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Written by: Jim Thompson

Published: 03 June 2022

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Team: Jon P, Sam P, Ben S, Jim T

I’d been keeping my wetsuit fresh for this one. As Captain Rob was away and we’d been talking about it for a while, the target was a through-trip – down Cliffstile, up the sough into Glebe and via Doom for a Cussey exit.

Meeting up on a glorious evening, I arrived in plenty of time to observe the trough-newts in Eyam until it was confirmed I was in fact in the wrong place. Error rectified, and keen to crack on, I soon regretted getting into my wetsuit so early as I itched and sweated in the sun.

After a very pleasant walk through the village, past the odd bemused smirk, we were lifting the heavy lid on Cliffstile. What a shaft! Plumb vertical, 80m straight down and nicely ginged.

Ben headed down first whilst ever supportive, Jon asked me if I still knew how to pass a rebelay….

It was amazing to look down the shaft once Sam had headed down and see his and Ben’s lights way down at the bottom, clear and bright in spite of the distance. I got on the rope, unlocked my Stop and enjoyed the ginging as it rolled past and soon reached the first rebelay, where the craftsmanship transitioned to mining and the shaft became solid limestone. Soon enough I was clipping my super short cowstail into the second anchors. Stop off, reinstalled and then…. Everything I tried just made me pivot on the cowstail. I might as well have clipped my D straight onto the hanger. It seemed I hadn’t forgotten how to pass a rebelay, but nevertheless we were in for a bit of faff. Jammers on, climbing the rope above, the short cowstail was definitely too short for this one. Jon appeared above me and after a minute of kicking and pushing me in the back, I was released and got down to rejoin Sam and Ben through the small hole access to the sough.

The cold water of the sough was welcome after that, and we started upstream, stooping at first and with some resistance from the water, such was the level of flow even in summer. Stooping deepened to wading, semi floating in a seemingly endless perfect arch of perfectly cut thin gritstone blocks atop the underlying limestone. Seriously impressive engineering.

Eventually we reached a sharp turn in the sough, to be greeted by an old ladder heading a fair distance above. A bold step off it halfway  up it onto a ledge took us into Glebe, and had a look about the various levels and rooms in there. All quite urbex-y being relatively modern, with rails and metalwork, hose, cables and concrete steps.

Knowing nothing of the place, I followed along and at some point we headed into middle-level Doom. This was more like it. Lots of natural and Jon pointed out a number of leads waiting to be pushed or continued. Signs of t’owd man were everywhere, including a complete clay pipe looking like it’d been left there yesterday. All over the walls were small pockets of clay with fingerprints in them and some impressive dry stone walling protecting the walkway from a deep hole on the edge.

Keen to press on we climbed up a wall, handily equipped with rebar staples, and entered the – to me notorious - Loperamide Lust, a key feature of Cussey Pot for so long and yet this was to be my maiden grovel. Unlike the various videos and stories I’d heard, it was not the soaking wet slop-fest I expected. The mud had dried out to an almost plasticene consistency and I found myself wishing it was a bit wetter. Nevertheless, with hands out in front and toes doing most of the pushing I made decent progress and eventually found myself at a fairly significant change in angle. This up-slope was an absolute bastard. Already feeling it by this point, I struggled to make any upward progress. I felt hands at my feet – Ben to the rescue – and apologised in advance as I started to kick and push, and in no time I was turning onto my back looking up into the relative vastness of Inglorious Bastard… I knew where I was now and was ready for the familiar climb out of Cussey. As my last trip down and back out from here had felt easy, I looked forward to the technicalities of the Shattered Dreams squeeze and Coconut Airways, and set off up the rope…. Listening to the others chatting at the bottom, I was a bit too keen to hang on the rope at the top and join in the conversation….but resting doesn’t equal moving so off I went again to get off the pitch and make my way over the hole to the next rope. By now nothing felt easy, so I reminded myself to take it steady… something I’d heard about most accidents happening after a long drive occur a mile away from home, now wouldn’t be a good time to do something daft. The shattered dreams pitch felt awkward and horrible, but I was nearly there. A couple of months ago, the sight of the vertical squeeze up would have been met with anything but relief but here I was, I knew how to do it just right and just slid up and through it, and like every other time, it felt amazing. On to Coconut, my new route up it making it feel like a normal climb rather than the living end that my first journey up had been, albeit one where the pull on the stemple took a concerted effort to engage with.

All that remained was to make the entrance pitch feel and operate like I really had never done SRT before, and I hauled myself out into the balmy Eyam dusk. The walk through the village really did feel like a trek so I was very grateful to Sam as he’d already got changed, closed the Cliffstile lid and retrieved my spanner.

Back at the vans, it felt amazing to be chatting and laughing with such a fantastic bunch, and as I have done a lot recently, I felt elated at the trip we’d just had and moreso at the team I had to do it with. Particularly as at this point I discovered that I literally couldn’t get my wetsuit off so one of them had to draw the short straw and peel me out of it.

Ben treated us all to cake and the beer went down as the dusk turned to darkness.

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 20 May 2022

Hits: 1616

This week I met up with Cat, Bernie, Adrian and Katie who led the way into Waterway Swallet. I even remembered to print out the DCA Cave Monitoring Form and tucked it into my suit.

The survey indicates that the entrance is prone to flooding and as we arrived we had a brief  shower. Once we walked down to the swallet it was obvious that it lies below a small stream and could flood under heavy conditions. Luckily this was not the case with us. The lid is not secure anymore but is laying on top of the entrance-still very heavy. We started to descend into this tight boulder choke of a cave.

Once we made it through the entrance series we got into the Main Chamber. The features here are noted as massive crinoid fossiliferous bedrock. We spent some time looking at the impressive crinoids here and the smooth brown rocks. Katie was pretty sure they were dragon eggs but that is not my area of expertise. Following Cat ( who likes to look at the survey again whilst sandwiched in a bedding plane, my feet inches from her head) we descended down into Toad Haul. I am quite aware each time I am in a cave with so much down pitch that inevitably I will have to climb back out. This cave was fine. None of the drops were ridiculously far and there were at least two static ropes along the way.

After the Gallery we dropped down into a long area of scaffolded dig. There were some dedicated cavers here. I believe this  credit goes to Keyhole Caving and Orpheus Caving Clubs. I tried to take a photo of the warning signs but was too busy twisting my body through. At the bottom of two long hand lines and a crafty boulder climb we were at the point of heading off to find Room 101 or down to the Rising Damp Sump. We chose to head down and we did find the undisturbed mudbank containing silty-sediments that was on our survey. Yes, it is still there and still undisturbed.

I did not look at the survey at this point and for our  ascent I opted for pub as it was getting late and not to take a look for Room 101. Looking at it now I wished I had ..well I guess that means another trip.

Thank you Cat for sharing your flattened ancient gummy worms with me. You can always trust a Doctor to have emergency supplies. The climb out was wonderful. Lots of bouldering and twists and turns. Then all of a sudden that warm smell of the Earth..we emerged in twilight into a delicious bed of wild garlic. 

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Written by: Jim Thompson

Published: 09 May 2022

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Team: Bog, JimT, JonP, SamP, RobE, JoeB

With a late night epic off the table due to the monthly EPC pub meet tonight, an assorted rabble  formed from various members of a triumvirate of Eldon dream teams – Awesome, Average and Girthsome - met at the Delph layby intending to make a quick recce into Nickergrove to assess the accessibility of the streamway and see if it looked like the Stoney mastercave.

Prebeers supped, a bit of catching up with Bog, followed by a quick stroll up the Delph, adorned as it is at this time of year by wild garlic and general lovely spring verdancy, wholesome conversation flowing and all feeling relaxed, I reflected on how fantastic it is to be back caving with such a wonderful bunch after my hiatus.

We nipped into the adit entrance, down the shaft and had soon assembled in the muddy chamber at the head of the ladder, where Rob was already at the bottom making a fairly rapid assessment of the connection. Specifically that the whole lot had collapsed and the tiny hole that remained looked a pretty impossible prospect for reopening. Although disappointing, it answered the question and meant that we’d be on our way out imminently. At this point my general happiness, and the now removed need to take anything seriously, burst over into general idiocy to the delight of Bog and Sam, and I suspect dismay of soulless Joe. No calls of ‘Jim STFU we can’t dig’ on this occasion, however.

Rob reappeared and showed us the video of his knees, followed by a collapse to the roof and aforementioned tiny hole over the top.

 We headed back to the shaft, prusiking part-way up and into a hole in the wall, followed by a bit of crawling and a slither back down which Bog helpfully confirmed didn’t, after all, require the use of a descender to, well, descend.

Back to the Didsbury shaft, Jon took a couple of photos on the way out and into a warm, daylit evening while Rob derigged the pitch inside the mine.

Straight up to the Anchor for important discussion about our choice of disposable lingerie made a pleasant end to a very social evening.