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Written by: Dylan Kocher

Published: 05 October 2023

Hits: 1848

Winnats Head Cave

Jon Pemberton, Sam Pemberton, Fabian Ehlers and Dylan Kocher

Driving to Castleton I was very Stoked as not every Wednesday night do you get to have a great cave checked off the list. The goal was supposedly simple. Retrieve and install a new Depth Logger for the great Prof John Gunn who with a little effort from the caving community becomes quite the fountain of applicable knowledge as was further demonstrated from the Derbyshire Explorers Forum the weekend past. Winnats Pass was reasonably wind chilled however this is probably never not the case and gave extra incentive to start the trip.

Once the whole gang was present, we optimized bags and set off, John wanting to take more modern shots of Winnats as well. Entering the initial entrance crawl is flat out but not too tenuous into the small chamber where a second crawl leads straight into the Main chamber. Sam and Fabian get a head start while we hang back and take some shots above the boulder choke. A great chamber although is quickly shadowed.

Once done playing around with a few shots we enter one of the numerous gaps in the descending boulder choke. Twenty or so meters of bumbling fun navigating through various obstacles. A last tight squeeze dropping down into quite a sizeable chamber. The transition is quite the change from the tight bouldering above. Once done another descent through a vertical boulder choke leads to the smallest chamber out of the three. Jon points out the right of the chamber. Glasses somewhat unknowingly fogged a bowl of mist is hovering with a line descending into it. Very spooky however turned out to be a Sump and Dive Line but I still thought that maybe the boatman would come begging for some change!

Exiting the chamber, we enter the Sewer. A tight passage that holds somewhat of a reputation in the caving community. Seeing Jon negotiate through I was keen to get a squeeze on. The sewer in reality only has one “tight” bit, and this is a horizontal boulder resembling a Lintel. It is reasonably adventurous however Hot Take is incoming it is not that bad. If you are much bigger than me this may not be the case. Once through not long after the srt enters the equation, up a solid pitch with two other rebelays (pretty freeclimable if you are Awesome). A few twists and turns and an aven is reached with multiple digs off in the vertical shoot landing not too far away from the cattle grid and the top entrance of Winnats pass. Rather exciting thought and wondering why no one has taken it back on Jon boy remarks on how remote the digs may feel to some my perspective is a little different when you have been to the end of Bagshaw.

Down the slope I see Sam and Jon chatting away on the pitch head and join in on the more social side of caving. I did a confident job of showing Sam how a rack does not lock off and let him know that if he fucks it up how it will sound when the bars pop off. This pitch does possess a striking wall and reasonably wet rebelay under a waterfall, definitely do not want to get stuck under that! Following Pitch is another fantastic one being wet and spacious landing into a small rift leading to the last sump. Finally, I got to see Fabian who had already taken a little swim replacing and resetting the new dive logger meaning I turned around and headed straight back out. Reaching back up to the next pitch head we adjusted the camera and set a game plan to take some photos. Whilst we waited for Sam, we decided to take some rather saucy portraits as I wanted to show off my new chipped tooth to the world as it is a known requirement when applying to become a British citizen.

Pictures all taken Sam and myself both bline out of winnats getting a little lost in the boulder choke on the way out. In fact, I lost Sam and found myself on the other side of Zed Boulder seeing Sam's bag just being dragged up and away. The whole was no bigger than a fist but rather than just turning around and going the right way I just dug my way out this probably took me longer still but hey ho. Reaching the entrance being greeted with that lush colour of green and thick refreshing air as it passes over the moss-covered rocks it was hard to understand why Winnats possesses its tough and hard reputation. In reality, it is rather quick caving filled with a great variety of cave Stream Way, Boulder Choke, Big/Small pitches, Tight crawls, and of course amazing chambers offering a package deal for many.  

A great note to add is that we didn’t set the depth logger right so I guess we're going back!

Dylan Kocher

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 27 July 2023

Hits: 1672

Victoria, Katie, Edvin, Jenny, Grace and Anthony

Oh what fun mud can be. Tuesday Nighters met up for a nice wander into Merlins Mine. Yes, it has been raining off and on for the last month but there is always hope that you can get into the further reaches of the Stoney Middleton caves. Katie had her bag of Science with her and was tasked with collecting information and samples for J.G. . It has been mentioned that these water samples could be helping to keep his youthful appearance as he might really be 300 years old…. A rope was mentioned and some of us brought our SRT kits. Some did not. Yes, the shaft is climbable with the hand line but I opted for some SRT. I enjoy doing that just as much as challenging my slippery feet climbing, maybe next time. Katie and Edvin moved through quickly trying to reach a data logger only to find it was sumped so it was not retrievable on this day. They were able to retrieve some data from one other and the magical water sample. I never like to cave at the back of the pack…I am sure that last person is always eaten by zombies and since I rarely look at a survey (not sure why) I am sure to take a wrong turn. I was last. So following the feet in front of me they took a wrong turn. It really is a wonderful maze of a mine. We ended up scooting through like penguins in the slippery mud to find we were on the way to the through trip to Oyster Chamber which was not the plan. Well, back through the tight squeezes and mud we found the others returning from said sump. They wanted to return to where we had ended up to get to Gimli’s Dream.. so back through penguin style through the muddy puddles. Gimli’s does not disappoint and the conservation tape is still in good shape. We had to make a decision whether to just do the through trip or back out the way we came and explore the upper levels. We agreed to head back as some of us had SRT kits to collect. I would like to come back to do the through trip soon. Yes, back through the squeezes and climbs. We had a good look at some of the side passages on the way out and then out to the nearly tropical feeling warmth. I always love that first smell of wet earth as you emerge. Time for a quick photo on Katies phone-which ended up doing strange creative framing , probably due to the fact it had just been on a two hour journey in her suit in a tea towel. Fun done for tonight for most of us… Katie headed down the road to Streaks to collect another data logger…dedication.

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 30 June 2023

Hits: 1338

Just a quick bimble with  the  Tuesday nighters  for  Giant’s round trip. I realized I hadn’t done it in maybe two years? Funny enough the crew tonight was Katie, Jess, Edvin and myself…exactly the same crew (minus a few) that I did previously. I forgot how deep the holes can be down crabwalk but remembered how fun it is to wedge yourself down the spiral. I tried to twist myself from going down only on my right to my left…just for a change. The first climb up used to have a simple rope but someone has kindly put a knotted one in with loops. That was really handy..thanks! We made quick progress and I heard Katie say that the cool water that slipped so easily down the front or our suits in Giants windpipe didn’t seem quite summer temps yet. It was refreshing and fun. Shimmy shimmy through the traverse and a quick slip through the eyehole and we were down. It is always a great trip. It was still light when we got out. Another beautiful Peak District evening.