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Written by: Fabian Ehlers

Published: 01 March 2024

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Present: Rob, Jon, Sam, Luke, Joe, Ben and Fabian

Following a last minute change of tonight’s plan due to the wet stuff causing us some problems with Plan A, it was decided to have a reconnaissance trip down Gentlewomen’s Shaft and inspect the reported collapse in Youd’s Level (AKA Ringing Rake Sough).

Ben and myself arrived rather early in the Artists Corner car park and the rest of the team was slowly arriving, pre-beers were enjoyed and everyone piled into Rob’s car to head up towards the lay-by and progress was made towards the entrance shaft.

After descending the tight shaft the team met up in the first chamber and started to make steady progress towards the old mine workings as well as the ascending and descending chimneys and shafts.

With Luke leading the way, he ultimately arrived at the first wet squeeze and started to grovel his way through using the handily supplied tools before shouting back “This looks shit!” as he looked into the second squeeze. After a few minutes of digging and deepening the passage he slithered through and emerged on the other side. I got myself thoroughly stuck whilst trying to get through this squeeze and had to rely on Luke trying to pull me out yet the rocks under my back and arse prevented this from happening. A little wiggle and I managed to get through.

Rob, Jon and Sam must’ve been thirsty as they decided to tackle this squeeze face down and have a little rehydration stop on the way. 

Rob suggested a little detour to inspect a nearby Jigging Box which was in very good condition and it’s always exciting to find evidence of T’Owd Man. We continued further downstream and started to follow the obvious stream way towards what seemed like a dead end. After a little bit of poking and digging Rob and Luke managed to squeeze through and were met with a further collapse which seemed impassable. 

We know that at some point there may be difficult sections requiring some digging in order to breach through into the coffin level. Without being fully aware of the extent of this collapse nor having visited it from the other side it was decision time: spend time and continue to dig or start retracing our steps and head out. The consensus was let’s leave and come back from the other side at a later time. 

Before attempting the first squeeze everyone spent a good few minutes digging the wet passage slightly deeper, creating a trench to reduce the water level and generally make it more appealing. Everyone passed with ease as this section was now incredibly easy. The way back through the maze of interconnecting passages and chimneys certainly is more technical from this direction and climbs felt slightly more exposed and all footholds seemed to have disappeared.

The ascend up Gentlewomen’s Shaft certainly split the prepared from the unprepared of the team, “Team Pantin” made it out very easy whereby “Team Hardcore” took their sweet time to make progress as getting into an efficient position to prussik is extremely difficult in such a narrow shaft.

Joe and myself were the last out and after derigging the pitch made swift progress towards the waiting and warm team, jumped in the boot and went to the car park to get changed into dry clothes. Thanks to Ben for bringing the post-trip cakes.

A certainly interesting trip although being a dead end for now, a little bit of work would make this an amazing Peak District trip to go onto everyone’s to-do list.

Fabian

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Written by: Jim Thompson

Published: 22 January 2024

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Team: Archie T, Jim T, Luke C, Chris H

Following a successful ‘first trip’* for Archie on which he left the old men in the dust on the Giant’s Round Trip, we were keen to maintain the momentum for Eldon’s youngest new aspirant with honing SRT skills being the order of the day, given that he can probably crawl further than us, climbs anything and fits through much smaller gaps, so no formal training required in that respect.

Only recently have I come to appreciate just what a super little cave Snelslow is. Straightforward access (if you take note of where to look and don’t spend ages wandering around fields in the dark in completely the wrong place) , lovely and dry, and everything needed for some more than just a straight up and down within 5 mins of the entrance, and it’s a really spectacular pitch with good visibility for onlookers.

It's also up the Giant’s track and given reports of that being covered in snow earlier in the week we did a bit of logistical leapfrogging that saw Archie and I plus kit in Chris’ car and the three of then being picked up at Perryfoot by our hero Luke in his awesome Hilux, lamenting the fact that he was running it on fumes and had severe range anxiety.

The winter sky was crystal clear as we stood chatting, with stars visible and a gentle moonlight sparkling on the snow around us. Chris pointed out a fast moving satellite, then another, and we realised a seemingly endless train of Starlinks was passing overhead. They just kept appearing out of the far horizon until, after what seemed like ages, the last one passed out of view. (n.b Wikipedia says there are 5000+ of them in orbit, and that a train may consist of 50-60)

Once our rapture subsided we looked towards the moon, with a really bright Jupiter peeping out just below it. Although it was absolutely freezing, being outside at night in this spot was the place to be.

We didn’t come for astronomy though so we all hopped into the Hilux and drove up to Peakshill where it was indeed 4X4 (or at least certainly not camper van) accessible.

The prebeers were frozen as soon as they were opened as was our skin. Questioning our life choices we got changed as soon as we could, but with Archie needing his new (kindly gifted by Chris) harness adjusting I soon lost the feeling in my fingers and wondered if they’d ever warm up. Fortunately Chris could vaguely remember the way to the hole so we shot across the fields and ended up only slightly off course sliding on our arses down the snow to get to stream level. We reached the entrance and Archie was straight down the ladder and in before we could even do a bit of a briefing. Chris set off after him and explained the couple of pitches and what to expect before heading off to rig them.

Soon after It was rope free and time for Archie to get on the rope. He’d managed fine with my close supervision on the Garland’s pitch head but now we were introducing a rebelay and deviation into the mix and it was a strange feeling seeing my own flesh and blood leave the safety of the pitch head and swing into a sizeable space where all I could do was talk him through any difficulties. Fortunately he’d remembered everything he’d learned and we’d drilled on the stairs at home and didn’t need any help at all. I breathed again and headed down to join him and once Luke joined us we all crawled towards the last pitch. Luke took the lead this time and quickly rigged, before calling up that it could hardly be called a pitch and didn’t think there’d be enough room for 4 of us down there. I had a look over and he was right. We opted to send Archie down to squeeze a bit more practice out of the evening and once he was down him and Luke did look akin to sardines standing in a little hole at the bottom.

I listened to Luke talking Archie through the mechanics of prusiking and dealing with a rope that refuses to run through a Croll, grateful that he was in safe hands, and once he was back with me checked that Luke was OK derigging the whole cave and we made for the rope, me having a little chuckle as Archie rather thoughtfully asked if Luke would be alright on his own… I didn’t hear much crying from below so guessed he would be.

I headed off up the rope demoing the two footed rope trap technique as I did and stood by at the pitch head again to wait for an Archie who emerged at the obstacles a bit tired. I observed that his harness was suffering from adjustment at the point after which my fingers seemed to have failed to operate so his leg loops were behind his knees and he was pretty much laying out horizontally with no support from his Croll. Still, he was unfazed and not moaning so it’s all part of the process, caving being the oft-minging experience we all thrive on enduring.

Soon after we all emerged on the surface feeling a warmth that stayed with us all the way to the car although it was still good weather for Polar Bears and I yearned for a fur coat as I bared my arse to the moon.

Keen to give Archie the full TA experience we swapped the cars and zipped off to the Anchor for pints and snacks, and were joined by Rob, Sam and Jon with a tale to tell.

*first SRT trip that wasn’t an ill-advised faff down Cussey that probably led to not wanting to try caving again for a year

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Written by: Chris Hibberts

Published: 19 January 2024

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Team: Jim T, Archie T, Chris Hibberts

The original plan for the evening was to go and look at the collapse in Makshill, but it didn’t take much persuading from Jim to sack it off and take Eldon’s newest aspirant, son of “….Legend and saviour of Eldon”, Archie T on a more enjoyable trip down Giants. Plan was to introduce Archie to SRT on Garlands and complete the round trip.

After meeting at the carpark and pre beers in a nice warm van it was time to brave the cold and kit up. Archie got a quick brief on his SRT equipment, and we set off up a very windy and cold valley to the entrance. Once in the entrance it didn’t take long to warm up and the trip to Garlands was pretty swift. I rigged Garlands and Archie followed, with instruction from Jim he was soon at the bottom of the pitch with no issues, mind you living with a legend who invented Alpine Caving Techniques this came as no surprise.

We made our way through the crab walk and Archie led the way, he was off like a whippet only stopping to check back to see if me and Jim were keeping up. I realised that although I’d done several trips into Giants with family and friends to the top of garlands it had been 10 years since I’d been in the crab walk and I was a little larger than the last time I’d been in there so some sections had to be passed by crawling in the lower wider sections especially at the Vice squeeze.

Having navigated to the end of the crab walk it was over to Jim to lead the way from the Eating House, I also realised that I’d never actually done the Giants round trip so it would be a first for both Archie and me. Following the way, we soon realised that we had missed a right-hand turn and ended up in Maggins Rift. Climbing back down we only then realised the size of the rift which was very impressive. Back on track we soon found the start of Giants Windpipe which was quite full with about 6/7 inches of space between the water and roof.

Finding the top of the crab walk the water below could be heard, with Jim giving Archie hints and tips on how to negotiate the climbdown we were soon back in the water and made our way to the bottom of garlands pot. We all made quick work of getting back up the pitch and Archie handled it like a pro. As we approached the entrance the temperature was starting to drop and the walk back to the car was even colder now with wet gear.

We changed and head to the Anchor for post caving refreshments only to find that they had shut early, we tried the Red Lion but this was shut too so called it a night and head off.

Archie was now keen to expand on his SRT training with plans to do a longer trip next week. Watch this space……