Yearly Archives: 2017

Ireby 2 - Jupiter Cavern Friday, 22 December 2017 The plan was to try and do a round trip through Ireby 2 via skylight passage and cripple creek. morning delays meant that we didn't arrive at the cave entrance until about 1pm. An encounter with Shezi and two YSS friends at...

Crescent Pot (re)surveying Saturday, 18 November 2017 Chaotic planning resulted in me heading up to the Dales on Saturday to do Crescent; despite a lot of effort Becka couldn't be persuaded by her secondary option of King. I managed to get a last minute a lift with Mike (the person I...

Hammer Pot Surveying #1 Monday, 13 November 2017 Set off from Leeds later than planned due to traffic for George but arrived at Fountains Fell at around midday. The fell was bright and cold though some cloud threatened to the south. After chopping up some old rope to leave in situ...

Simpsons pull thru Wednesday, 8 November 2017 We headed underground at 7.10pm, where Nadia quickly relived herself of the tackle bag. The first pitches were free climbed and the quick succession of longer pitches were rigged by myself, Nadia, Beth and Alice, the latter two practising their rigging. Alice rigged the longer...

Trip to CRO base Sunday, 5 November 2017 14 students stumbled out of Selside and into Clapham to meet Sean Whittle, CRO member and also the man who ran our very successful cavers' first aid course last February. After a brew, we were shown around the HQ, introduced to the rescue...

Voldemort Hole pull through out Notts II Wednesday, 1 November 2017 After another excellent day poking around, we headed off to Voldemort Hole on the recommendation of Richard Bendall, one of the initial explorers of the cave. He told us that the cave was rigged for a pull-through, and that the...

Ribblehead wanderings Sunday, 29 October 2017 After a disappointingly tame night at the NPC we got up in good time with the intention to go down Ireby. We packed the ropes and breakfasted fairly efficiently and set off to Masongill lane to discover it was packed with cars. Spying a group...

Gaping Gill Saturday, 28 October 2017 A chaotic but fun trip had down bar; out small mammal with many freshers. An attempt was made to rig the bar pot alternative (https://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/route18.shtml) but a 60 m proved too short (by ~7 m) for the route, (rigged from where the route splits off...

Doing the Double in County Pot Sunday, 22 October 2017 After quite a late and heavy one the night before, Nadia and I awoke feeling pretty shit. We arrived in Inglesport for breakfast, where a veg chili combined with making conversation with Becka and plans with Richard improved the mood considerably....

Lost Johns pull-through, out Notts II Wednesday, 18 October 2017 After a good day of poking around on Leck Fell, we decided to round off our visit to the area by undertaking what should be a classic trip: pulling through down Lost Johns to exit out of Notts II via the...

New Pasture Cave surveyed Sunday, 24 September 2017 We had been meant to go digging in Penyghent again with Sam Allshorn, but Isaac was unwell so parental duties were called upon. This meant we needed a way of avoiding laddermeet, and we decided to try out paperless surveying with George's new...

Hammer Pot Saturday, 23 September 2017 The aim of this trip was to recce the cave for future surveying, and to also take photos/notes on formations at the bottom of the cave for Andrew Hinde's conservation monitoring project. A later start than planned saw us underground at around 11. Within five...

Penyghent Scaff Wednesday, 6 September 2017 An excuse was needed for Nathan to avoid applying for jobs so we left Leeds for the day with minimal rain forecast. Arrived at the dump at half 3 and after a quick sandwich we were up the hill and underground at half 4. I...

Gaping Gill Jollies and Networking Saturday, 26 August 2017 A week prior, I had received a message via UKCaving from Dave asking if I was interested in going to Albania as part of a small expedition organised by Dave and Martin 'Barny' Barnicott, both former Eldon members. Barny now lives in...

Gardening and composting Flood Cavern the lower reaches. Wednesday, 12 July 2017 Took the day off as the forecast was fine. Again cave had flooded so some clearing to reach old end. Got there and cracked on. The proceeding crawl was enlarged a little debris was cleared from where I'd got...

Gardening and composting - a trip to Flood Cavern Dent Saturday, 17 June 2017 A couple of weeks into fine weather and Beardy has been to Dent to look at getting into Flood Cavern. He reports the entrances are all lost and there is no hope. Challenge set with survey in hand,...

Rowter Hole Monday, 29 May 2017 Convinced that we weren't going caving we slowly drove up to Rowter Farm in dense fog, paid our £2 and checked the skies for rain. Due to the poor visibility, we took a scenic route to the cave entrance. SUSS were just under the lid when...