Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4015

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Dave Cowley (EPC), Dunka (EPC), Pete Pollard (EPC)

This trip was suggested by Pete as a bit of a recce before the Eldon Giants trip in October. I'd not been in the Filthy Five before so was looking forward to seeing another new bit of Derbyshire cave. Pete and Dave had arrived earlier in the evening and headed into the cave whilst me and Dunka arrived afterwards. After changing me and Dunka went down the ladder on Garlands and into the Crabwalk. I'd never seen that water in Giants so low and we were hardly getting wet. Through there to the Eating House and carry on past the Bad Step Traverse towards Geology Pot. Pete had a rope rigged on there so we abseiled down that, through The Curtain (usually an easy duck but plenty of airspace today) and down to the East Canal. Pete had mentioned that you can traverse around the right-hand wall of the East Canal to get to the rope at the bottom of the Filthy Five and since I wasn't wearing a wetsuit I went for that. I'd previously never explored around this right-hand wall of the East Canal and expected it to be a longish traverse over very deep water. In fact, it's about three nice climbing moves around the corner and you can wade if you'd rather. Soon we were at the bottom of a short handline climb that leads upwards. The first handline climb is easy and lands you at the bottom of a proper pitch. A short prussik (up an incredibly muddy fixed rope) leads to the pitch head and a short traverse off. From here a 45 degree slope of wet mud leads up through an easy squeeze to the base of another pleasant (though very muddy) pitch. Up the rope here leads to another couple of steps up with particularly manky rope (some of it hawser-laid!) and the base of the first pitch. This is a nice prussik up which leads to the top where we met Pete and Dave. After posing for a couple of photos and a quick look at this side of St Valentines sump we headed out down the ropes. On the way out a good wash in the East Canal allows you to get most of the mud off and we returned via the Giants Windpipe (which again was as low as I've seen it).

The Filthy Five is actually more muddy than I expected and is an interesting place to do SRT. From the moment you step onto the rope you're struggling to figure out which is your Stop and which is your hand jammer cos they both look the same, being metal and covered in mud. The bolts and rigging are as bad as I've seen anywhere in the Peak. Looks as though the bolts are the original ones that Ken Pearce and friends put in on the first exploratory trips and they certainly weren't installed with modern caving traffic in mind. Definitely a place to go carefully and be careful what you trust. It's a good trip and perfect for an evening.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 3987

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

After a trip down Eldon Hole we had some time left and since neither me or Chris had been in Perryfoot Cave we went for that. It's not a long cave (less than 200m of passage) so we didn't expect that it would take long. After getting permission from the farm we walked to the entrance and headed in to the cave. We quickly found ourselves in a chamber with a tyre in it ('1st Chamber') and the guidebook said that two alternative routes were possible from here to the final chamber at the end of the cave; one via the Iron Maiden squeeze and the other easier alternative. We went straight ahead dropping down into a low section with cobbles on the floor ('The Rack'). This emerged in a small chamber with two possible routes on. This was a bit of a surprise as CotPD just says that a series of crawls and pools leads to the Iron Maiden and the final chamber with a sump. We had a very brief look up and right and could see what looked like a small sump with a black flexible pipe in it. Everything else this way looked blind. Given that everything looked impassable here we took the left-hand option (the 'low road') which led up over a short wall and into comfortable crawling passage. This continued for a way until a body-sized horseshoe-shaped hole at floor level. Chris went through the hole and I followed him through. On the other side of the hole the rifty passage seemed to get too tight. It seems that thispart of the cave maybe what's called the 'low road' which eventually becomes too tight.From here we re-traced our steps back to the 1st Chamber and followed the alternative route to 'Flood Passage'. This was easy enough to follow and eventually led to a sump pool and concrete dam that had been used for bailing. According to the guidebook the route through the Iron Maiden etc. should emerge in this chamber but despite looking everywhere we couldn't really see where the Iron Maiden route could enter. We exited the cave after a couple of hours. Have since seen a survey and it all makes more sense. Will be returning for another look but it seems that there's more water in the lower parts of the cave than there used to be and it's possible that some parts of the cave can't be accessed any more.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4190

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

The original plan for the day wasn't possible as we couldn't get hold of a key to JH. Spent a couple of hours in the morning doing some SRT rigging training above ground with Chris at Pindale Farm. Looked at rigging traverse lines, pitch-heads, rebelays and deviations before the cold finally drove us back to the TSG hut for a brew and a look at the rigging guide. In the afternoon went to Eldon Hole (it was sunny by then and Eldon Hole is great when it's sunny!) and did the North gully route which I'd never done before. Paul Lydon from the Orpheus had suggested it as a good route for SRT practice and it turned out to be perfect for us. The rigging begins from two good stakes and you descend past a couple of rebelays with excellent ledges for feet. Next there's an traverse which is just tricky enough to make you think whilst rigging it and then there's another 35m pitch with a hanging rebelay half way down. Much of the main shaft was in the sunshine today which made it feel very Jurassic Park! Chris rigged the whole thing and did an excellent job of it. After landing at the bottom we didn't fancy crawling through to the main chamber so went back up the ropes and I de-rigged.