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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 22 April 2023

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With the rest of my faithful team members off on a jolly, I was surprised to find myself wandering across a barren quarry in Stoney to meet Ben, again. I can assure you it’s not the prospects of this project that have brought me here today. Ben has decided that his first ever dig will be the making of him and he’s certainly giving it a good go, and I suppose I mostly came to judge his character and determination (and to hopefully help to make sure it wasn’t going to be his first and last dig ever!).

Ben in his hole

This evening he was joined by TSG’s Gottzone which made it a very easy and sociable digging session. We each took it in turns, digging, picking, capping, and general pisstaking as much as possible. I made the mistake of ending up at the front when my newly opened beer was at the back which didn’t help my already lacking determination to stay digging. To be fair it’s a very pleasant and easy dig, so at least it’s got that going for it. And if Ben can get this excited about such a crap looking dig, I have every confidence in his digging enthusiasm well into the future.

Al chatting shit at the entrance

After me, Gottzone was doing his final session until we hear a load of shouting and swearing. A few minutes later he emerged with the rock that had fallen on his finger, which was now pissing blood all over the place making a right mess! We pack up quick and get him back to the cars before his blood loss causes him to pass out, because he’s be quite heavy to carry. We then make a very poor dressing of tissues and cable tiesand head straight to the Miners who refused us in (21:50, shocking!) but at least gave us a plaster. Then we rush to the Moon which also had called time (22:05, what’s wrong with the world!?). With I suppose a little bit of concern we encourage Al to drive his low blood sugar and blood levels body back home, but make sure he gives us a shout when back.

Apparently he is the second TSG member to smash a finger in this dig. Some may say the extra detail of the club membership is unimportant here, others may disagree…

Ooops

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 15 March 2023

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Tuesday Nighters - Katie, Edvin, Chris, John, Jess, Hal and Victoria

Well time for more Tuesday night fun! Jess and Katie threw around some ideas and due to the snow and general deluge of precipitation the Clatterways levels arose as a good and promisingly dry trip out. We weren’t sure if we needed two ropes but brought them just in case. Once we arrived and parked up it was time to walk and climb up the muddy bank to find the entrance. It is a nice tight entrance which leads to a fun 6 m pitch. Once down it is followed by a fairly free climbing pitch with a knotted line. Due to my reduced stature and desperately lacking arm strength I used my downing gear and met everyone at the bottom. From there it seemed like endless crawling and stooping passages of mine in several directions. We all spent some time exploring the pipe-workings. Throughout the mine there were interesting calcite walls and speleothems. Jess, Katie, John and Chris made it down to find some historic graffiti while Edvin explored a nice upper route. Katie remembered crossing a plank before. We did find a nice shaft but no plank. A few taller participants ventured across only to find a dead end. Exploring more we eventually came across a metal bar that could pass for a plank and went across. This led to the now blocked lower entrance. We respected that this is the garden entrance of a local resident who doesn’t fancy cavers jumping up into their garden so we went back to explore. We eventually met up again and began the trip out. It didn’t take long until we gathered above. Katie modelled her new caving suit, made with cosmic love by Beth. A brief thought of a pint at the Miners but we didn’t make it in time. Fresh snow had been falling so we made our way back to the High Peaks happy from another fine night out with the Tuesday Nighters.

Chris, Katie and Jess

Clatterways levels piling in

Edvin in Clatterways level

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Written by: Ben Marks

Published: 05 March 2023

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Above: The rubbish freeclimbers unite! Jim Thompson (L), Ben Marks (R)

             A prompt 0830 start saw us meet Jim and his van on the lane up towards Titan, and we were soon parked, changed and stomping across the fields towards the shaft. Jim, with a renewed twinkle in his eye after being the recipient of 2023’s ‘most awesome caver’ award (courtesy of Team Awesome!) was excited for the trip, as this would be his first time experiencing the awe of Titan! Jim was first to lower himself into the comparative warmth of the entrance shaft, followed by myself and then Jon. Once I’d landed in the blasted passage at the bottom, I stooped my way over to the window and gingerly waited on the edge looking out into the abyss – it’s a view that never gets old. I had assumed Jim was on the pitch, so waited until I could hear a rumble of a “rope free!” from below. However, soon Jon was sat with me too, and after having a chat for a while we suddenly heard some clanking and a worried sounding voice exclaim “Jon!”. Slightly taken aback by this, we both stared back up the blasted passage, only to hear and see nothing! Weird… Until a rather confused and disgruntled Jim joined us by the window – He’d only gone and somehow turned the wrong way at the bottom of the entrance shaft, and walked in the complete opposite direction to the largest vertical cave shaft in the UK! Oh well, it was his first time…

            With all of us past the event horizon traverse, and making that ballsy step of unclipping from the traverse line halfway up Titan, we headed over to the inlet marking the beginning of the Titan Streamway. I’d only ever been to see the first few cascades and never beyond, so I was excited to head up into the streamway proper. It’s such a beautiful bit of cave. White scalloped limestone is clean washed by a lovely flow of clear water. I can see why nobody has ever had the heart to put some handlines in – it’s just so pretty. It’s fair to say that freeclimbing the cascades provided some real challenge for me, and Jim didn’t seem to enjoy them too much either. With gorgeous stream washed limestone cascades comes an extreme lack of hand and footholds, and getting up the cascades was very much dependant on bridging and chimneying up them (as well as some excellent leg ups from Jim and some killer wrist grabs from Jon!). I’d not caved properly for a month or so, and so it was a bit of a struggle to get up these! Worth it though.

            Once through what is one of the finest streamways in Derbyshire, a wet flat out crawl is met for a little way, and after some navigational cockups from Jon ‘you cant get lost, its dead straightforward’ Pemberton, we pressed on through ‘Wetsville’, followed by ‘Slopsville’ and then the thrutch up through some boulders to enter a fantastic aven with a handlined climb leading off up towards the Absolution boulder choke. Just fantastic, varied caving which feels completely alien for a peak district trip. I gave the handlined climb a go, but I just felt it was too much risk of me decking it before my physical assessments for the fire service on Wednesday! None of us had a watch either, so it was decided we would turn around. A shame really, as from what I’ve heard the cave really starts to get good from here. Oh well, another reason to return.

            The return journey was far more straightforward: It was great fun sliding back down the stream cascades, and felt like we were out canyoning! Jim headed off first back up to the window whilst I scoffed my strategically stashed Double Decker, and Jon and I got very cold whilst listening to the soft tones of Jim leisurely singing and prussiking back out at tortoise speed! As soon as his shout echoed around the void, I shot up the rope and was shortly back at the entrance shaft to find Jim still climbing. All three of us were quickly back up to surface, and chatting about how good the trip was – If only we’d taken some photos, but Jon had forgotten his SD card. Another trip back will be on the cards very soon…

All in all, a fantastic trip to top off what has been a brilliant AGM weekend - I've enjoyed meeting some of the people I've heard so many stories about, and of course being voted in as a full member! 

Ben Marks