Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4662

Report by Jon Pemberton
Cavers: Jon Pemberton (EPC), James Wood (EPC).

“Only small amounts of work have been undertaken in Ivy Green cave mainly by SUSS members during the sixties and early seventies. The cave received little attention until 19^th May 1974 when Mark Noble, Kevin Wild and Brian Commander undertook a recce trip, returning the following weekend to dig through a tight squeeze extending the cave to its current length of 225m. Work was then abandoned, although the cave appeared to continue beyond the heavily calcited cross rift although if digging persevered, the cave would probably connect to the high level second remnant complex of the Carlswark Dynamite series.” 'Classic Caves of the Peak District’ – Ian Barker.

Us being intrigued by the Stoney system (especially the Carlswark Dynamite Series) after a quick chat with Mark Noble up in The Miners Arms in Eyam, we decided Ivy Green was well overdue a trip. We reached the big lay-by opposite Lovers Leap at just gone 7:00pm. It was pouring down with rain so we hastily kitted up and legged it to the entrance. After about 18 attempts! we managed to hook a rung of the ladder over a limestone ‘nubbin’. A quick traverse followed into the cave entrance.

The main passage is pretty big for the first 20-30 metres or so then turns into a hands and knees crawl. A quick climb over a roof fall and you reach a walking sized passage which continues for about 7-10 metres to a flat-out crawl followed by the first squeeze. Now this really does remind me of a passage at the bottom of Fall’s Chamber in the Dynamite Series, which requires a push up over flowstone and back down the other side…though you really have to push your arse through including James (Beaver – the skinniest caver about.)

After the squeeze you continue through another flat-out passage until you reach a cross rift. From here you continue through the second constriction (flat-out) through a puddle of static water. After getting wet you follow your nose through a small chamber until you reach another flat-out which leads to the final squeeze to the calcited choke. (A huge stal boss and loads of flowstone.)

The passage beyond the second squeeze is highly decorated in a Stoney kind of way so be careful and if you wish to see the final choke and you’re in a group beware no more than one person can turn around in the end!

After reaching the end we stop-motioned our way back to the entrance passage where James waited while I went for a quick gander down the second passage leading off to the right that is said to draught towards the mine level underneath. After a few minutes I scurried back and we scaled back down the ladder and ran to the river to wash our kit off where I lost an elbow pad and got caught in a drain. Out by 9.15pm. – Fun times had by all!

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4572

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Dave Gledhill (EPC), Sam Pemberton (EPC), Pete Pollard (EPC), Faye Hartley

Four of us met at the Inglesport cafe in the morning for the usual debate about what we were going to do. The options were Boggarts Roaring Holes, the Marilyn entrance to Gaping Gill, Long Churn - Alum or a bit of a tour of Kingsdale. Asking around a few people in the cafe no-one seemed to know much about Marilyn but we'd got a vague idea that it didn't flood badly so went for that. Parked in Clapham where we met Faye who's friends hadn't turned up and walked to Bar Pot. Marilyn is nearby and the lid is certainly an impressive piece of metal fabrication. We rigged the top and headed down the entrance pitch - a simple short hang down to a ledge. The next pitch is a bit constricted (similar to The Narrows in Nettle Pot) but short and goes past a couple of rebelays/deviations to land at the start of a short crawl. At the end of the crawl is the head of Niagara pitch. This has a slightly loose top but is fine with care. Niagara pitch dropped us in above pitch three of Disapointment Pot and we followed the stream down past the final three pitches. From the bottom of Disapointment Pot we followed the water down to Hensler's Master Cave. Without exactly meaning to we followed the water downstream and through a very unusual coffin-shaped passage to arrive at the foot of the ladder that leads to the Far Country. Our directions now sent us back to where we had arrived in the Master Cave and slightly upstream to find the passage leading to Hensler's High Aven. From here we entered Mud Hensler's Passage with its two easy ducks and on to Mud Hall. I'd not been to Mud Hall before and it's an impressive sight. A load of lights were coming towards us on the far side of Mud Hall which helped to give scale to the place. We followed the traverse lines around to the the far side of Mud Hall and followed the route on to the bottom of Main Chamber with it's impressive waterfall. Pete enjoyed a run through the water before we continued on to traverse underneath the big pitch in Bar Pot. From here some interesting wet crawling along New Henslers Passage leads back to Hensler's Master Cave and the bottom of Disapointment Pot. The de-rigging was all straightforward and we exited at about 18:00. No rain in the evening so the walk down through Trow Gill was quite pleasant.

A very varied trip and an excellent way to see a large part of the Gaping Gill system.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4312

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Jon Pemberton (EPC), Sam Pemberton (EPC)

The Pembertons' enthusiasm for Carlswark Cavern and the Dynamite Series in particular made me think that I was missing out on something important so an evening trip to Stoney Dale was planned. Unfortunately the Flower Pot entrance which used to offer a quick way into the Dynamite Series has recently suffered 'deterioration' so we went in the Gin Entrance and soon found ourselves at the entrance to the Dynamite Series. The Dynamite Series proper is guarded by a short squeeze under a low arch with water in the bottom. Bailing stuff is lying around but although water levels were reasonably high (water was flowing down Dynamite Passage) we didn't need it on this occasion. A bit of crawling and squeezing leads through Midnight Chamber and into Prospect Chamber with two ways on: a nice climb up the right-hand wall leads to Fall Chamber and eventually the bottom of Flower Pot whilst a low passage in the floor is the start of Porth Crawl. Sam and Jon had previously decided that helmets off works best in here and who was I to argue on this occasion. Shuffling helmets along in front worked fine and in fact Porth Crawl's not too bad - looks more difficult than it is in some ways and it's very short. Once through that a short thrutch/climb up a rift leads to Clog Passage with all it's shotholes in the walls. All very interesting! Through here and then a bit more squeezing and crawling leads to the end of the Dynamite Series (Final Aven).

Jon had been here before and was keen to have a proper look at Buckley's dig/Picnic Passage etc. We had Martin Milner's sketch survey of the passage beyond the end of the Dynamite Series and ticked things off as we went. Buckley's dig starts at a hole under one of the walls in Final Aven at the end of the Dynamite Series followed by flat out crawling in mud. We passed Straw Inlet and continued in Picnic Passage past a number of small cross-rifts and chambers to arrive at a small chamber containing loose fill with a hole going up through it into a small aven above. Conscious that we still wanted to make the detour to have a look at the bottom of Flower Pot we turned around at this point and made our way back through Buckley's Dig, Clog Passage and Porth Crawl. In Prospect Chamber we climbed up and more crawling leads into a rift. A shuffle under a hanging boulder at the end and climb up through a hole in the roof led into Fall Chamber. This hanging boulder and the choke above that leads into Fall Chamber needs a lot of care. Fall Chamber is a nice place and certainly one of my favourite bits of Carlswark. From here a nice climb and another crawl leads into a final small chamber with a crawl leading off. At the end of this crawl is the bottom of the blue barrels of the Flower Pot entrance. It's obvious that nobody's going to be exiting that way anytime soon as the top of the bottom barrels are well-squashed but plans are afoot to sort it out.

From here we climbed back down into Fall Chamber, through the Dynamite Series and out the Gin entrance.

Excllent evening trip being tight, very muddy and tricky despite not being a long way on the survey.