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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 05 October 2025

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Friday 3rd October 2025 - A trip I will remember for a long time.

The main precursor for this trip was last Sunday when I bumped into Simon Cundy who mentioned that a few weeks after Jon and Joe went to Lower Cales Dale Cave (and found the sump still high) he was walking past and noticed the draught at the entrance unusually high, suggesting that the sump had dropped further and may have become open. Whilst this was very exciting it had rained quite a lot since then, especially during last week whilst I was in Albania, so probably conditions have changed. However later that day I visited Lumb Hole and Cressbrook Dale and they were exceedingly dry still, suggesting that water tables were still very low. I was keen to check out LCDC but I then had to work away for a week, during which I kept thinking about it. 

I eventually got home and my planned work for the Friday was cancelled and without much hesitation I went to check LCDC out. Driving there through rain and with “Storm Amy” about to arrive that afternoon I was not hopeful, nor at ease! I parked at the head of the dale, donned a wetsuit and started jogging down Lathkill Dale in the rain. I knew my callout time could (hopefully) be quite tight and i wanted to create some videos of the journey, so I was automatically in a bit of a rush. I arrived at the entrance and my excitement started to race as I felt the wind draughting in my face! However I knew that even when the sump is up the Dog House draughts into the second chamber quite well so wasn’t counting my chickens just yet. However once I got past there and below Figure 8 chamber and still with the draught I was very confident it was going to be at least slightly open. 

I’d never been past Figure 8 Chamber before but the stories I’d heard of the sump area were vivid like I’d been here before, so when I get to the junction into Armoured Mudball Chamber and saw there was no water at all my excitement went through the roof! For 22 years of my caving life I’d wanted to be in this exact position and here I now am. 

The way on is mostly dry apart from a few deep puddles here and there, and the deep mud cracks remind me that I’m in a sump. After 50m I pass an aven with quite a trickle of water coming down which instantly puts me a little on edge as I’ve no idea how quickly this place reacts. Does that aven always flow? How long would it take to fill the sump? I try put those thoughts to the back of my mind and push on. Another 50m on gets me to the first aven. This is probably 10m tall and gave me a weird bit of comfort knowing that if the sump does fill behind me then at least I can sit here for a few days before I die of hypothermia.

Beyond a low gravel crawl had to be dug open which took 5 or so minutes. I think this is called the “Sand Blaster” and according to John Beck’s old notes it also needed to be dug in 1976 and 1990, the only other two years that I’m aware this cave has opened. After this it’s easy hands and knees crawling for ~200m through Friday 13th Passage until a large T-junction is reached and shortly after the choke up into Twilight Zone. I climbed up the choke very waringly and for good reason as from above it looks awful, big boulders perched everywhere. This put me into a tall, drippy chamber with what looked like a few ways off at the top, but I carried on the obvious and draughty route back down the other side of the choke towards the Thursday 13th Passage, the breakthrough point from 1990. 

As I slide feet first down this boulder choke and into the bedding passage below I feel I sharp spike in my right leg. Kinda committed to the descent I push on through and eventually get my head down low enough to see the splintered end of a rotting sledgehammer sticking through my wetsuit leg. Thankfully it hadn’t pierced my skin. Funny I had totally anticipated the danger of natural objects (big heavy rocks) and not from man’s crafts. 

Thursday 13th Passage is much of the same, lots of hands and knees crawling intercepted by tall cross rifts. A small section that’s stooping height helps the mind and body. After 100m I reached the turnoff towards Dawkes Crawl in Lathkill Head Cave. Amazingly this was taking a draught, meaning that the passage beyond here draughted even more. It also suggests that the main source of the draught is not LHC, making the digs further on more exciting. Also this inlet looked very clean washed, whereas the passage upstream is quite muddy, suggesting that Dawkes is maybe the main active feeder for LCDC?

Another 100m and probably another 8 cross rifts laid ahead. One of the rifts has a boulder pile that the way on is squeezing through the blocks in the floor. Again a little scary given my remote situation, but all fine. Next was the Datbob choke, which I tried to pass in a similar low level route, but it got too tight. Eventually I squirmed up into the chamber above and found an easy route back down the other side into the continuing passage. 

Rob Eavis in The Cales Dale Stroll

From here the cave finally gets going as I start The Cales Dale Stroll. For basically the first time in the whole cave (valley) you are rewarded with the ability to walk along a passage. It feels detrimental to akin this to Carlswark as this location this is so much more rewarding. I soon passed the low and uninviting Fallopian Tube to the right and then reached the terminal choke. This is indeed terminal looking, such that it doesn’t even look like anyone has bothered to dig it. It is large boulders totally surrounded by thick sandy mud, giving an impenetrable feel. How dare the cave just start to give and then quickly deny the explorer so stubbornly.

It is obvious that no water emerges from this terminal face, whereas 10m back a pile of clean, black boulders under an aven suggests that at least some water may come down from above. And easy climb up and then a tentative final manoeuvre got me into a low wide bedding chamber. Loose boulders delicately perched over my route up ensured I explored this chamber very carefully! I headed north first into a low passage which looked like the water sometimes came out of. This went for maybe 10m, and a little digging got me slightly further. A good draught and an open sight beyond make this a brilliant spot, and I’m sure with only some light tools progress could be made here. Across to the southern side of the chamber I only checked out one lead and it didn’t look very promising. There seems to be quite a large, old collapse here which makes this area different to the rest of the cave and hard to judge.

Now at the end of the cave and my roughly calculated turn-around time to make my callout having already past I knew I had to make a move. Climbing back across the chamber and down the aven was the first obstacle and I wasn’t comfortable about doing it, but all fine. Next hurdle was the choke out of The Twilight Zone. I was really careful downclimbing this and still quite a bit of stuff fell and collapsed as I descended. Thankfully mostly small stuff and I made it through fine, but I was certainly glad to be past that. I was making good time but it’s a relentless lot of crawling and through Friday 13th I had to stop and catch my breath a couple times, heart beating audibly through my thin wetsuit. As I approached Armoured Mudball Crawl I was relieved to see it was still dry and open, those silly mindgames of being sumped in finally put well to bed. 

I emerged on the right side of the sump section in only 45 minutes, well ahead of schedule and calculated I had time to go take a quick look at the Fume Room, a draughty side passage which I’d heard a lot about from Moose many years ago. It’s about 60m to the end, through quite a muddy passage following a bang wire throughout. The end is a large, airy choke with a way on above which I was not comfortable to climb on my own at this late an hour. However to the West there’s a small hole into blackness that I couldn’t fit through. Maybe this is accessible from the above route, but if not it looks an easy dig and the draught is strong from it, so a good prospect indeed. Annoyed to leave this opportunity unclaimed but relieved to be heading to safety, I turned around and headed out.

I made daylight after 3 hours and 10 minutes, nearly 3 hours more than I was worried I might be underground! The walk/jog back to the car in torrential rain helped clean my wetsuit but not raise hopes of ever(!) getting back in there. In fact in the 24 hours after leaving the cave it rained 55mm, which is more than the average monthly rainfall from February to August this year! Fingers crossed other’s get to enjoy this cave in the next few weeks and maybe even extend it a little….

Video from the trip available here: https://youtu.be/P3HnaZq62c0

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Written by: Josh

Published: 03 October 2025

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After three months of waiting, 4 drop outs, my wife being adamant that “you are not going caving again - I don’t care if it’s for your birthday” as well as encouraging messages from the eldon group chat such as “don’t worry, suggesting free climbing should ensure he dies nice n near the entrance 🤣👍” and “I'll stay in the peaks and wait for the DCRO callout 👌🏻😁”, the time had finally come for the giants hole round trip.

After our very successful trip at Carlswalk Cavern made it onto the “bad tips for cavers” Facebook group, we were determined to get this one right. Originally, we (Josh, Ben, Adam and Toby) were going to do this one alone; however, after some wise words from Rob Eavis, we decided to draft in reinforcements. Jon and Luke answered the call, and with that, our Giants Hole Round Trip team was complete.

In preparation for the trip, Jon introduced us to a revolutionary new piece of technology known as a helmet. Despite initial grumbling over the £15 price tag, everyone eventually agreed it was probably worth the investment. Joggers and jumpers still remained the outfit of choice for most, though I did turn up in a stylish new boiler suit courtesy of Temu. Anyway, that’s enough waffle, let’s get onto the caving…

^Before photo. I bet you can’t even tell the amateur cavers from the proper one.

It was an 8:30am start at the Giant's Hole car park and we soon found ourselves at the entrance. What very quickly became clear to me is the breakneck speed of Jon and Luke. They do not mess about. No time to take in the sights around us, it was strictly business. In about 5 minutes, we were at the top of Garland's Pot (a 7m waterfall) and down went the wire ladder. The transition downwards was easy enough, and before long, I was standing at the bottom.

^ The top of Garlands. I don't think this one is making it onto the Eldon home page anytime soon (caving photography can be challenging).

Not to get too sentimental, but standing at the bottom was a surreal moment. I’ve been coming to Giants Hole since my scout days and have made plenty of trips back with different friends and family. Every time, Garland’s Pot had been the stopping point, and I’d always wondered what lay beyond. Finally being at the bottom and being able to carry on felt like ticking off a long-standing goal.

^Another professional photo…

The Crabwalk turned out to be far more relaxing than I’d expected. Half a mile of tight, winding passage actually gave us the chance to lean against the walls, take some weight off, and press onward down the fairly low stream. I was mainly focused on keeping up with Luke, who kept me entertained with stories from his many caving adventures. I was so distracted, in fact, that I didn't notice we’d passed the Vice until I suddenly found myself heading down Razor Edge. We made a quick detour to peek at Sump 2 before carrying on to the Eating House.

At this point, we were offered the option to check out Geology Pot, an 11m waterfall, and we eagerly took it up. The traverse and climb to get there was a lot of fun, especially for Ben and Adam, who are the climbers of the group. I, on the other hand, preferred the traverse as we navigated the ledges above the drop with a line of rope to hold onto. Geology Pot was indeed a big drop and we then turned around and made our way back to the main route.

We headed up the climb at the Eating House and then took our second detour, this time to reach the top of Maggins Rift, an impressively large passage. For any non-cavers, a rift is like a canyon, except it's in a cave. After what seemed like a lot of climbing (my arms now getting tired), we found ourselves at the top of the rift. Apparently, the way onwards is called “the death series”, which we left for another day.

^Unsure where this is. Suggestions are welcome.

Back down the rift we went, making our way up the dry cascades toward Giant's Windpipe. We didn’t get a chance to see the infamous Chamber of Horrors or Poached Egg Passage this trip so we will have to check them out another time. For now, Giants Windpipe would have to do. The Windpipe itself was good fun, a shallow crawl through a tube that’s over half full of water, forcing you to constantly turn your head to avoid an involuntary mouthful.

^Going into the Windpipe.

After passing through some impressive passages with various calcite formations, we suddenly heard the rumble of the Crabwalk beneath us. Soon, we popped out on top of the Crabwalk, standing on a small ledge. Over the ledge stretched a narrow, 15m-high rift, with the Crabwalk at the bottom. We continued on, traversing over the drop with one stretched out foot on either side. Fortunately, we were accompanied by Jon’s wise advice to “make ourselves big” in case we fell into the black abyss beneath us, apparently a foolproof solution. At first, it was fine, with plenty of footholds to rely on. Eventually, though, we had to drop into the rift, pressing our feet against one wall and leaning our backs into the other to shuffle across. In practice, this looked and sounded far worse than it actually was.

This then brings you to the calcite Letterbox (or the Eyehole) Squeeze. Still perched above the drop, there’s a body-sized hole that you have to wriggle through on your side. On the other end, you’re greeted head-first by the drop down to the Crabwalk. You grab a conveniently placed handhold to pull the rest of your body through, then hunt for an elusive foothold to make sure you don’t tumble into the gap below. To be honest, even if you did fall, you could probably stop yourself by “making yourself big” (whatever that means), but it did take me by surprise. I’d heard plenty about Giants Windpipe, which was relatively tame, but nobody had mentioned this little gem.

Eventually, you can get close enough to the bottom of the rift to simply climb down it and continue along the Crabwalk. From there, it was just a matter of retracing our steps, up the ladder we’d left at Garland’s Pot, and then back out of the cave. We emerged at just under the three-hour mark, seven hours before the 6 pm exit time that I’d promised my wife (a lesson learned from last time).

To us amateurs, this trip felt like ‘proper caving’, but to a seasoned caver, this is probably the equivalent of going to Benidorm and calling yourself well-travelled (oh well). We will definitely do this trip again as soon as I manage to track down one of those fancy caving ladders. Hungry for more, we’ll be back in the Peaks in a few months for the group's now-quarterly poker and caving events. Our next cave to conquer has already been decided…

^After Photo. Toby’s grey jumper now brown.

Huge shoutout to Jon and Luke for guiding us; without them, we would have ended up in the Chamber of Horrors, thinking it was the Windpipe. And yes, those helmets came in handy too.

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 08 August 2025

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Bernie, John, Grace and Victoria

It had been a trip planned and missed a few times. After some confusion on the group chat we finally made a plan for some Tuesday nighters to visit Longcliffe. Meeting up we headed up the steep hill to find the entrance. The weather was perfect and there are few views more spectacular in the Peak District. Lucky us.

John agreed to rig and off he went. Grace is a regular to this spot, John hadn’t been in quite a while , for Bernie it was donkey’s years and this was my first time. John did a great job rigging and noticed when he got to the last bolting that you use the in situ rope to the floor. Good thing as the rope we brought was a tad too short. Down and a nice explore along the rift. Fun little traverse..whoever did that was ace. Phil? We explored down the next pitch to the dig and it is nice to see how far it goes and goes. Nice bit of conservation tape in place as well. Only one of us wanted to derig so out we went.

There wasn’t time to make the pub but with good company that is all we needed.