the floor dropping away to what looked like a small hole into workings below, I elected to bridge across at a higher level. This off width section was very difficult to wedge yourself in and was coated in a slick mud that made any sort of reassuring traction somewhat hard to come by. Various techniques were deployed to try and cross this, some of which resembled a Dutch canal pole vault, or is it Danish…? “We’ll stick with Dutch Traverse”.
JonP attempting the Dutch Traverse
We pressed further on as the passage began to widen and a number of large shot-holes lined the walls, coming from the other direction. This, and a collection of bones on the floor, indicated a possible shaft somewhere near. It appeared a few metres further on, but was blocked with timber near the base and looked unlikely to relent. Looking for potential leads on, we climbed up to the bedding at the ceiling to what appeared to be a small gap. Sure enough, this dog legged in to a parallel rift 4 metres high and around 15m long, confusingly named 8 Angle. Whilst this was being surveyed, I was persuaded to have a look in the hole beneath Dutch Traverse and see if I could see anything enticing. Slipping down into the rift was effortless as it belled out towards the bottom. Once I’d confirmed there was nothing to be seen down there (as I write this, I’m beginning to suspect they knew that all along), I attempted to climb back up to the traverse and head back. Unfortunately the slimy coating on the walls meant it took all of around 10 minutes to climb around 3m - all the while I can hear the others chirping away whilst surveying 8 Angle.
JonP climbing up into 8 Angle
We headed back towards Rate Angle, stopping to inspect an awkward rift heading back west which involved some gymnastic moves above a pretty unenticing drop. This closed down and became very tight and with no appreciable draft. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valour, we headed back, surveying as we went.
We made it back to the engine shaft in good time and with body and mind slightly worse for wear. Body broken, mind in the gutter, and spurred on only by the thought of one of Jon’s beers in the back of his van. As I began to ascend the shaft, Jon attempted to bargain my foot jammer for one of the three beers - I called his bluff and carried on regardless. We trudged back to the lay-by, stripped off our wet and muddy gear and threw our pants on the floor in disgust, Hobgoblin in hand. “Normal people probably think this is a pretty strange way to spend a Thursday night” - hard to argue with that…
Joe after completing his TA application