Typical Thursday night caving with a drink in the miner's arms. Walking in Jon is showing surveys to Sam for the upcoming trip as we wait for Luke to join us, a rare occasion of recent but glad to see him back in for some proper peak district potholing. The conversation about last Saturday's trip with joe and rob deciding to test the patience of their life insurance policy with cussy's sump rendered our trip away from the efforts towards the master cave and into victory level. A mine that has previously been sumped so unexplored apart from an early dig in the 90s. Being the youngest I showed this through the slow enjoyment of my Peroni holding the group back from the commencement of the trip taking in the warmth of the miner's arms. Although I made up for this by gearing up in such a timely fashion that the boys hadn’t even thought about putting suits on when I appeared in full kit with ready to go. I paced from car to car spotting any major differences to find Sam in a colorful warm back wetsuit vividly unused ready for breaking in with perhaps stretching out as it was nearly a second skin. Luke kindly bestowed the drill box upon me and we made out to Cliffstile shaft a casual ten minute walk from our cars. The 80m of cliffstyle shaft contains decently spaced two re-belays whilst not realizing if my voice would carry, I shouted absurdly loud to the boys that the rope was free and carried down the second pitch. My new micro rack ensured good, controlled fall down the shaft. A fun but somewhat dubious descender on fast ropes allowing for a quick appreciation of the walls formed by the miners. Quite an endeavor on their part when taking into account the depth and age it was built evidencing the raw grit people from the miners.
Reaching the bottom of Cliffstile I maneuvered around the signature steel barrel into Morewood sough quickly joined by Luke who informs me of Sam getting stuck on the last rebelay on the previous trip into cliffstlye. Now with Jon down we start to wonder how Sam is getting on and with a quick check back into the shaft Sam has indeed gotten stuck. Once all down we continue our trip to victory level a muddy stream that threatens to take the wellies from your feet. Luckily, I found out once the passage stooped to a crawl that the drill box floats an added feature that meant I could guide it along with little consequence giving more stabilization. The suff then drops into a relatively deep section where the walls reflect the ripples of the water below. It is hard not to appreciate this and on a sporting trip I would. Although it is only through reflection that it now does strike me as a consequence of the pace we move as this is no sporting trip there are clear goals in mind. Only a bit further you reach a low passage is considered a duck although more like a dive when experienced. The boys are able bypass this section to the left through a little crawl but egg me on as usual to do the dive. Admittedly it does not take much talking or pushing to get me to do this or anything. Once Sam gets on the other side so I can see the light as the end through a slim hole not sumped at the top Jon is under the impression that I should do it as a “Proper Caver” and go through on my back and try to keep my face in the air gap. Because I am a “Proper Caver” I did as told and ended up foot in breathing only in water douching my system of that nonsense and backed out where I just ended up fully diving it removing the semantics. A very easy dive in comparison to my other experiences although always adding a bit of adrenaline to the trip. Once surfaced two timber supports, must be climbed over although rotting and any climbing acts like kicking clay. Jon and Luke split from myself and Sam to bolt climb an enticing aven whilst I am led a bit further down the victory level another 80m or so to the dig at the left of a t junction. Sam jumps in while I start asking numerous questions on how it drafts if it looks good and so on… In what seems to be an effort to shut me up he allows me to have a look and have the first pick at it. This works, to say the least and I squeezed into an angled crawl large enough to mobilize your crowbar and pick the mud away from the hole. The dig itself is a hole about the size of a medium melon enticing a vacant space behind it much bigger than our current space to say the least. After shoveling what must have had been five minutes my incredibly keen manner prematurely opted to push through. With my helmet off I pushed up into the squeeze to no avail and cleared some more space now able to squeeze my upper body through determined to succeed through a much smaller space than needed if just dug for longer. With my arms deployed on the other side, I hacked with the crowbar towards my legs to clear my pelvic region. My right knee was being convinced by the dig that it needed to bend in an inverted manner as if I was a flamingo. A final shove and I was through Sam suggesting that it would’ve been easier to take my harness off but I am lazy and whatever I got this far.
SamP in Victory Level, by JonP
Now on the other side I opened from the other side whilst containing the excitement from what lay beyond me. “Hellooo” Jon calls from behind Sam with an absence from Luke. Wondering where he is Jon then shines light stating that Luke had to leave In a dire emergency. He had to poop. Too bad as he was going to miss the success of our effort but when you got to go and so on. Next Sam attempts to push forcing his body through although needed to dig throughout the push manages to squeeze through now just for Jon. I must say it was hard not to just run off and explore but to wait in what seemed to be forever to open the dig in a more sizeable and accessible manner for future trips. Jon opting for a front crawl through enters the junction into a room about to 2m in height with a section to the left and an obvious passage straight on with the dig. Both about a meter across with plenty of room to move. Excitedly I go to explore straight on entering a t junction with an open passage to the left and right, the ground previously flooded with mud we opt to go right. To my wonder roots hang down from the ceiling stating that the surface is not as far as one would perceive from the entrance of the cliffstile shaft. The right narrows into the ceiling ending with a crawl that needs digging although John finds a perpendicular passage on the left wall rising above the mud into a chamber on the other side of the dig bypassing it completely. From there a chamber of about decent stature leads into a crawl with a definite draft needing to be dug on a future trip. The ceiling is covered in crustaceans with tree roots that have been crystalized into what seems like straws from age. Backing out I jump into a small tunnel that has been blasted by miners of old and crawl about 15m to the end where the right and left passages both end in digs with the left being covered in orange dust. On the ground, Jon spots life! A small centipede how nice.
Now going left from our initial right, we walk down a sizable chamber that leads up into a midlevel section of the mine. This route leads directly back in a round trip to our initial breakthrough dig. The ceiling has avens all throughout that are inaccessible through free climbing however with further exploring down the passage we find a room that allows access to the upper series of the mine but is intimidating to climb as there are old wood supports holding numerous boulders in suspension. Sam not opting to crawl underneath it to push the boulder off ascends the right side while I carefully crawled under. Jon moves out of the way, and I empty the kettle bottom and free climb up into the upper level. Once all up we find that the havens that needed bolt climbing are now below us having climbed far enough up the lowest passage of the mine upper series. A haven leads to a completely blind roof but where Sam is situated a hole drafts incredibly. I shout and do my best grouper grunt and hear spacious vibrations on the other side. It is exciting enough that I checked my Casio F-91 showing it's only 9:40 so plenty of time to continue. Sam opts to dig and tries not to undermine the boulders situated to the right. Once through we emerge into the biggest chamber yet with 30m scaling off now facing parallel with victory level heading back towards Morewood stuff. The only obstacle is a 3m drop onto boulders to reach it. Worrying about being able to climb back up we do it anyway because we are Eldon, and we do sketchy stuff like that. Once down we reach the end of the passage and go into a continuation to the right and realize in disbelief that we have found the bolt climb that Jon and Luke started the night on making a complete round trip from one side of victory level to the end. Turning around Sam states “Check that out” and a brilliant old wheelbarrow and shovel are stationed on a passage leading back. This is truly photogenic and can’t wait till the photos are taken with mine surveyed. All in all, it was time that we should be heading out and, making our way back to the initial dig breakthrough only prevention being the 3m drop we nonchalantly jumped down with hands-on asses Jon gets Sam up the climb then we form footholds out of the mud wall to help the accent. Back through the dig entrance under the sump/duck of victory level and out the brutal 80m pitch of cliffstile, it is fair to say we had an overly successful night settling our stomachs with some pepperoni pizza Doritos. I believe we walked and climbed 130m of new mine for cavers and will be great to see where it goes with Eyam keeping us hooked as usual. I never saw Luke after the dive I wonder where he performed his ablutions.
Dylan Kocher
Well deserved post-cave snacks