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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

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Report by Jase Rider
Cavers: Mike Salt (EPC), Steve Fellows, Steve (Stik) Rider (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC)

JH had previously been rigged by the Masson who were doing the through trip and coming out of Peak. This was the trip we also had in mind, but were easily talked into doing the de-rigging trip by Wayne Sheldon of the TSG. The entrance pitch, cartgate level and Bitch Pitch were all as expected and posed no serious difficulty. At the bottom of Bitch Pitch, The Workshop is entered, where a remarkable array of miners tools remain untouched since the day they were last used (no way! - Ed) by the miners. A loose scramble follows which comes out at the top of a short pitch, which in turn brings you to the top of Leviathan which is awesome. Even those who have seen Moose's slide-show wouldn’t fail to be impressed by the 300 ft Leviathan shaft.

Leviathan had been rigged in two pitches using the ledge half way down. The second pitch is a superb free-hang to the floor (which is the choke above the boulder piles in Speedwell). Abseiling the second pitch, one could only marvel at the work put in by Dave Nixon in diverting the water down to Speedwell so that the connection to Far Sump Extensions could be established.

After a short break, the more difficult task of getting back out of JH began. Mike had been asked to pick up a bag containing climbing gear and take it back up to the ledge where Wayne had been carrying out some remedial work. Stik and Steve were already making their way out by this point. Jase de-rigged the lower half of Leviathan and then took the rope bag up to The Workshop where Stik and Steve were waiting. Mike took over the de-rigging from this point as Jase, Stik and Steve made their way out of the mine carrying tackle bags. Bitch Pitch lived up to it's name on the way out - and proved awkward in places (for me at least) and the cartgate level seemed a lot longer on the way out.

By the time we emerged at the bottom of the entrance shaft we were all we and truly knackered with only another 150ft of prussiking remaining ! A short(ish) time later I surfaced into the cold winter afternoon, the others had understandably gone back to the car - so I waited in the comparative warmth of the top of the shaft for Mike who was the last man out.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

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Report by Steve (Stik) Rider
Cavers: Steve (Stik) Rider (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Dan Hibberts (EPC), Mike Salt (EPC), Steve Fellows

In that bit between Christmas and New Year what do you do in the day apart from sober up from the night before? Well, you could try Jug Holes Mine and Caverns like we did on the 29th December 2000. Getting there was fun in itself with the roads white over from overnight snowfalls, but the sun was shining and the temperature very pleasant. Having got changed without too many direct snowball hits, we made our way down through the crisp, frozen undergrowth of Jug Holes wood, admiring the spectacular whitened views out over the Derwent valley.

We scrambled about trying to find the lower entrance, which, when we found it, had to be dug due to the snow! Mike commented on the superb formations around the entrance passage only to be berated by the others as they were only Icicles! Jug Holes is an interesting place with mined passages intersecting large natural caverns the so called ‘Water Caverns’. As the mine was worked relatively recently for Fluor spar there are a number of left-over bits and pieces such as wagons and rails to look at. Being a two part trip, we entered the lower series at the bottom entrance, working backwards through the 5th water cavern to the 2nd water cavern and daylight. This takes about half an hour. The upper series is entered by climbing down a 4m chimney which leads to a boulder choke. Once this is passed natural caverns in the beddings are reached where a vast flow stone slope comes from high on the left leading down to a small streamway.

We made our way out and before long were seated in the Miner’s Standard at Winster enjoying Real Ale and Cheese Burgers.

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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 11 April 2013

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Report by Steve (Stik) Rider
Cavers: Steve (Stik) Rider (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Paul (Paz) Vale (EPC), Gary Bode (EPC)

There are those type of Sundays when the previous Thursday it seamed a good idea to get up at 7, drive to Ingleton, get changed in the rain and trudge across the moor to Lancaster. I’m sure we’ve all had them.

This particular Sunday was one of those. Well, it was for a while then it ended up being rather good. Me, Jase and Gaz turned up at the Cottage Café to collect Paz at about 9:00am and Paz was breakfasted and ready to show ‘us young ones’ what it’s like down Ease Gill.

We set off for Bull Farm in excited anticipation. Having not been there before, it was interesting to see the place after hearing so much about it.

The four of us changed in the wet, and made our way across the moor to the top of Lancaster Hole. There were a dozen or so other cavers at the entrance, so we rigged quickly and started to decend. This was not before we overheard one of the other cavers instructing his companion to ‘hold in the handle and feed the rope through. It’s dead easy. If anything goes wrong just let go of the handle’ . . . . . A fine time to learning the art of abseiling on a Stop !

We were soon down in Lancaster, making our way through Bridge Hall, Kath’s Way and Bill Taylors passage before reaching Montague East passage and the dark, foreboding expanses of Fall Pot. However, this was not our route as the Main Drain was high and had indeed claimed the life of a caver from Lancaster the previous weekend. Our trip was to explore the high level system around Montague (Western Extensions)t passage.

Paz set off up a mud slope which led to an entertaining ‘climb’ and squirm up a small aven (this aided by a short section of strategically placed ladder) which led in turn to a well decorated hands and knees sized passage (Montague Western Extensions).

After 10 minutes or so crawling a junction is reached, the left hand branch of which terminates a short distance away at two abandoned digs. Paz was adamant that this was the way. We eventually persuaded him that it was the other way and led off that way onto Waterfall Passage which is entered from a slope some 50ft above the stream. This stream was in full torrent so a high level traverse was opted for. After some time of slowly traversing above the flooded stream I was wondering just how deep it really was. This was answered as Paz appeared from round a corner up to just below his knees! There was no chance of being swept away after all ! (not by Paz anyway Ed). We all dropped to the stream and had a sporting time negotiating the various cascades and pools encountered before making our way back to the junction with Montague Western passage.

We then carried on up the passage to meet the resurgence sump from Bull Pot of the Witches (Wilf Taylors passage) which was definitely too deep to stand in as it made it’s way to the main drain.

On the return to Fall Pot area Paz again insisted that the ‘abandoned dig passage’ was the way on and again we persuaded him otherwise. He said it was 15 years since he was last here ! We said we’d never been before !

After returning back to the foot of the entrance shaft we got prusiking up the 100ft or so into the retreating daylight of the fog covered moor of Casterton Fell.

We must go caving with Paz again this was great and if not for foot and mouth we would have no doubt spent a considerable length of time in Lancaster Hole between the date of this trip and now . . . .