Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4199

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

Another night of fun for James and myself was on the cards and after our failed attempt to reach picnic passage last time we decided to have another go at Porth Crawl. On the previous trip we were also joined by Sammy Pemberton (EPC) but shortly after calling “Shotgun” once James had gone through Porth Crawl Sam got stuck and panicked resulting in me unwilling to carry on.

Anyway back to the story…

After quickly kitting up we slung a ladder down Flower Pot and gained quick ‘easy’ access into the Dynamite series dropping into Falls Chamber. Plodding along we reached the first flat out which seemed tighter than usual or maybe our hearts weren’t set on fun-times crawling. At the end of the crawl we climbed 3m down into prospect chamber and dived head first into the second flat out. James went first having already accomplished the “horrible” crawl so after a climb over the blind shaft the helmet came off and through he went as I shortly followed. Basically Porth Crawl explained; you pop through a small (one arm forward, one at your side) hole Big enough to turn 90% and take your helmet of. Now you have to go completely on one side best approached facing the right hand wall and just push your way through! With no hand or foot holes to assist. When reaching the end with sense of accomplishment the helmets went back on and we started the tight climb up the rift towards clog passage. I would honestly consider this to be more awkward than Porth Crawl (steep and tight!) at the top is a crawl leading on which sharply turn right. A left turn leads shortly to a spoil filled tube. Right follows on to mine development along a prominent vein with loads of blast marks coming in from every direction. A short climb leads up to a boulder choke with roots running through which surely must be close to surface. Straight on leads to a few side passages one a very tight rift leading to a small chamber where water can be heard trickling away although it was way too tight for James or myself to dare look!! We eventually reached the final aven which we weren’t expecting at all with at least four very large pieces of digging equipment just left sitting there. We then dropped down into Buckley’s dig and the start of Picnic passage flat out muddy crawling until we reached a large cross rift that we could stand up in (Straw Inlet) James decided to go for a look so after a short break to catch our breath. When returning back, James said, “It’s too tight and I can’t be arsed to be honest!” So we hastily decided to retreat rather than use up the rest of our energy flat out crawling to the end of the dig knowing that we’d have to come back the same way! The exit was eventful where we had a few situations of our usual laid back approach to caving where we normally sit in random places and talk about random rubbish, this time it was in Porth Crawl my face touching his boots and James deciding to throw his helmet down the hole at the end of Porth Crawl!

Overall very worthwhile trip to see a different side of Carlswalk. If anyone plans to go in the near future give James & myself a shout and we’d be more than happy to go again just to reach the end of the dig.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4189

Report by James Wood
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Mark Harrison (EPC), Toni Murphy (EPC), Jon and Sam Pemberton (EPC), James Wood (EPC)

After the previous attempted trip had to be rethought due to the excessive numbers, Sam was determined to arrange a trip and have a look round. He had spoken to the nursing home a week before and they didn’t appear to be too restrictive. A quick phone call on the day to confirm and we were in. We all met in the car park at 18:30, Sam and myself arriving earlier to collect the key and open up the entrance (a scaffolding bar across a manhole cover).

It was decided to do the trip on ladders, due to the previous trip being awkward on SRT. Mark and Jules set about rigging the 18m entrance pitch. Mark was first to descend the ladder, belayed by Jules, followed by myself, Jon, Sam, Toni and then Jules. Who was belayed from the bottom of the pitch by Mark. Unsure of the way on and failing to remember the description, Mark had a quick look straight ahead over the calcited boulders, coming back to report he was unsure. I had a quick look down to the right of pitch, were after a few metres it went into a tight crawl, with a hole in the calcite, which went nowhere. We rigged the blind shaft, corrected by Jules when he met us. We de-rigged the pitch and continued past the shaft. Jon meanwhile had another look where Mark had been, he managed to find the way on. A slide over calcited boulders leads to a small chamber, to the right a rift which leads to the second pitch (6m). Jules rigged the ladder down the pitch, using rope around a thread to the right. Mark was again first to descend crawling back under at the bottom. Next was Jon who after the descent continued on in the rift which after a distance leads to a large chamber, where it ends. Next I was to descend and followed Mark, then Jon who continued on after Sam, Toni and Jules followed and went down under the wet muddy crawl. Tight in places the crawl shortly leads to ‘The Pearly Gates’, a squeeze through stal. Continuing on to the right it opens out, where Mark firstly climbed down, I followed not as tricky as it was made out to be. A hand line was tied by Jules to a small bridge at the top of the climb, if needed for the ascent. Toni was next to climb down, Jules, Jon, and Sam followed. Now all in the rift chamber, one by one we climbed up the calcited boulders ahead to a smallish pool, with some pretties. Higher up, in the chamber were some nice formations and ‘the boulder of doom’. We all followed the rift on, which required a short climb down. Straddling the drop in places to a lower level we carried on to the end of the rift. Jon at this point was attempting to climb down into the lower level, I joined him. Jules found a more suitable down climb, further back towards the chamber and climbed down to find a dig. Jon and I decided to climb back up to have a look where Sam had previously been. Back towards the large rift chamber under calcited boulders, I climbed through a rift to a small chamber that was quite wet and relatively clean and mud free. First I had a look to the left to find some wood holding up some boulders, easier access could be gained from the other side. I went round and climbed down into a small chamber, on my hands and knees at this point. To the left looked quite tight but I didn’t have a look where it went. I followed the flat out crawl to the right after about 15m I got to a muddy pool of water, 90° right was about a 1m climb up. The crawl continued on to the left to end after about 3-4m, where the mud/silt was roughly 10-15 cm from the roof of the tube. Although it has been reported to draft here, the air was very still and the steam from my breath wasn’t being carried. I crawled back out to meet Sam. We both then go back into the main chamber, to meet Jon. Toni, Jules and Mark had already started to make their way out, the climb up where the hand line was now fixed came in useful to pull up on. Mark waited for us at the top of the pitch, where he and I de-rigged. We then continued back to the entrance pitch where Toni and Jules had already ascended by this time. A belt was lowered down for Jon, Sam and I, which got caught further up where Mark climbed up to a ledge to retrieve it. Jon, Sam, Myself and finally Mark ascended the ladder belayed by Jules. Jules, Mark and Sam de-rigged and locked the lid back down.

Between the group we managed to cover pretty much all of the cave, a worthwhile trip, which remains unspoilt from traffic. Not like the usual Stoney caves.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4117

Report by Jon Pemberton
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Toni Murphy (EPC), Mark Harrison (EPC), Jon & Sam Pemberton (EPC), Jim Lister (EPC) plus special guest appearance from Guy 1 (no idea), Girl 1 (Bridget Hall) & Girl 2 (Jane Rigby)

An evening trip which was meant to involve actually going down Eyam Dale House Cave but ended up a bit south of the entrance in a completely different delph!? After parking and kitting up in the car park for the retirement home we promptly went in search of the manhole cover supposedly “within the grounds of the retirement home.” After 10 minutes of searching with no luck we went on our instinct down the path at the side of the car park heading parallel with the road. Bridget rigged the first pitch while we all gathered at the entrance of the cave. With nine people packed at the entrance of the cave getting numerous battle wounds from nettles, the five Eldon (minus Jim) decided that Eyam Dale House Cave could wait a few more weeks so to save time we walked on down to Cucklet Delph for the Nickergrove Mine through trip.

We went through the adit entrance and headed straight for the 15m shaft to the lower levels. Jules rigged while Toni waited at the pitch head for Sam and me to ab down. When we were all safely in the lower level, we took off our SRT gear and secured it to the bottom of the rope so instead of mucking it up through the rest of the crawls we could pull it straight up on completion of the through trip, (Cue Mark). After a few awkward crawls, climbs and scrambles we eventually reached the Didsbury Shaft entrance and after a few metres of vertical free climbing we were successfully above the surface. Jules kindly offered to flee back into the adit entrance to de-rig.

With the above antics over we still had an hour left until we were to meet up with Team-2, (the Eyam Dale House cavers) in the retirement home car park. We agreed that to fill this gap a Carlswalk Eyam Dale Shaft to Gin entrance through trip would be appropriate. Jules quickly rigged the 11m shaft with the help from my Carlswalk knowledge (Laughter from all!!) When we were all at the bottom of the shaft again we took of our SRT gear, (all except for Toni, see de-rigging Shaft entrance) and made our way to Noughts and Crosses Chamber to gain access to the main Eyam Passage. We made a brief stop for Jules as he wanted to poke his nose down through the rift in Oyster chamber to spot the through trip to the resurgence. We then scaled on out of the Gin entrance. When we eventually made it back to Eyam Dale Shaft the task was now to de-rig. Jules was 100% correct in knowing that the SRT kits and tackle bags attached to the rope would snag on the way back up. Luckily Toni had kept her SRT gear on so that we could safely retrieve the gear. We met up with team-2 bang on 10:30pm, (timing or what?)

Overall although we didn’t manage to get even a foot in Eyam Dale House Cave, we still had an eventful night of caving with two through trips.