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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 08 September 2017

Hits: 3581

Team Awesome assembled at the usual car park and after searching deep for some much needed psyche we kitted up and made our way over to Boxing Day Swallet. Skirting the river we eventually stumbled upon what we believed was the old way in to Sneshigh Swallet. We knew from COPD that the water had been diverted from this swallet in the 80's in to Boxing Day swallet so continued to follow the water downstream where we eventually met a large rotten lid where Rob could hear a waterfall - BINGO!

The guidebook marks this pothole with a massive warning about it being flood prone and anything but un-settled weather would be threatening. Having rained for the past two hours we though we'd at least find the cave and check out the old sump.

We had a couple of short lengths or rope, a few krabs, a few bolts, a sling and a spanner. I kitted up on surface and foolishly forgot to attach my chest harness and croll not realising until reaching the first pitch - Doh! We all clambered down the entrance climb which was an easy but exposed groove in the corner of the shaft. From here a small section of passage and a climb down leads to the original sump which is now a crawl through water which leads to 30m of awkward tiny 'Crabwalk' type passage to the head of the first pitch (8m) which is conveniently followed by the second pitch (10m). All of the pitches require bolts for spits, we could tell nobody had descended recently as the deviation chord on the first pitch was nicely calcited over but still usable. From the second pitch we took the dry traverse option (3m down) and kept away from the water. This led to an impressive part of cave, much like a typical Yorkshire pothole, clean, wet and dark everywhere...

Rob at the top of the first pitch

Rob about to rig the second pitch/traverse

Rob descending the third pitch

We dropped a further pitch (9m) and a further climb (2m) back under the pitch to the start of the start of the Blasted Ochre Rift (4m) in length where a small Ochre coloured inlet comes in from above. The passage now descends steeply to a small pool which flows over the fourth pitch (8m) but having run out of rope, bolts and krabs we had to turn around at this point and leave completion till the next visit. That being said we could've possibly seen the bottom sump pool from the pitch head marking the end of the cave.

We headed out with no issues. Luke feeling glad to have escaped with his life once again on another fabulous trip strung together by Team Awesome. We caught up with a shandy at The Anchor afterward for the monthly meet.

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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 24 July 2017

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After Luke and I had our previous encounter up EG&PL (01/06) Team Awesome had another trip to start a dig in the bedding passage off Father Time, unfortunately on this trip Pool Chamber turned out to be sumped so we had a gander at The Real Thing and beyond the Muddy Duck where Rob was inserted into a freshly discovered crawl heading North where he (WE) discovered 10m of new passage!

We returned on this date minus young Luke and replaced by French Jeff (Wade). We made quick progress to the dig face a bit worried about the impending thunder storms above surface but I reassured them both that Pool Chamber doesn't act on food water. The dig appears to have only been fettled with and not properly dug probably with the Hollywood Bowl going at the same time. We all took 30min shifts at the dig face, pulling kibbles back and stacking further back in the passage. One Person digging whilst the other two had some serious bants! After we had gone full circle we made the decision to call it a day and left for The Anchor. We had progressed enough to reach what you could only just see before and with one more session we should be able to decide if its a short or long term project and what the passage looks to be doing/heading following the constriction we have reached.

We raced out to continue our awesome bants in the pub. 

Rob Eavis putting in a shift at the dig face 

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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 24 July 2017

Hits: 3739

Ok where to start...

We (Luke, Rob & I) met at The Quiet Women in Earl Sterndale at the later start time of 7:30pm with a planned trip of Bottle Pot organised by Luke. After jumping in Luke's pimped up van we cruised up to Stoop Farm to be denied access to said pothole. Rob and I both think it was probably Luke's rubbish organisation skills and the inability to use 'The five P's' he learnt whilst in the army. Anyhoo we decided to rethink our Friday evening over a swift one in The local village watering hole.

Being the only ones in the establishment. Rob did his usual party trick of showing of his serious attitude problem whilst ordering our drinks which resorted to the Landlord inadvertently calling him a C**T! (which is also what old folk back in the day called a scythe blade holder/protection sheaf...

After a couple of games of bar skittles with said Landlord and countless stories of Dearman and how he had barred himself from The Quiet Women we eventually decided upon Boulder Pot in Monyash as it was the closest sounding hole to our plan A. After arriving at the correct parking it now being 9:30pm we quickly kitted up in the rain and headed off down dale to find Boulder Pot. I had a rough idea where the hole was from before it was rediscovered but having not been there for 6 years and it being dark it took us 30mins before Rob eventually found the entrance which was exactly where I thought it was; in a patch of 6ft high nettles under a tree right at top o' Dale.

We descended at 10pm and quickly dropped some tight squeezes to a horizontal section which Luke took lead. The passage split here and we found ourselves at the top of the pitch which was an easy climb down to another pitch (again free-climbable) to where the water obviously backed up as it became rather muddy at this point. Rob headed off down a muddy crawl to a dig whilst I climbed through a rift to where a draught was coming from. I can only assume that this is the limit reached by Bentham and Co. in 1993 but from what I gather Orpheous have got deeper than this but we must have missed a turning.

Anyway coming out was a lot more fun as we were constantly being pulled back by a thing called gravity! We surfaced at 11.15pm, it wasn't until 12.20am when I eventually reached Dore. Not your average Friday night but a very memorable one for sure.

Rob negotiating one of the squeezes on the way out