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Written by: Jim Thompson

Published: 15 January 2023

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Team: Chris, Jim, Rob, Jon, Kristian, Victoria, Hal

Following a year in which I visited Yorkshire caves more often in 6 months than I had in the previous 20 years, I almost didn’t know what to do when Kristian, without recourse to discussion or anything, took it upon himself to organise a trip only 2 weeks into the year, but acceptance was the only real option, particularly when Chris so readily agreed to pick me up on route, taking care of the hardest part of Yorkshire caving, the hassle of getting up there from Derbyshire.

We arrived at a chilly and dark Greenclose early in the afternoon, spending some time trying to work out why no lights or heating would work. Problem resolved, fire lit, we settled in to await the arrival of the others.

Various NPC members began to arrive in the early evening, and not long after dinner the remaining EPC gang turned up, loaded as always with food, drink and other goodies, and a very pleasant evening was spent chatting and discussing our wet weather options for the weekend with those in the know over a very well stocked and kindly shared cheeseboard.

After an evening of much deliberation and far too much Brazilian whisky the decision was made, due to the amount of rain over the previous few days the planned trip down Dihedral was probably not a good choice and the decision of an exchange trip between Flood passage (Wade’s) and Bar pot seemed a much more palatable option.

At a surprisingly early hour for an EPC weekend, and full up on Bacon, Sausage and Booths bins finest eggs we all made our way to Clapham for the hour walk up to the Bar pot and Flood entrances. The hour soon passed, we decided it would be a good idea to have a look at Gaping Gill to reaffirm the decision that Dihedral was as predicted too wet. Confirmed. A few of us also took the opportunity to add a little extra to the impressive Waterfall thundering into the opening.

Back to the two chosen entrances, the two teams consisted of Hal, Victoria, Kris and Chris rigging Wade’s and Rob, Jim and Jon rigging the Bar Pot pitches.

The team in Bar made quick and uneventful progress and were soon marvelling at the amazing main chamber, taking photographs and bathing in spray, and made a quick detour into the mud caverns before turning back to look for the others, who seemed to be taking too long.

We’d soon discover why, as Chris explains:

“Kris went off first down Flood rigging the first pitch within a couple of minutes and through the rebelay in a similar time. With the shout of rope free I was up next. I knew if I could get past the first squeeze I would be fine for the rest of the trip, after much puffing and panting I was through and the descent from here was fine passing the rebelay and reaching Kris at the bottom of the pitch. Vic followed and Hal wasn’t far behind. Re-grouping we head through some nice small passage including a small amount of crawling, to the head of the shorter second pitch. This was dropped by all four with no issue, a similar amount of walking, stooping and crawling lead us onto the third pitch. Again passed by all with no issues. Kris took the opportunity to get some GoPro footage of these pitches with some slightly sketchy commentary at times. On the approach to the fifth and final pitch, during a slightly tricky climb down we realised that this was in fact the short fourth pitch but being committed and halfway down decided that it was in fact free climbable so left the rope at the top of the pitch head.

Fifth and final pitch was at the top of a beautiful pot with waterfall cascading down the left-hand wall. Kris rigged the top of the pitch and soon disappeared to rig the rebelay and, what we later realised should have been two deviations. Past the first rebelay Kris gave the shout of rope free and I started my descent the 9mm rope made quick work of reaching the rebelay which was quickly passed. I gave the shout and Vic soon followed. Coming down the final stretch of the pitch the 9mm rope now started to give me a slight problem as my stop did not hold up to its name and I shot past the deviation slightly. After again much puffing, panting and swearing I finally managed to pass and get the rope clipped back into deviation and descended to the bottom of the pitch to meet Kris. I gave the shout and Vic set off. She too had the same issue as I, shooting past the deviation although much further this time. After some deliberation she decided that the best cause of action would be to go back up above the deviation, unfortunately during the change over from down to up she ended up in even more of a tangle and unclipping the deviation meant that all this was now going on under the torrent of the water fall on the left-hand wall, at this point it’s safe to say Vic was considerably moist….. Kris decided that it would be best if he went up to help and I set off to see if the other group had made it down the other entrance and if so, offer some assistance. I could see their tackle bags and SRT kits but they must have set off to main chamber as we had planned. Getting back to the ordeal under the waterfall Vic had not managed to correct the tangle of ropes and decided the only option was to cut he lifeline on her hand Jammer which was stopping her from descending. This done Kris descended and Vic followed. Hal Watching this from the rebelay was then give the all clear to descend and advised to watch out for Vic’s ascender on the way down.”

Heading down the ladder from mud caverns we observed headlamps just appearing in the chamber… and on closer inspection a rather wet, cold and shaken Vic accompanied by Chris. I administered bear hugs, Jon administered his dry balaclava and gloves, and we got moving.

The Flood team would be exiting from Bar and myself, Rob and Jon from Flood, this being an exchange trip and all, so once all of us were reunited we went our separate ways again.

The bottom pitch of Flood, minus any deviation, had the rope hanging directly under the waterfall, and I drew the short straw (OK was pressganged on account of being the only one in a yellow suit) as first man up. Armed with a variety of slings, I bravely headed upwards, Jon pulling the rope to keep me away from the water, which worked for all of about 3 feet but made the rope come out of my chest ascender at an alarming angle. Looking up was not an option, looking down was pretty grim as the water shot down my neck and took my breath away. I passed a fuzzy bit on the rope but wasn’t hanging round to investigate. Eventually I reached the deviation sling and swung over to it, got the rope clipped but of course it made bugger all difference so I carried on up. I was still getting the full drowning experience so having somehow spotted an eroded eyehole in the rock away from the water, kicked my way over to it and hooked a finger in. This made it hard to get the sling sorted, so I spent a few minutes kicking, sorting, drowning, kicking etc until I’d got a deviation in. After that it was a quick prusik to the top. I shouted rope free and just carried on. The next pitch was fine and I was much warmer so hung around in the dark waiting for Jon who emerged with tales of a shockingly coreshot rope he’d decided need an alpine butterfly to isolate… that was the furry bit!

The last bit of cave before entrance pitch was amazing, and after main chamber possibly my favourite part of the whole day, sinuous crawling and sideways walking. Like a Yorkshire version of the crabwalk and really lovely.

Last pitch and out, just in time to see the other team appearing out of their hole. It was freezing up top and Vic had a lonely walk down to Clapham:

“briefly heard Rob and John say they were going to keep up their fitness and try not freeze to death by running back down the Dale…I knew Hal and Kristian were right behind  me de -rigging so I kept walking. I thought the only saving grace was there wasn’t any rain. Oh wait…yep that is hail and rain on my head. Once I saw the lights of the village I knew it wasn’t far. There they all were…changed and dry..and just noticing my absence. Oh did I mention it was my birthday as well? Once I peeled the wet gear off we headed back to a nice warm hut to enjoy some spectacular Costco Victoria Sponge cake and dry off…….Kristian was a star (one for the quick rescue and another for making a spicy hot vegetarian chili)  We took a look at Jim’s new 100 metre rope which had bore the brunt of my sightseeing and decided it was now two good ropes. Thanks everyone for the laughs, rescue and bear hugs.”

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 05 January 2023

Hits: 1597

Shaft L near Mouldridge Mine

Hal, Brendan, Allan and Victoria

Unfortunately Katie was missing this evening as it was a rare opportunity for her to go along on a trip she hasn’t actually done! On our previous trip out to Mouldridge Hal and Allan had spotted the nearby covered shaft in the hillside and rather than joining us decided to have a look. Tonight, we went back again as it was reported to be an excellent example of hand picked mine. It did not disappoint.

After unlocking the lid we had placed a scaff bar across and descended down into the mine shaft. It is a really stable and large shaft. The account from Hal and Allan was that the shaft does not go anywhere at the bottom but rather the interesting mine workings were on the shaft halfway down. With a small swing you can land on a nice ledge (don’t lose the rope) and start your way through all hand picked passages.

Some are quite large and with four in the party we all had enough space. There were numerous places to do some crawling which usually lead to dead ends. Some walls were very loose with stacked deads but they were fairly obvious. We saw several nice dogtooth crystals and some very old mining remnants. On the previous trip down Hal and Allan had dropped a gas meter and the readings were acceptable. We did find some remnants of a suspected gas mask left behind by some miners of long ago.

Regrouping at the shaft, Allan decided to check out another level that was accessed by a short prussik up and a climb. You could see an old mine cart and it led through to a short walkable passage. Allan said there were some more nice calcite formations. It was a quick trip up and out and back into some clear skies. We had a great view of what appeared to be satellites tracing across the night sky…..We had time to make games night in the Miners Arms for one. Bonus ! they serve free grub as well.

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Written by: Jim Thompson

Published: 20 December 2022

Hits: 1535

Team: Luke, Joe, Jon, Jim, Chris

For me, Castleton has always been a quintessential Christmas village, and although with age, the scale of festive lights in general appears to have diminished, the warm and cosy feeling I get when Christmas approaches just stays the same, so I looked forward to a break from exploration and a proper social trip into Peak on what would be one of the clearest, coldest nights of the year. Driving in, the pubs were all packed and casting a warm glow into the frost-sparkled streets and all felt well with the world.

The team assembled by the church and were joined by Moose bearing gifts, namely the keys to the cave, and to let us into the TSG. Luxury changing facilities indeed given it was well into minus degrees outside.

Duly changed we strolled up to the cave, ice crystals reflecting lamp beams in every direction, a definite winter scene filling us with cheer.

It’s a long time since I was last in Peak. I’ve never been in there enough to ‘get to know it’ like some caves, nor could I really remember much. Moving through the showcave is quite impressive but feels somewhat strange when caves are not a novelty and don’t need to be made consumable, although I get a familiar sense, in spite of the 15 years since I was last here, of excitement at passing through the gate at the end. Out of bounds unless you’re special, competent and privileged. I’ll soon have a renewed appreciation at just how significant that privilege is…

A quick whizz down the slide brings us to the water and it’s ace to be stomping along in spacious, pretty passage. A bit of stooping under a series of arches reminds me that this is probably Five Arches, followed by the Mucky Ducks which are neither mucky nor a duck. Onwards up a canyon and there are various ways off this main drag, one of which I think I recognise as the way to Moss Chamber, but it’s been such a long time that I’m marvelling in the whole experience like it’s a first visit. It’s all really fun but so far a mere appetiser for the grandeur that awaits.

Luke and Joe leave us to revisit BOOM! And we continue to charge along the amazing streamway, climbing out of the vadose slot and balancing across the gap, and after a short while reach a hole at the top of which is a sturdy iron ladder. Looking out across this vantage points reveals the enormous expanse of Surprise View, Jon is hollering and being greeted by an incredible echo in this massive rift. We head upstream and I’m delighted by the sheer beauty of the place, pretty much skipping along until we reach the smooth silence of Far Sump.

The return downstream is swift and we meet Luke and Joe along the way, stopping for photos before continuing downstream at Surprise View. What starts as a large canyon eventually turns into an absolutely stunning phreatic tube.

It’s nothing short of incredible to be able to visit a place so amazing on a normal evening after work. Further on the water deepens and we reach the lovely Buxton Water Sump before turning round and finding our spot in the tube for a photo session. I stand as directed while Jon snaps away and feel excited at the outcome. Photographer satisfied, we shoot back up the ladder and make one final detour on the way out to visit Treasury Sump. So unlike the others, a bed of thick gravel drills down steeply to the water suggesting a challenging dive.

On the way out I vow to get to know this fantastic cave better, tonight has merely scraped the surface.