Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4617

Report by James Wood
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Mark Harrison (EPC), Toni Murphy (EPC), Jon and Sam Pemberton (EPC), James Wood (EPC)

After the previous attempted trip had to be rethought due to the excessive numbers, Sam was determined to arrange a trip and have a look round. He had spoken to the nursing home a week before and they didn’t appear to be too restrictive. A quick phone call on the day to confirm and we were in. We all met in the car park at 18:30, Sam and myself arriving earlier to collect the key and open up the entrance (a scaffolding bar across a manhole cover).

It was decided to do the trip on ladders, due to the previous trip being awkward on SRT. Mark and Jules set about rigging the 18m entrance pitch. Mark was first to descend the ladder, belayed by Jules, followed by myself, Jon, Sam, Toni and then Jules. Who was belayed from the bottom of the pitch by Mark. Unsure of the way on and failing to remember the description, Mark had a quick look straight ahead over the calcited boulders, coming back to report he was unsure. I had a quick look down to the right of pitch, were after a few metres it went into a tight crawl, with a hole in the calcite, which went nowhere. We rigged the blind shaft, corrected by Jules when he met us. We de-rigged the pitch and continued past the shaft. Jon meanwhile had another look where Mark had been, he managed to find the way on. A slide over calcited boulders leads to a small chamber, to the right a rift which leads to the second pitch (6m). Jules rigged the ladder down the pitch, using rope around a thread to the right. Mark was again first to descend crawling back under at the bottom. Next was Jon who after the descent continued on in the rift which after a distance leads to a large chamber, where it ends. Next I was to descend and followed Mark, then Jon who continued on after Sam, Toni and Jules followed and went down under the wet muddy crawl. Tight in places the crawl shortly leads to ‘The Pearly Gates’, a squeeze through stal. Continuing on to the right it opens out, where Mark firstly climbed down, I followed not as tricky as it was made out to be. A hand line was tied by Jules to a small bridge at the top of the climb, if needed for the ascent. Toni was next to climb down, Jules, Jon, and Sam followed. Now all in the rift chamber, one by one we climbed up the calcited boulders ahead to a smallish pool, with some pretties. Higher up, in the chamber were some nice formations and ‘the boulder of doom’. We all followed the rift on, which required a short climb down. Straddling the drop in places to a lower level we carried on to the end of the rift. Jon at this point was attempting to climb down into the lower level, I joined him. Jules found a more suitable down climb, further back towards the chamber and climbed down to find a dig. Jon and I decided to climb back up to have a look where Sam had previously been. Back towards the large rift chamber under calcited boulders, I climbed through a rift to a small chamber that was quite wet and relatively clean and mud free. First I had a look to the left to find some wood holding up some boulders, easier access could be gained from the other side. I went round and climbed down into a small chamber, on my hands and knees at this point. To the left looked quite tight but I didn’t have a look where it went. I followed the flat out crawl to the right after about 15m I got to a muddy pool of water, 90° right was about a 1m climb up. The crawl continued on to the left to end after about 3-4m, where the mud/silt was roughly 10-15 cm from the roof of the tube. Although it has been reported to draft here, the air was very still and the steam from my breath wasn’t being carried. I crawled back out to meet Sam. We both then go back into the main chamber, to meet Jon. Toni, Jules and Mark had already started to make their way out, the climb up where the hand line was now fixed came in useful to pull up on. Mark waited for us at the top of the pitch, where he and I de-rigged. We then continued back to the entrance pitch where Toni and Jules had already ascended by this time. A belt was lowered down for Jon, Sam and I, which got caught further up where Mark climbed up to a ledge to retrieve it. Jon, Sam, Myself and finally Mark ascended the ladder belayed by Jules. Jules, Mark and Sam de-rigged and locked the lid back down.

Between the group we managed to cover pretty much all of the cave, a worthwhile trip, which remains unspoilt from traffic. Not like the usual Stoney caves.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4617

Report by Jon Pemberton
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Toni Murphy (EPC), Mark Harrison (EPC), Jon & Sam Pemberton (EPC), Jim Lister (EPC) plus special guest appearance from Guy 1 (no idea), Girl 1 (Bridget Hall) & Girl 2 (Jane Rigby)

An evening trip which was meant to involve actually going down Eyam Dale House Cave but ended up a bit south of the entrance in a completely different delph!? After parking and kitting up in the car park for the retirement home we promptly went in search of the manhole cover supposedly “within the grounds of the retirement home.” After 10 minutes of searching with no luck we went on our instinct down the path at the side of the car park heading parallel with the road. Bridget rigged the first pitch while we all gathered at the entrance of the cave. With nine people packed at the entrance of the cave getting numerous battle wounds from nettles, the five Eldon (minus Jim) decided that Eyam Dale House Cave could wait a few more weeks so to save time we walked on down to Cucklet Delph for the Nickergrove Mine through trip.

We went through the adit entrance and headed straight for the 15m shaft to the lower levels. Jules rigged while Toni waited at the pitch head for Sam and me to ab down. When we were all safely in the lower level, we took off our SRT gear and secured it to the bottom of the rope so instead of mucking it up through the rest of the crawls we could pull it straight up on completion of the through trip, (Cue Mark). After a few awkward crawls, climbs and scrambles we eventually reached the Didsbury Shaft entrance and after a few metres of vertical free climbing we were successfully above the surface. Jules kindly offered to flee back into the adit entrance to de-rig.

With the above antics over we still had an hour left until we were to meet up with Team-2, (the Eyam Dale House cavers) in the retirement home car park. We agreed that to fill this gap a Carlswalk Eyam Dale Shaft to Gin entrance through trip would be appropriate. Jules quickly rigged the 11m shaft with the help from my Carlswalk knowledge (Laughter from all!!) When we were all at the bottom of the shaft again we took of our SRT gear, (all except for Toni, see de-rigging Shaft entrance) and made our way to Noughts and Crosses Chamber to gain access to the main Eyam Passage. We made a brief stop for Jules as he wanted to poke his nose down through the rift in Oyster chamber to spot the through trip to the resurgence. We then scaled on out of the Gin entrance. When we eventually made it back to Eyam Dale Shaft the task was now to de-rig. Jules was 100% correct in knowing that the SRT kits and tackle bags attached to the rope would snag on the way back up. Luckily Toni had kept her SRT gear on so that we could safely retrieve the gear. We met up with team-2 bang on 10:30pm, (timing or what?)

Overall although we didn’t manage to get even a foot in Eyam Dale House Cave, we still had an eventful night of caving with two through trips.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 8939

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Jim Alder (Orpheus), Niki Adlam-Styles (PDMHS), Mat (PDMHS), Andy Tickle, Andy's mate Shaun.

Derbyshire's not exactly full of quality through trips and this was one that I'd fancied doing for a while. After spending a day gorge-scrambling in wet clothes on the northern flanks of Kinder the last thing I wanted to do was rush over to Matlock to put same wet clothes on again but that's what bad planning does for you! We had arranged to meet at the parking for Jug Holes which was fine until I found that the road that leads from the centre of Matlock up to Jug Holes had been blocked off. With an idea that this might have something to do with the new Sainsburys and a vague thought that a new road had appeared there which headed in approximately the right direction I drove around to Sainsburys and found the road that eventually led to Jug Holes. Here Jim, Mat, Niki, Andy and Andy's mate Shaun were already kitted up and ready to go having already done some car-shuffling. We made our way on foot towards Masson Hill Quarry and just before reaching the quarry headed off into woods. The shaft top is not obvious at all and is partially hidden under a limestone boulder. The shaft was rigged from a large thread and in-situ scaffold bar and we descended to arrive in a chamber at the bottom. SRT kits were tied to the bottom of the rope ready to be pulled up later. From here the route goes down hill and after a very short distance an in-sit handline is reached. There is loads of very impressive mineralisation here which continues in places throughout the route. The route goes down the handline and past an obvious white wall of stacked deads covered in calcite. Continuing north-east along the obvious route leads to some animal bones at the bottom of a shaft that looks to be blocked above. A short section of crawling here leads to the main stope where the climbing starts. From here climb up on clay-covered holds to a point high in the stope. The way on from here isn't obvious but there's a hole going up on the far side of the stope. Chimney up through the hole (exposed) to arrive eventually in a good-sized chamber with a rock bridge, small cairn and an excellent thread belay at the back. A well-worn traverse high in the roof of the stope needs care and eventually the route starts to descend until finally some vertical chimneying leads to a slot at the bottom of the stope. Pop down through this to arrive at a T-junction where left is silted up. The route continues as an obvious stope through some larger areas where there are loads of minerals including very impressive dog-tooth crystals. The obvious route leads to the impressive 'Overseer Chamber' with ancient graffiti. Straight across through the 'Overseer Chamber' following the water leads to a crawl with water flowing down it. The route descends with a clay bank on the RHS. At the bottom of the bank is a triangular hole where the water disappears. A kibble and small shovel allow you to dig the hole open if it's become blocked with gravel. It's best tackled on your back as there's water in the bottom but is very short. The route continues as a hands and knees crawl as far as the second squeeze. This one is a bit more roomy and similarly short. From here the route goes into Old Jant Mine and it's really just a case of following the obvious route. At a T-junction a minor detour left leads to an original jigging box. More gravelly crawls lead to the dam at the start of Youd's Level. Here it's a load of stooping and hands and knees crawling until eventually we arrived at the ladder which leads up to the lid at the Artists Corner car park. After a trip back up to Jug Holes to de-rig we headed to the Kings Head at Winster.

Abseiling, climbing, ancient graffiti, a couple of squeezes, loads of minerals and some tricky route-finding all make this an excellent evening trip with lots of interest en route.