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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Sam Townsend (EPC)

Sam and I were after a quick evening trip before the Eldon Thursday night meet and I'd fancied a trip to Crewe Junction (the end of Hypothermia Crawl) in Rowter Hole for a while. Hypothermia Crawl was pushed by Stan Kowalik (CCPC), Mick Stratford (CCPC) and Ben Bentham (EPC) in 1975 and it's something of a collector's piece being just 25m of tight, wet crawling to Crewe Junction at the other side. The original write-up from the CCPC journal makes interesting reading and explains the name. Ben Bentham pushed it in a T-shirt! and ended up in a bad way. Sam, John Taylor and Tony Revell had been in a few times in previous years working on the choke but it's not a bit of cave that sees many visitors.

Both of our SRT kits were elsewhere which posed a problem given that you're not going to free-climb the Rowter entrance shaft. Fortunately between us we managed to cobble together two pseudo-SRT kits which just about did the job. We arrived, sorted the kit and got changed into full neoprene. Walked over to the Rowter entrance, tied the rope onto the scaffold bar and abseiled in. The start of Hypothermia Crawl is where a small stream emerges from a low, narrow bedding plane 9m up the wall near the bottom of the entrance shaft. We climbed up to the entrance to the hypothermia inlet. At this point helmets came off and neoprene hoods went on. 25m and some 90 degree bends doesn't sound like a long way but your helmet's off the whole time and there are a couple of squeezes to make you think. You're crawling upstream in a stream so it's not warm! The first squeeze is just after the first left-hand corner and that was fine. The crawl continues being tight but not desperate until the second (tighter) squeeze which is about 20m in. The second squeeze was not too bad and soon we were at Crewe Junction. To the right here is the fairly unpleasant-looking boulder choke that John Taylor and Sam had been working on. To the left are a couple of nice small chambers well-decorated with stal. We were very careful here as it would be easy to break something; the stal is right above your head. After a poke around and a look up into the choke we made our way out and back up the entrance shaft.

A very enjoyable evening trip in an unusual bit of cave. Crewe Junction manages to feel remote even though you're only 25m away from the bottom of the Rowter entrance shaft!

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4669

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Toni Murphy (non-EPC)

Fancied a nice easy Yorkshire trip today with some traversing, straightforward abseiling and ladder climbing practice for Toni. Heron Pot looked like it would fit the bill. Arrived at the parking opposite Yordas wood early afternoon and walked over towards Kingsdale Beck. Met a party of four cavers on their way back to the car after a Heron trip and they said that there was still another party in the cave on ladders. We walked up the dry valley towards the entrance and found it pretty quickly. Dropped into the entrance and a bit of crawling and slightly awkward stuff leads to a junction with the water. From here we went downstream passing under some nice flowstone curtains in pleasant stream passage. Eventually arrived at the top of the first pitch to find the other team just on their way up. That was handy cos after five minutes wait they were out of the way and I was rigging. Since my SRT kit was elsewhere I was experimenting with a set up which consisted of basically a climbing harness, gri-gri and mini-traxion. Toni abseiled down the first pitch with a figure-of-8 descender and I followed. Second pitch got rigged (using the world's biggest Y-hang) and then we dropped down there. The bottom of both pitches was pretty wet and you certainly wouldn't have wanted much more water in there. There is a single-bolt rebelay that you can put in on the second pitch but since Toni's never seen a rebelay we left it well alone and took our chances in the water at the botttom of the pitch. After a mooch downstream we headed back to the bottom of the second pitch. I started to ascend (generally slowly) with my minimalist prussiking set-up but thankfully it's not a big pitch and soon was at the top. Dropped a ladder down and lifelined Toni up. Lots of screaming and giggling as she swung into the water but she was soon at the pitch head. Similar fun and games on the first pitch and then headed out.

A very pleasant (though short) trip and excellent abseiling and ladder practice for Toni. There is a through trip that you can do but was a bit wet today for that.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4443

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Sam Townsend (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Jules Barrett (EPC)

Me and Sam arrived at the Oxlow parking to meet Jase and Nige. Packed the bags for Oxlow and set off for the entrance at 7:30 pm. Rigged Oxlow as we went and prussiked up the pull-down thing into Pilgrims Way. Easy hands and knees crawling for a fair way to Mecca Aven and then turned left towards the Chamber of Horrors. A short section of low crawling passage needed a bit of excavating but after that it's low but not particularly tight for a while. I was wearing a 5mm wetsuit so overheating at this stage. Eventually got to the first duck so hoods went on and helmets off. Sam went through first; me and Jase are sure it was sumped but Sam reckons he didn't hold his breath so not sure about that. Going through on your back with helmet between your knees seemed to work. After the first duck there's another one (felt easier) that leads to a short section of passage and soon into Poached Egg passage in Giants. Water levels about average for the time of year. Out for 10:00 pm so off to the pub. Good evening trip! Thanks to Nige for helping with rigging/de-rigging.