Trips & Reports

My intro to train caving! Ade had bailed out on us claiming that he needed sleep (that boy always needs sleep! :p), leaving us with no driver… A last minute decision was made that as Mark, Chuck and I all still wanted to go caving, we’d get the train to Ribblehead and have a potter round a few of the smaller caves there, scout out some alternative fresher trips and hopefully be guaranteed not to miss the train back again.... read more

After locating the entrances to Thistle, it was time for another picnic!! We were sat at Thistle entrance 2, which again had 2 directions. While we were eating, a group of cavers came out the uphill entrance, and the guide pointed them towards the downhill entrance telling them that it was a bit smaller and they wouldn’t be able to walk around like they had in the last bit… “Stompiness?” we thought… “Ace!” So that’s the way we headed next.... read more

I can't actually remember much about this cave. It starts up the top of the hill by a limestone scar, next to what Chuck described as "a boulder choke adventure playground" (it was quite fun I have to agree!) You can do the whole thing as one big (well no not really big at all..) through-trip, coming into daylight at various points which makes it quite fun. We made it through pretty speedily, there wasn’t too much crawling as far as... read more

Imogen and I headed down to Castleton 8ish on Friday night planning for an early night and a long kip. However as soon as we stepped off the bus outside the Peak Inn my nostrils twitched and I smelt fire. I knew this could mean only one thing... a late night! SUSS, TSG, MUSC and Big Eldon Jim were out (due to a DCRO practise trip running on the Saturday) and a barbeque had been going complemented with plenty of... read more

This trip started early on the Friday night. We decided to save some time by travelling down and wild camping on a cliff by a Gwrych Castle. The walk up was fairly eventful, our chosen route had been blocked off and we hiked up a very steep incline that claimed several of Gover's cans of beer. Disaster was avoided however as most were retrieved despite them heading as fast as they could back down the hill! We got to... read more

The JH ropes had been put in the previous Friday and needed taking out. In need of a good trip we volunteered to remove them. A team was going down JH and out of Peak that day too, so timing was crucial to make sure we didn't meet them in Colostomy! Can't remember much about the start of the trip, I think I was on auto pilot. I do remember reaching the Trenches and constantly lying to Gosling about how... read more

IIRC, Main Streamway, Far Sump, Wigwam Aven, Treasury Sump Easy trip as Imo was still tired from the Moose Trap the day before. Followed by a long wait at the top of Titan watching Zebedee.

A great trip! Particularly the part where we left at 9 after a lovely lie in :-) Apart for the slightly tight bit in the entrance (only for tall people!) pool sink is a really easy, nice entrance. 4 short pitches as a pull through so nice and quick, with wiggly streamway in between. From the bottom of that we went into county via ignorance is bliss. Someone has put a rope down where you climb up into the streamway roof... read more

Lancaster hole is my second trip in the Easgill system and certainly less confusing that the County pot side. This was Angela’s first trip! Cat was leading. Lancaster hole SRT was fairly straightforward; Cat rigged all of this and then it was off to the Colonnades first (I think those on the process of cleaning this section appreciate people who go here while they are clean i.e. not after going into slug world), after Wales week it was nice to... read more

I’d finally convinced Angela to come on her first caving trip!! She’d done some training in the sports hall but was yet to go down a real cave, so I wanted this trip to be relatively short and easy, yet inspiring and slightly challenging…. It had to be Easegill! As I was going to be leading, I decided to repeat the route Chuck, Tom and I had done a few weeks previous. This involved going in Lancaster to practice a bit... read more

failed major well not that major we decided when w got to swcc that we weren't doing the full trip and we would just potter round ofd2 instead of going down to the no doubt flooded main steamway saw wedding cake??????????????????? gnome passage where we actually saw a gnome!!!!! ask for photo proof selebrious streamway possibly spelt differently. wetwetwet oh and the trident but missed the damn judge who was just sitting round the corner not like he moved very far. oh yes and me... read more

o o o i went on this one. ramdom garden you have to walk through random bits of concrete here and there amazing toast rack the streamway: streamy and wahay the bolder cavern:boldery the climb up from the streamway, hardish but easier when you know where to put your feet but silly when you watch monkeys climb up after you some pretty glistening bits that look like cave writings pi chamber and the wonderous but dangerous climb down, not too dangerous though traverse that is safe with cows... read more

main report in wales 2009 logbook but massively pretty cave muddy part: christened willy wonkas chocolate river squeezy part: bolder choke of aduous and uncomfortableness aka happy happy times(ben) THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KINGS (big booming voice): with a crown of stalagtites round the top and a stool for a giant made of calcite. The unknown squeezy part past hall of the mountain kings: unknown the friendly pair of bats

We spent about 6 hours looking for the entrance, including randomly digging in a depression that had been filled by a mud slide (edit first we looked in the wrong valley though). It turns out the entrance is about 6 meters to the right from where the river sinks and was camoflaged in leaf litter (the enterance is a chipboard and steel hatch with a square cut in the centre). Once inside there is a stooping height... read more

After a sensible early night and a prompt start we found ourselves in the impressive entrance to Peak Cavern. Leaving the showcave behind us we slid down a wooden chute and followed a passage to a sandy crawl, followed a wet seriese of arches before a semi-stomp brought us down a ladder to the main streamway. An easy passage led us to Squaw's junction where we explored a strange jacusi crawl. From here we crawled around for a bit and... read more

"Set an alarm for about 7.30am so we can get up for about 8am" Most people would read this statement to mean getting out of bed for 8am, with a thirty minute lucid lie in. Chuck isn't most people and at 7.30am he was at the end of my bed badgering me to get up. In protest I slept in until 8.30. I assume Chuck realised the error because he brought me tea. When I did get up I found... read more