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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

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

The two of us headed up from Sheffield on the Thursday morning for a look at Tatham Wife Hole. Rope etc. had been packed in the comfort of my communal stairwell and the journey was uneventful. Arrived at Ingleton Granite Quarry Risings early in the afternoon and made our way to the cave. You definitely want an OS map for this one. The sketch map in Marshall and Rust's 'Selected Caves of Britain and Ireland' isn't very clear. It's a stiff pull straight up the fellside from the Ingleton - Grassington road but things ease once on the limestone pavement. One member of the party had opted to wear a wetsuit and regretted it on the walk up. The swallet entrance is to the west of Ingleborough, where the sloping ground meets the flat limestone pavement and is fairly easy to find in a large shakehole.

SRT kits on and we climbed down the small entrance and into winding canyon passage. This leads quickly into a chamber - Ogden's Chamber and on down to a short drop. This is free-climbable but we rigged it and carried on down towards the top of the first pitch. The first and second pitches are rigged together and pretty straightforward. From the bottom of the second pitch the going gets a bit more awkward and there's a load of stooping/crawling in fairly constricted passage. We made our way down the third pitch and The Ramp and on to the Duck. There wasn't a lot of water around so The Duck was pretty tame; just a short grovel in the water but never completely submerged. From here we continued down the fourth pitch and to the end. Never had to use any of the deviations as there wasn't enough water to warrant it. Just under 2 hours to the bottom.

We went a bit faster on the way out and exited in an hour and a quarter. There was a fair bit of frost on the ground outside the cave entrance and we headed back across the plateau and down to the road. A very enjoyable trip with plenty of proper caving rather than just swinging about on rope.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

Hits: 3696

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

Sam and I discovered that we both had a Monday off work and a daytrip to the Dales was discussed. The organisation was mostly conducted by text message:

"Diccan, GG, Juniper Gulf. Which 1?"
"Good-looking list caves that. Decide Mon morning."

Monday morning arrives and it’s been raining heavily for 24 hours or so. In fact Carlisle’s afloat again and there’s been 63mm of rain in the last 7 days. 20-odd mmfell on the Sunday/Monday so the Dales are obviously going to be awash. Sam had a vague idea that Juniper Gulf shouldn’t cause too many difficulties in the wet so we settled on that. Everything got packed and we headed off in the rain. Like many cavers, I use the stepping-stones at Gargrave as an indicator of water levels and they were well submerged under a fast-flowing sludgy river. We arrived at Crummackdale late morning. It was still raining and all around were resurgences and streams in spate; we even swapped our trusty warmbacs for yellow gimp-suits. Not something either of us do lightly. Now we’d not been to The Allotment before and it would be dishonest of me to say that we headed straight for the target. In fact, we later agreed that without the GPS the cave may have eluded us for even longer. Eventually however, we arrived at the small valley containing the entrance shaft. Looking down it, we were glad that we had opted to rig the alternative dry way in. The stream bounded down the north end of the rift and disappeared amongst some jammed boulders at the bottom. I opened the batting rigging the first 12m pitch down onto a sloping ledge above the stream. Just as my feet were about to get uncomfortably wet a traverse takes you over the jammed blocks and downstream leading to a short, slightly constricted pitch down into the streambed. From here, we traversed above the stream into what has been described as a “gloomy and watered shaft”. This Monday it was particularly gloomy and watered with a waterfall thundering down the left hand wall. We both zipped up and headed on towards a nice 15m pitch down.

Sam took pole position as we traversed along, crawling above the streamway, straddling the rift on hands and knees. This section is pretty awkward and would be a particularly bad place to fall. Next comes ‘The Bad Step’. Here, the passage widens and a swing off a flake lands you on a sloping shelf. There are bolts if you want them. Sam breezed past that and headed for the superb 25m third pitch. Constricted at the top, the shaft bells out nicely to leave you hanging in the middle of the wide rift. Bit of a knot pass focused the mind here and we landed on superb ledges in the rift. Up to this point we hadn’t considered the water too much. You know there’s a torrential stream below you and you’re getting thorough soakings along the way but at this point Juniper Gulf really started going into overdrive. Standing in the chamber at the bottom of the rift the Big Pitch started to make itself known. Taking over the rigging I took us along ledges and into a healthy shower where a spike protects a short drop down onto a big ledge. Cascading down out of the roof was a proper torrent of water falling 90m vertically to the bottom. I set off traversing round the right-hand side, rigged the Y-hang and over the lip. All I remember about the shaft to be honest is the noise, the wind, the water and the bolts. I don’t think either of us looked around once as we descended past a rebelay and down a further 45 metres to the bottom of the shaft. The bottom was a mash-up of spray, falling water and wind. Sam arrived and we stood in a hurricane of wind and water. Standing with our backs to the pitch-head there was definitely a set of rapids coming in from the right and a waterfall hammering down in front of us. They joined and disappeared down into the floor. After a minute at the bottom Sam raced off to be battered by water on the rope.

Once at the top of the big pitch we both relaxed and got on with de-rigging, packing bags and transporting rope; the bread-and-butter stuff. We exited three and a half hours after starting.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

Hits: 5224

Report by Mike Annesley
Cavers: Mike Annesley (EPC), Geoff Lewis (non-EPC)

The last time I was in Bath visiting Geoff, about six months ago, I showed him my video footage of the Croesor-Rhosydd mine trip. He loved the video and every time I had spoken to him on the phone since then he’d reminded me about the video and how he’d love to do something similar one day. He had also told me that ages ago, his boss and him had more or less bottomed Goatchurch Cavern on an impromptu trip armed only with torches and candles, but that they had turned back before the “Drainpipe” and he was keen to return and finish it off. Since Selina and I were heading down that way to visit him over the bank holiday weekend, I bought myself a copy of Mendip Underground from Hitch ‘n Hike and started having a look at the possibilities for a nice introductory Mendip trip that didn’t involve any SRT, as Geoff had never done any ropework. It turns out that within a half hour drive of Bath there is a whole host of caves ranging from nice easy trips like Goatchurch to deadly tight and gnarly holes like Dallimores. Like many others before me, and being decidedly unoriginal, I decided to have a look at Swildon’s which offered a sporting streamway, a small ladder pitch, and a free-dive of sump-one if by that time we weren’t wet enough already.

We set off early after I’d phoned Bat Products to enquire as to whether the rainy looking sky would mean Swildon’s was a bad idea - they said that more water would only be a good thing, and also informed me that the Mud Sump (closed for some considerable time) had recently been re-opened if we fancied doing the round trip, though this was strictly not a trip suitable for novices (especially claustrophobic novices like Geoff!). We arrived in the quaint village of Priddy which seemed like a most unlikely caving venue after being used to your typical Derbyshire moorland terrain. There is an access fee of 50p each and the farmer has kindly provided a changing area in his barn which was a much more attractive proposition than scaring tourists with our dangly bits out on the village green. A ten-minute walk north through cow-fields brought us to the Swildon’s entrance blockhouse where the stream sinks into a shallow depression. The stream seemed very low indeed which was a little disappointing, but after stashing the car keys and having a quick slash, I dropped into the entrance hole that soon led into a bouldery chamber, where the obvious way on was a quick crawl in the streamway under some boulders. From here there appeared to be several routes, and I consulted the photocopied guidebook page that I’d brought in with me as to the best way on - the entrance series in Swildon’s comprises of many different routes that all end up at more or less the same place a little deeper into the cave. I had intended doing “The Long Dry Way” (aka “The Pretty Way”) but after getting bored of trying to decipher the guide and the fact that the water was very low anyway I decided to just follow my nose, and chose the most obvious way on which was a climb down into a rift to my right - I think in retrospect this was “The Short Dry Way” and leads to a bypass of the Forty Foot pot via a pleasant climb down a cascade. The Forty Foot Pot used to be the main route until the epic floods of 1968 washed away the false floor and opened the other routes below.

We soon entered the fine, roomy main streamway that is then followed through some great terrain down to the Twenty Foot Pot where I rigged a ladder and lifeline for Geoff and then abseiled down myself. This pot is P-bolted but the lower of the two bolts at the pitch head is very loose. From the bottom of this pot the streamway continues via many twists, turns and fun climbs down small pots above pools - all pretty easy but classic caving. Eventually we passed the climbs that lead up to Tratman’s Temple and the start of the Round Trip and entrances to the upper series and not too far beyond this after more pleasant cave the main streamway sumps into a gloomy pool at the free-diveable Sump One. The only other free-dive I’ve done is Lake Sump in Peak Cavern and I’d expected this one to be similar in nature, but I found it much more intimidating. Lake Sump is longer but you start from a nice deep pool in a roomy passage and the slight airspace allows communication with the other side… and of course, there’s a bypass if you don’t fancy it on the return journey. It also helped that I was with a load of people who’d done it before and could give encouragement and advice. Sump One in Swildon’s starts in a shallow pool and the dive line just seems to head for a tiny underwater slot at the end of the pool - it looks hideous and I was thinking “ho hum, if Geoff doesn’t want to do this I won’t be too upset”… Geoff was thinking the same thing, and was looking distinctly wild-eyed at this point, but anyway, I sploshed down into the freezing pool and stuck my legs through - I thought I could feel airspace right at the limit of my toes’ reach and Geoff also checked it out and came to the same conclusion. We were now both freezing from the water (I was in an furry / warmbac combo and Geoff was in a selection of thermals and an old flying suit) so it was decision time. I lay down on my front in the shallow water, held the line with my right hand, took a few deep breaths and plunged under. I felt strangely calm and pulled gently on the line, then lost it for a moment, then pulled on it again and felt myself glide first downwards to the low lip of the sump, and then felt myself rising up on the other side. By this time I was thinking “if I’m not in airspace by now I’m going to be a very unhappy boy” but then my head broke the surface and I sat up in a roomy water filled passage. After collecting my thoughts for a moment, I tugged on the line to signal to Geoff that all was ok, and after a few seconds, I felt the line go tight again, and a short while later his lamp started to loom up at me from the murky water. I grabbed his suit to let him know he was through and he sat up beside me - we looked at each other and started whooping like children, both very cold but very psyched. To give Geoff full credit, I think that if I’d have been asked to this on my first ever proper caving trip, I would have been heading back out to the entrance. In retrospect, it doesn’t really seem that bad, and the next time I’m there it will no doubt seem fine, but at the time the fear of the unknown and the seeming insanity of going underwater all added up to make this a formidable obstacle. I’ve since read that it was first passed in 1936 by J Sheppard using a home-made dry suit fed by a football inflator pump!

We were now in Swildon’s Two, and the now rather subdued streamway led through a deep pool to an easy duck, to a point where we could stand and get out of the water again. Amusingly, there was a “liberated” road-sign saying “Wookey Hole 1.5 miles, avoiding town centre” (the stream does indeed re-appear in Wookey Hole after about 1.5 miles!) and also an ironing board, presumably courtesy of the Extreme Ironing crew. The streamway now opened up again to huge dimensions and we followed pleasant walking passage past another, similar road-sign next to a divers-only sump and a long ramp with a handline, which was the way down from the far end of the Short Round Trip (other round trips go deeper into the streamway but these are hard and serious trips). Below here the streamway reduces to easy ducks and a few crawls in ever deepening water until Sump Two is reached. Sump Two is eight metres long and leads to airbells where you can’t get out of the water and are immediately faced with the even more serious Sump Three which is about 10 metres long and also quite deep. These sumps are free-divable but only by the very experienced, and I’ve read of somebody nearly dying when they got caught up in Sump Three. The usual route to get beyond this point is now to do one of the longer round-trips thus avoiding these sumps. In fact, it is possible to free-dive Swildon’s as far as Sump Nine but I must say that this must be one of the most serious trips around in terms of rescuing an injured caver. Divers are still currently trying to push the far limits of the cave at Sump Twelve and rumour has it that there has been some recent success. As an aside, I spoke to another caver back on Priddy green after we’d exited the cave who told me that people would often carry small bottles for many of the sumps, rather than just hold their breath.

Since we were now very cold we decided to head back into Swildon’s One, and so sploshed back to Sump One, and once again went for a thorough soaking. The sump seemed much easier in reverse, as it was all uphill and we knew we were heading for a big chamber. I was quite keen to have a look at the start of the Round Trip but was worried that Geoff wasn’t really warming back up and was also starting to look a bit tired, so we made our way back up the streamway, which was even more fun in the uphill direction. It didn’t take long to get back out as this time we knew the way, and in about forty-five minutes we were back at the surface and trudging over the fields past bemused tourists to reach the sanctuary of warm clothes and the car heater.

All in all a really good trip and a great introduction for Geoff who couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the weekend! Swildon’s is a fine cave that far exceeded my expectations. The main streamway would be superb in higher water (although it’s worth noting the entrance could become impassable), and the other parts of the cave offer trips that would range from fairly moderate to extremely serious in nature. The cave has also been linked to Priddy Green Sink via a tight and difficult connection.