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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jon Pemberton

Team Maskhill - Mark Harrison (EPC), Jon Pemberton (EPC), Tam and Leann Rennie (EPC).
Team 'Ox-slow' - Bernie Maddison (EPC), Sam Pemberton (EPC), James Wood (EPC).
Team 'Pissed at the TSG' - Jim Alder (OCC).

We all met at 7:00pm in the lay-by beyond Oxlow House farm. Jams must have got kitted up within two minutes while I hectically froze! Ten minutes later kneeling near Mark's car, still complaining, still freezing, my hands nearly falling off! I was ready! So Mark and I were the last to make our way up to Maskhill (officially.) The entrance pitch got rigged and and we abseiled down the rope with all of us dreaming to make it out in time for the pub! Bernie and Jim Thompson had managed to mistake Mark and myself for Jams and Dervish thus making the unnecessary hike up to Maskhill. Tam was next while Leann kindly offered her position to me noticing me stumble around with my hands in my mouth (the best and only way to keep warm at the entrance to Maskhill.) Within five minutes Mark was last to enter with some nice closing of the lid.

We had already done the Oxlow - Maskhill exchange a few weeks prior to this trip (01/01/2009) with a lot more people, so after descending murmuring churn and short ‘free-climbable?!’ pitch we came to the decision that rather than drop down into Pearl Chamber (6^th pitch of Maskhill) as we did on the previous exchange we would traverse across to the rock bridge and abseil straight into the far west of the West Chamber.

From the rock bridge we could see team Ox-slow sitting in the bottom of the west chamber having bagz of fun! We abseiled from the rock bridge into the impressive West Chamber taking in the view. ‘Tagged’ each other and declared a ‘de-rigging’ race to the pub. (copyright Jams.) On reaching the West Antechamber I decided to head up the inlet on the left knowing that our party (the bigger one of the two) would take longer to ascend the last couple of pitches in Oxlow. A very clean scalloped crawl for 35m to a sump (dived for 43m, not today.) The stream emitted from the passage has been dye-tested from Black’s folly, the rocky tube before Castle aven in the New Oxlow series.

When I eventually got back to the West Antechamber everyone had almost ascended the 5^th pitch leaving only Tam at the bottom and Leann halfway up the rope. I was last to ascend/de-rig unsure of what Dervish had intended us to do with the pitch/traverse (too busy thinking about pitches and Pantin’s.) Oxlow got de-rigged and on the surface I met Tam who hastily departed once he had received the mammoth tackle bag I had dragged out from the bottom of Oxlow. I decided to do the noble thing and wait on the surface. We hauled the 50m entrance rope out tackle bag attached. After getting changed back at the car I noted it was 10.45pm! With no sign of team Ox-slow. (Pubs out ‘a window then.) 11.25pm saw Jams back at the car, not bad for an evening trip!

We even got to see Big Jim slurring his words back at TSG absolutely blotto arguing he couldn’t make the trip due to flu, a right treat!

-“Whera azh Devishb then…?!” Big Jim 2009

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4599

Report by Jules Barrett

Titan to Peak via Speedwell - Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Clive Hockenhull (EPC), Jim Lister (EPC), Toni Murphy (EPC), Sam Pemberton (EPC), Leann Rennie (EPC), Tam Rennie (EPC), Sharon Abbott (YSS), Bernie Maddison (EPC), Julian McIntosh (EPC), Gary Noble (YSS), Ann Soulsby (TSG), Colum Walsh (EPC), Colin Woodley (EPC)
J.H. To Peak via the White River Series - Cavers: Dunka (EPC), Pete Pollard (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Nige Strong (EPC)
Down J.H. -> Ride of the Valkyries -> Up Titan - Cavers: Dan Hibberts (EPC), Bob Toogood (EPC), Sam Townsend (EPC)
Down J.H. and Up Titan - Cavers: Jim Alder (OCC), Jon Pemberton (EPC), Clive Westlake (EPC), James Wood (EPC)
Peak entrance to Speedwell/JH/Titan - Bog Bergmann (EPC), Geoff Knight (EPC), Steve Norman (EPC), Jim Thompson (EPC)

I'd got an idea that a few of the Eldon were keen to do a variety of trips in the Far Sump Extension and Peak Cavern and suggested Saturday 17th of January at an EPC monthly meeting. Moose and Nick Williams kindly obliged with making the key available and we started to think about numbers. In the end we had twenty nine cavers in six groups doing a variety of trips and it all started to look quite complicated with teams entering and exiting by different routes and crossing over in the Far Sump Extension. We wanted to minimise the amount of time that people would be waiting around so teams would enter at different times. Bob Dearman contacted me the previous weekend suggesting that Clive Hockenhull who's a founder member of the Eldon fancied doing the Titan to Peak trip. Clive hasn't caved much for about thirty years and Titan to Peak at seventy two years of age would be a good effort! Plenty to think about then and the previous weekend a few of us rigged J.H in preparation. Titan was rigged on the Friday morning and we were ready to go.

Arrived at the TSG at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and people started arriving. Martyn Grayson and Ann Soulsby at the TSG were a great help with collecting day fees for the hut and Peak fees. Wayne Sheldon offered to have a look at the level of the water coming out of Peak and despite some overnight rain the water was still relatively low. We had a quick briefing session at about 8:45 a.m. and our group of seven drove up to the parking for Titan. Opened the lid and descended. SamP descended first and I went down to wait on the Event Horizon. Clive, Leann, Tam and Toni came past with no problems at all and finally Jim and I descended to the bottom. All very smooth and didn't take long either. Once at the bottom of Titan we made our way down through the famous Titan choke and into AI passage. After stepping up out of there we bumped into the J.H. to Titan team almost immediately in Stemple Highway. Continued to the bottom of J.H. where we took SRT kits off and had a bit of food. Started the climb down through the boulder piles and met Bog's team who were on the way up. Bog and Jim fancied spending a bit more time around here and went to have a look at the Miner's Toast etc. in Speedwell. Geoff and Steve joined up with our group whilst SamP went to the Miner's Toast with Bog and Jim. Our group headed downstream in the Speedwell streamway past Pit Props Passage to arrive at the top of the Bung. Plenty of water going down the ladder today and we all got pretty wet. Continued downstream past Block Hall to pick up the Dry Bypass and eventually arrive at the bottom of the fixed ladders at Egnaro Aven. Up the ladders and then the long crawl along the Trenches, Liam's Way and Colostomy. Eventually we emerged at Treasury and through the cave to the downstream end of Buxton Water Sump. Here we washed off and made our way through the showcave and out to the TSG. A superb trip (I'd only done it in the other direction before) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

By the time we got to the TSG Pete, Dunka, Nige and Jase were already in the pub as were the J.H. to Titan team. The other Titan to Peak team arrived about an hour after us and Bog's team not long after that. Jim Lister and I got a lift up to the Titan parking with Jim Alder and they went to shut the lid and lock up at J.H. We could see lights on the surface at Titan so I walked over to help Sam, Dan and Bob carry the Titan rope back to the car. Titan lid got locked at 5:00 p.m. at the end of a superb days caving!

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 3784

Report by Jon Pemberton

Cavers: Jon Pemberton (EPC), Sam 'Dervish' Pemberton (EPC), James 'Jams' Wood (EPC).

After postponing this trip from the 25^th of December we eventually got around to descending the shaft thirteen days later on a freezing Tuesday eve. Midway through December I had contacted John Beck who had kindly sent me a written article by Bill Whitehouse and survey (J.S.Beck, N.J.D.Butcher) from when the “Fireset Shaft” had been excavated in 1982.

We had decided to drop the shaft on SRT, unknown of when the last person had been down there and how stable it would be on ladders. (The 50ft deep shaft consists of two solid walls leaving the other two stacked ginged to the bottom.) Dervish and I had found the capped entrance on the 25^th December on a surface exploration of the area. The entrance lies in a hollow directly across from Flower Pot, above the lay-by on the opposite side of the road. We had to clear four inches of leaves and scree but upon opening the lid a howling draught emitted from the shaft and it was bloody warm for Christmas day!

After heating up above the shaft on the Tuesday evening Jams rigged using a metre long scaff bar backed up to a nearby tree. Our 19m rope only just reached the bottom of the finely re-stacked shaft (EEG). Jams descend first followed by myself then Dervish with the classic, “HEADS UP!” Followed by, “it weren’t me!?” – Yeah right!

A short side-step at the bottom of the Shaft lands you with a 4m climb into a stope (careful not to touch the Stacked on your right.) Left leads over rubble for 10m to a dig in the floor deemed too tight. Right drops underneath the stacked deads and gives access to a very narrow level with soot coated walls, which has been driven by the old method of firesetting i.e. without the use of explosives (one of the very few examples where evidence of this method still exist in Derbyshire.) the level ascends for a tight few metres towards the end of the level ending in a crawl underneath stacked deads to a cross rift with an internal 20ft deep shaft. A climb down using rotting stemples leads you to the final dig with very restricted stacking space. The climb down passes three backfilled firesetting levels. The draught is meant to continue through the bottom of the shaft in a choke although we managed to lose it today in the final cross rift.

We all managed to ascend the entrance shaft without knocking the scaff bar down on top of us. Overall the trip only took us about and hour but it’s very interesting to us anyway with the final dig being only 50ft away and10ft higher than clog passage in the Dynamite series, beyond Porth Crawl. The continuation could possibly connect the two although the Fireset Shaft consists of many stacked deads and could easily move with little temptation. Although trying to push up the very narrow fireset level with SRT gear on is a pretty bad idea especially if you're “Dervish” size.