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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

Hits: 4004

Report by Jim Thompson
Cavers: Carl (Bog) Bergmann (EPC), Jim Thompson (EPC)

It was with not inconsiderable deliberation that Bog and I finally managed to get out caving today. The original plan was to get out early and drop Nettle down Crumble and Beza pots, as a useful bit of rigging practice for both of us, especially since noone else would be there to offer advice- if we f**ked up we’d have to unf**k ourselves. Unfortunately, the snow on the ground in Sheffield thwarted our plans, and us thinking that the car would end up stuck if it snowed again and we ended up taking 8 hours over the trip. That and the fact that, being a lazy sod, I didn’t really want to have to get out of bed that morning either!

The thing was, I hadn’t even had a beer the night before, thinking I didn’t want to be caving with a hangover, so by the time I got out of my bed, I was A: cursing that I’d wasted the chance to get hammered for the millionth time over the holidays, and B: since I hadn’t got hammered, wishing that we had gone caving after all, since I’d spoken to Sam earlier who said he’d never known Winnats Pass to be shut for snow in his entire life!

Finally, one phone call and a lot of umming and ahhing later, we set out to do a quick trip round Giant’s, which was great cos I wanted to test out my new wetsuit. Except when we got to Peakshill farm, it looked like we’d never get the car back up the track if it snowed!!!! We decided to park on the grass verge, so Bog drove down to the track by Eldon quarry to turn round, and muttered something about Sidetrack.

That was it! Never mind Giant’s which would be freezing and wet, let’s do Sidetrack! I’d always been a bit disappointed about this one, as everyone else had been through it (or at least tried to) on the day I got stuck in Luton, so I still wanted to have a look. I’d read Robbie’s account of it in the mag, and seen the pictures, and thought it would be nice to see some relatively unspoilt cave (to get in practice for the forthcoming discoveries in Bagshawe ;-)).

I was a little nervous, as earlier in the year Bog and Mike had backed off thinking the entrance passages too tight, and not knowing what lay ahead, they thought it better to be cautious. Still, I wanted to measure myself, plus we’d already abseiled onto the bench in the corner of which the cave entrance lies. And I’d just got changed in the snow, so I wasn’t going through that again in a hurry!

I headed first into the low entrance, a phreatic tube heading into the quarry face and half full of dryish mud- luckily the winter had brought drippers which meant I could slide quite easily along the initial section. The mud suddenly banked up and I headed over into the tighter section ahead. This necessitated removing my helmet, and thinking back to the advice JT had given me months earlier, about how to negotiate tight passage. Although tight, in places tight enough to trap my chest, I made good progress until I reached an enlargement of the passage, lightly decorated with white stal, in which I could turn round and call to Bog that it was OK. He had been waiting at the entrance to see if I got stuck first!

What I didn’t realise until later was, that Bog was feeling nervous and unsure about carrying on- and in those initial squeezes, so was I. I didn’t mention it though as I didn’t want to spoil Bog’s trip- good job neither of us said anything or we may have been back in the pub much sooner! I called back and reassured him that it was nothing, which looking back it really wasn’t, but that nagging thought in the back of my mind for most of the way through the tight bits was ‘what if it gets much tighter- can I really do this?’.

We both made progress along the low tube, emerging into what I think was a larger section of it, however the mud had settled in a ridge right through the middle, making progress slightly awkward due to the narrowing at the edge, however I found that by hooking my right leg and arm over the hump, I could pull myself along quite nicely, so I called back for Bog to do the same.

The passage got slightly more comfortable, i.e. I could get my helmet back on and start crawling properly along it- I’ve been trying to stay off my front recently and just crawl on toes knees and elbows, and I was soon zooming along in a comfortable rhythm, slowing down and taking great care not to damage any of the impressive straws and other formations which were beginning to adorn the ceiling. I began wondering whether the place would become wrecked with an increase in traffic, and the philosophical debate started up in my head, how could such a situation be rationalised?

In spite of being head down, trying to keep up the pace, there was one point when an unmistakeable cold draught hit me right on the cheek. I stopped for a rest and to listen back for Bog making his way behind me, and noticed a small opening in a tiny arch to my right. There was a strong draught issuing from it, and even though I didn’t think it would be a viable spot to dig, I thought it might be worth knowing about in case it gave any clues, so I built a little cairn to mark the spot. I remembered what Bob said about caves draughting properly in winter, so I thought maybe the draught might stop in warmer weather.

The passage carried on and on like this, and I wondered how much further we had to go, until I reached an opening. This was little ‘n’ larges airbell that I’d read about, and I was grateful to stand for the first time since we’d entered the cave. I noticed some impressive crinoid fossils stuck to the walls here, and chuckled to myself when Bog shouted ‘you’re stood up aren’t you, you b**tard’! I imagined the sight of my feet poking down out of the ceiling in the middle of this flat out crawl...

Onwards then, along the passage which by now had enlarged a bit, and I started on hands and knees. At one point the mud suddenly banked up in a hump again, which forced me back onto elbows knees and toes, and made me realise that this is in fact a much quicker, more efficient way to move along. It proved to be an excellent lesson for the rest of the trip, and I really enjoyed staying down and going faster than I’d ever caved before on the way out. I’d mistaken this enlarged passage for that known as ‘The Litton Stroll’ which I’d read about, and upon reaching a wall in front of me, announced to Bog that we’d reached the end of the cave and it was time to head back. Wrong! Bog told me that there was walking size trunk passage ahead of us. That was exciting! I moved forward a foot or so and realised that my dead end was just a sharp right turn- onwards again!

Eventually, the nature of the cave changed dramatically. The mud floor became a jumble of smallish boulders, and I was noticing gritstone pebbles and other stuff amongst them. I guessed that a bigger stream had been up here, and I was right. I popped out into a walking sized trunk passage, which I instantly recognised as having breakdown sediments in it. I’d learnt something!
This was awesome after the long crawl we’d just done. The passage ran perpendicular to the smaller tube we’d just crawled down, and was well decorated.

We decided to explore the downstream end first, although I couldn’t tell at the time which way it was, making a mental note to find out how the stream direction can be told in a dry stream passage. The roof rose up into large avens in places, and there were stunning stal and curtain formations which became striated and translucent with a lamp beam shone behind. On the floor were old, dry gour pools, and I was a little concerned about damage as we tentatively tiptoed over these, ducking at the same time to avoid straws and carrots hanging within inches of our helmets. The undisturbed mud was like it was in the narrower tube, very smooth and shiny and had obviously not been touched since the last trickle of water passed over it. There were a few very fine dessication cracks beginning to form, and it occurred to me that these may have only appeared after the surface was broken.

At one point, loads of drippers from the ceiling gave the impression of rain underground and I started saying ‘Roger Rain’s House’ over and over in my head. These drippers were most welcome, as we were dehydrated and had brought nothing to drink, and I drank deeply, almost toppling over as I held my mouth roofwards with my eyes shut to avoid the drips. It was funny to watch Bog doing the same thing afterwards!
It was only later in the cave that I wondered if drinking this water was such a good idea, as I bent down to pass a low section, and the water was smelling strongly of cow sh*t. Bog said we must be close to the surface here! Not much further along, the passage became lower and lower, and filled with water. I couldn’t tell if this was a sump or not, but I didn’t fancy crawling through the cold muddy water to check.

Passing back over the dried gours, we made our way into the upstream end of The Litton Stroll. The passage was similar in size and decoration, however I did notice some calcite floor here, which was very reminiscent of that in Taylor’s Way down Bagshawe. Maybe this is how you tell which way the stream flowed? The calcite has formed into small gours adjacent to each other, sort of undercut inside on one side and sloping on the other, giving a sharp lip on one side and looking like mackerel.

Further on, the passage lowered again however this time the blockage was due to loads of stal columns running along and across, and not easily passable. Needless to say we didn’t attempt to carry on. I read later that this blockage looked similar to that in Alsop’s cave, which on the survey would appear to connect very near to this point- in fact prior to blasting activity at this part of the quarry, the initial part of Sidetrack was connected to Alsop’s. I was glad I didn’t have to be the one to smash past all the stal in order to push the continuation!

So, the Litton stroll explored and thoroughly appreciated, we stopped a while to refuel on chocolate and enjoy our achievement, before setting off back surfacewards. Once again I was crawling as fast as possible, recognising the different bits of passage as they flew by. I had to rest more frequently on the way back, and we both took turns in posing for ‘hero shots’ to the camera- usually of us squeezing through the tightest spots. At the large opening we first encountered on the way in, I noticed 3 tiny helictites in the wall and roof, the first I’d really seen in the Peak- and we were back out in the starry, almost moonless night, save for a sliver of a crescent, immediately getting cold as our boots broke the icy puddles on the quarry bench.

With our fingers sticking to the frozen metal on SRT tackle and krabs, we prusiked up the loose slope and headed back to the car feeling very proud and happy. Getting changed in the snow we moaned and, as usual, said ‘we must be daft!’. Despite the freezing temperature, and feeling a bit tired, it had been a most excellent trip. It was good to get to the bar in the Wanted, and enjoy a couple of celebratory pints before we headed home!

Note: We protected the rope on the edge of the pitch to avoid abrasion, however I noticed a third of the way down there is another fairly severe rub point that would definitely benefit from a rope protector being used.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

Hits: 4224

Report by Jase Rider
Cavers: Paul (Paz) Vale (EPC), Steve (Stik) Rider (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Bernie Maddison (EPC), Wayne Ricketts (EPC), Richard Aldham (EPC)

Good hard caving in a superb location.

Arriving at the car park in Buckden, Wharfedale, we (Stik and myself) were introduced to Eldon members Bernie, Wayne and Richard. It should have been a 30 minute walk (at most) up to the cave, however, once on the open fell, we spent the best part of an hour trying to find the cave entrance! (Paz, Bernie, Wayne and Richard had all been to the cave before so I had, wrongly, assumed that at least one of them would know where the entrance was! ). Paz eventually found the unassuming entrance, taking a small stream in a diminutive limestone gorge (it’s to the right of the track, just above the wall - nowhere near the plantations to the left of the track - and definitely not higher up the fell on the gritstone!!!)

The cave set it’s stall out pretty early on with a flat out crawl (The Bradford Crawl). Soon after this the stream entered from the right and there was more awkward crawling in the water. This eventually opened out at the head of pitch one, a 9m pitch which we laddered from a boulder. The cave continued in a wider stream passage, with plenty of climbs up in to avens above the streamway. Back in the stream, we continued to 40 Years’ Corner where we were met with some fine formations. There then followed three successive flat out crawls in water (the bedding caves). It was now that I realised a wetsuit may have been a better option than an oversuit/undersuit! The cave now continued in a slightly more hospitable manner, with lots of climbs up climbs back down. One of these was a calcite climb up into Moon Milk Cave (now only a shadow of it’s former self). We continued in boulders above the stream until we reached The Block where we had fun negotiating an awkward drop and subsequent tight hole in the floor to rejoin the stream. We quickly came to the second pitch (Cascade Pitch) which we rigged with an 8m ladder. The pitch is in the stream but is was possible to just about avoid the water. High water would quickly make the pitch impassable. A stretch of deeper slow-moving canals followed, preceded by plenty of sporting cascades.

At the remarkable Elbow Corner, we stopped for refreshment among some outstanding flowstone formations, although Bernie and Richard carried on down a narrowing rift passage to the top of the third pitch. (We hadn’t brought the gear to do the final two pitches as those that had done them before didn’t especially want to do them again!). Getting back out of the cave proved a lot more tiring than getting in. Even though it’s not an especially deep cave, it is quite a long cave and there is a lot of climbing up and down in and out of the stream.

Route finding wasn’t always easy and we had to retrace our steps a couple of times (however, this had it’s advantages as on the way back out we managed to avoid two of the three flat out bedding caves by keeping to high level routes!). To cut a long story short, some five hours later we emerged battered and bruised into the late summer sunshine having had an excellent trip. Before long we were enjoying pub grub and a pint at The Kings Head in Kettlewell.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

Hits: 4221

Report by Steve (Stik) Rider
Cavers: Steve (Stik) Rider (EPC), Paul (Paz) Vale (EPC), Bob Toogood (EPC)

This trip was supposed to be Top Sink to Lancaster hole - an official Eldon PC meet. With dwindling numbers due to all sorts of perfectly valid reasons, the trip was barely on, but we just managed to muster up three people including myself. The support should be there, you would think, a classic long through trip in one of the biggest cave systems in the country and a good old piss up in the Marton Arms to follow. That should be enough to entice any self-respecting caver to attend.

However, the list of excuses was as varied as it was long:

...DCA meeting
...Daughters 18th
...On climbing holiday
...Revising for exams
...University reunion
...It's raining
...Too old...

So, those that obviously had nothing better to do turned up at Bernie’s at 10am. It was raining. It had been raining all night. Top Sink looked doubtful. We had to make our minds up about what trip to undertake – and indeed if one should be made at all. Paz looked like he would be happier staying put drinking coffee and eating toast than going down a hole, but I managed to persuade him otherwise. we decided that due to the unpredictable weather a dry trip would have to be made. The classic (and much over used) Lancaster - Wretched Rabbit through trip was chosen.

By the time we got to Bull Pot farm the weather was OK and it was not long before we were changed and making our way to Lancaster Hole entrance, being held up at one point by a group of Ramblers. One rambler announced that 'some people think we are mad, but not compared to potholers...'. Mmm, I thought. On arrival at the entrance we were met by novices and voices coming out of the shaft indicated that they were not altogether sure about the way to tie a figure of eight knot. This surely can't be the most suitable location to learn as the entrance pitch is over 100ft direct to the floor! We decided that as it was nearing 1pm by the time me, Paz and Toogood were all at the bottom of the entrance pitch we would simply go for it - not like 'the old days' where Paz said the Eldon record for this trip was under 1.5 hours - but just from the point of view of not getting lost or exploring 'other' bits. So, we proceeded a pace to Fall Pot where we were again held up - this time due to the fixed rope being 13mm furry Beal which would not go through our 'stops'. We duly sorted this out by abbing the old fashioned way and were soon off to Stake Pot on the high level Montague East passage. Passing Stake pot we soon reached the two big holes with difficult names and gingerly traversed round them on the right hand wall. This part of the cave is pretty impressive. Next comes Oakes Cavern and then the remarkable Minarets. It's as distinct a change of cave exiting them as it is entering them when Cornes Monster cavern is reached. This is big. And long. It eventually ends at a junction where the kind of middle left passage is taken - notable by its (relatively) narrow passage which is tall and floored by boulders. An awkward drop down is negotiated before the sudden and large expanse of Stop Pot is encountered. This has a good fixed ladder in place. The sound of water crashing over the boulders in the floor of Stop Pot is loud - and must have been responsible for drowning out the screams made by Bob as his battery got forced into his back during the decent of a boulder. This later became a great concern as the trip out through Wretched Rabbit is long and in places arduous due to the climbing involved.

From Stop Pot the main streamway has to be followed for a short distance of approx 50 meters down stream to Eureka Junction. This was fun as the stream way is deep and fast flowing in places. Eureka Junction is wide, and coming from upstream a left turn takes you into a dry hands and knees passage which soon lifts into a canyon at a junction. For County Pot take the right fork. For Wretched Rabbit take the left fork. From here on it is pretty straight forward. Just follow the meandering streamway which is tightish in places. One or two bits are a little confusing as the stream is lost at low level and oxbows are followed. Eventually a fine series of cascade climbs are reached, some with fixed hand lines to assist the weary (or injured) and the way on is always up until a long rift passage is reached. Again this is followed to the far end where a few more climbs are encountered until a scaffold bar and daylight are seen. This brings you out in Ease Gill Beck approx 150 metres up stream from Cow Dubs - a very spectacular bit of the beck - most of which looks like cave with no roof.

It has to be said that this is a good caving trip - and Bob Toogood did well in the end as his back injury - suffered at Stop Pot - was really hurting by the time we got out. From WR entrance, we walked down the beck, past Cow Dub, as far as the Mistral entrance to Pippikin, where a new footpath leads over the fell back to Lancaster Hole entrance where we pulled the abseil rope up. Before too long we were back in Bernie’s having large teas and food in preparation for a long drinking session at the Marton Arms and at the Braida Hut.