Trips & Reports 2005

Sig bottles make a really nice noise when they fall down a 25m pitch! This cave hates me, it never lets me get to the bottom. For the second time, we forgot the rope for the last pitch!

Faff factor = low

I liked the bit when Matt ran through the waterfall (and back again) - wet boy! It is perhaps a blessing we forgot the last rope because it was looking very wet on the last pitch. Still - we all got wet outside afterwards when the heavens opened!

scrotty boulder choke followed by scrotty 40o bedding plane and a slippy tight traverse with possibilities of sliding down and getting stuck so me and tash wussed out and went to lie in the sun! then we got andy to break into the hut through the tiny toilet window in only his boxers, highly amusing! :)

beneath heaven there is hell, beneath hell there is eastwater cavern...
ok, maybe a slight exaggeration but its not a cave for the claustrophic or well covered. follow the rope through a massive boulder choke and then do the cheese press diagonally. or just do swildons coz its a million times better.

Ignore Tash, this is a brilliant cave. The upper traverse (45 degree bedding plane) is great fun. Next time we are in the Mendips we should do the round trip (we did half of it while wandering around). A classic\ Mendips trip (apparently).

Starts off with a pants boulder choke. First major obstacle is a diagonal cheese press. fairly intimidating. After this point the entire cave is at 45deg. Uphill, downhill, round and round. Judging by the survey we were about 1/3 of the way to the end. A good fun and challenging trip. More tiring than you might expect. Definately worth going back for another crack.

Brilliant cave!!! one of my favourite so far, definately top 3. a little bit of everything: crawling, free climbing, squeezing, a little pitch, stompy streamway, waterfalls, a rope slide and a mud slide into a pit of mud the consistency of lumpy custard! yey! and last but most importantly, the sump! which was very scary first time round but a huge adrenalin rush and so much fun the second time, bit cold tho!!
then out in time for a lovely... read more

Before anyone else gets there first - yes I was a bit wussy going through the sump the first time, hence the high rating. Second timethough, no problem. FUN FUN FUN. Low scum as we had a good wash in the sump after the mud fight.

as nicky said, this is cave has something for everyone, lots of climbs and streamway action and the option of entering through a tree (not recommended tho as the climb is lethal) even if you don't sump it, is still worth a visit. the sump is not nearly as bad as it looks, and there is a rope which you follow so its just a matter of hauling yourself through. A tad chilly it has to be said, worth submerging... read more

Involuntary grinning throughout. I love all the climbing bits in this cave. This is definately a case of wetter is better. I wish to do the round trip next time. This cave has potential for some extremely ambitious and creative trips, due to a variety of route choices. Anyone fancy sump 2 (8m long)!!!

i fell on my arse and have the biggest bruise ever! :(
hardcore rating higher than usual cos i was being crap and wussy and so kept falling over! my new oversuit is nice and muddy, yey! :)

Ive never slid around so much in my life. The whole place is covered in clay and having full wellies from the entrance gradually emptying to ensure the perfect level of slickness it was slidy to say the least. Note hardcore rating raises to five for when you want to leave the cave. I shedded srt kit helmet and needed gover pusing my feet before i "B****RDed my way out its a touch steep and tight getting... read more

My first proper rigging, all by myslef! Got a little worried down last pitch as it was big! Also spent ages making sure I was rigging behind the ropes already rigged there, and there was no one else in cave! Most amusing moment was hearing Ollie try and shimmy up the chimeny at the entrance, trust a climber to do that and not just use his jammers!

We finally made the through trip after two previous attempts - and getting lost! We did have some small issues finding the way on to Stop Pot from Wretched Rabbit and had to ask some random guy who was taking photos on his own! The whole trip only took us about 4 hours, but felt much longer!

grrr, midges

Just in case anyone was wondering what stay behind cave is i shall now elaborate.

Stay behind is a world war 2 tunnel system that was hidden behind a second set of tunnels to hide it from the germans so that should Gibraltar be taken by the germans we would still be able to spy on them.

The "cave" starts at a random point in one of gibraltars 100+ miles of passageways (very impressive when you consider it probably has less than... read more

Next time we go here, can everyone just leave me inside for about a day, preferably with 6 or more rolls of film. Easily the prettiest cave I've had the pleasure of venturing down.

THEY'RE SO CUTE!!!
there were baby ones and everything! aaaw!

I gave the trip a fairly high hardcore rating cos some of those monkeys were scary! esp the ones which jumped on people's heads!!

Faff factor = low

I loved this cave. It's got a really fun entrance which you've got to go head first and vertical down! Lots of crawling. We couldn't find the P hanger on the last pitch which was a shame but otherwise a jolly good trip. Sorry you didn't enjoy it Matty.

Well finally! After nearly 8 years of meaning to do this cave i've finally done it! Hoorah. It's splendid and leaves me just one more cave to tick to finish off Dave and Dicks. Hoorah again.

The Aven entrance is small :s Took me three (or was it more) attempts to fit through, but made it in the end. Good trip apart from being eaten alive by the midges ;@

A really fun Sunday trip. A bit like Longchurn, but with a little bit of (very short and simple) ropework. A small stream disappears into the ground, following it leads to a short 2-3m drop which we easily descended with the fixed handline. The next was also descendable with our own handline, and the final is a nice 5-6m pitch descended with rack. Lots of fun splashing about, scrambling through streamway and a bit of squeezey... read more

Excelent fun! It was SO nice to get out of the hot sun and into a cool cave! We made it as far as Mud Hall with Holly doing some excelent work on the rigging. She wouldn't even let me help her pack the rope! LOL. The trip was quite short but perfect for a relaxing Sunday, we were out in time for ice cream in Castleton - yum.

Only not so much fun cos of the loose rock landing on my back, otherwise a cracking trip and great prussiking practise. Looking forward to going again without Hitch'n'Hike's silly 5.30pm return requirement and getting to the bottom.

It's got to be said it was one of the hardest trips i've been on and i was glad when i was out of it,

I found out that i hate dangling on rope when i can't get to a wall. but apart from that it was fun and looking back on it now,i prob would do most of it again(BUT DON'T HOLD ME TO THAT)

Just want to say thanx to my team mate for getting me out in one... read more

Faff factor = high

We had a few issues finding the farm and then the cave. Then I realised I'd left my chest tape in the car! Ooops, sorry. Entered cave at 15:30ish!



It was a real relief to get into the cave because it was swelteringly hot on the surface. Holly & Laura had to give me (quite a bit) of encouragement to get past the first few mini-traverses because I hadn't done any before. Also did deviations... read more

An absolutely fantastic trip. Some excellent SRT work, not too technically challenging but very tiring, as it was a long way down! Really nice to see some of the old mine fittings still in place, though rather difficult to imagine it as a functioning mine however long ago.

Some great bouncy long pitches, lots of excercise, a good balance of ropework, crawling and climbing, with narrow passages (though never anything tight) and numerous big open chambers. For anyone... read more

a good trip -massive pitches! abseiling on a brand new rope down the entrance pitch was fairly sporting, have blisters from trying to slow myself down. an impressive cave which only gets a high scumminess rating because of the rotting dead sheep/birds and rubbish at the bottom. poor sheep.

it gets a 5 for scum from me cos I put my hand on/in a dead bird on the way out.

Huge pitch was great fun prussiking back up. The cave was a bit disappointingly short though... once you're down the first (main) pitch, that's the best bit over (and about half the cave!). Scummy dead sheep has exploded across the bottom of the pitch, with bones and rotting bits everywhere, not nice at all! But a fun trip. Quite a hardcore walk up the hillside to it as well. For future reference, follow the hillside... read more

I love the fact this made it onto the trip list!
I like purple :o)

The correct superlative eludes me! Hardcore vote of 2 for the slight crampedness and dehydration factor.

Definatly a top trip. We managed the exchange without any faff! Amazing. There was much debate in Bernies about weather we could be arsed to walk up the hill, but opted to do it any way. Quite wet throughout but not over the top.

Did you know that given enough water, mud can travel from the outside of your oversuit through your undersuit onto your legs. bah, need a shower. Was certainly wet. And I thought it was supposed to be summer?? What on earth is going on with the weather??

Stream wasn't half as wet as the guys said it was! It was fine! Actually it was nice to cave in a bit of spray for a change it feels more exciting.
Also me + nikki attempted to cave on glowsticks as they do in the scary cave film DESCENT. they were very pretty + fun but not very useful as a major light source!

The entrance was much wetter when we went in than when the others came out! we had upwards rain! was much fun. matt sent me down some scrotty hole convinced it was the way on, and i got the tackle sack stuck and had to pull ALL the rope out of it to get out! but i made him pack it again HAHAHA!! :)

we are utterly incompetent...
but i rigged and derigged so at least i achieved something!
and i found the lair of the cave monster, complete with button from a previous victim!

A bit disappointing not to find the way on, but you can't blame us, as the survey was rubbish, and needed a microscope too see, and the way we were meant to go looked rather unconvincing to say the least. Easegill has beaten us again. But a nice day out nontheless, and my nice shiny new bright red oversuit didn't get very dirty, which is good :-)

Mud, Mud, Glorious MUD!
Nothing quite like it for soothing the blood.
So follow me, follow.
Down to the hollow.
And there we shall wallow in glorious mud!

Would have been much easier to find the cave if we had actually taken a map with us and had been looking in the right field.

Much fun, though annoyingly short trip (barring doing possibly the most insane duck I have ever seen - over 5m long flat out bedding over half full with water and no obvious way out at the other end).

Also we couldn't find the last pitch, but I don't think we missed much as it drops down... read more

Don't forget the eggcellent egg timer shaped passage, that was very eggciting.
A short trip (we spent far more time looking for the damn thing than being underground) but twas very muddy so that was fun!!!

Once again, we were beaten by Ease Gill! I think it just doesn't like me, it all looks so easy on the survey! Didn't quite make it to Wretched Rabbit but got about almost to Wretched Rabbit Passage when the survey seemed no longer to make sence. After much wondering around passages without sucess, and my light failing (could it be I forgot to charge it????) we decided to give up and go back. Did some great speed caving! Took... read more

Faff factor = low

It was perfect caving weather and I was feeling much more confident about all things SRT after Thursday's training. I loved the pitches and also all the stomping (of which there was lots). Clay/mud everywhere and lots of unprotected drops which need to be watched out for. It was odd how the maps didn't appear to 'fit' with anything beyond a certain point but the return journey was mega quick. The formations were... read more

Despite not making the through-trip, this was great fun caving. While there wasn't anything particularly difficult or technical about this cave, it was a pretty hardcore trip due to 7 hours continuous climbing, scrambling and crawling taking its toll. There were some nerveracking crawls and unprotected climbs alongside deep ravines, made more dangerous by the slippery mud. We were all absolutely knackered by the end! The mega-efficient speed-caving on the way out was interesting, and I reckon opens... read more

Down Pool Sink, up the main drain to Holbeck Junction and into Gypsum Caverns, back down the route above the main drain (Double Decker Passage ??) to Stop Pot, up the ladder into the high level route to Lancaster Hole and then following the Manchester Flood Escape Route to County Pot (having remembered to rig the entrance pitch of course - would have been very annoying to have to go back through the flood escape route).

Out of County and then... read more

My knee is very sore after all the scrotty crawlling in the flood escape route :( Dont want to do that again in a hurry.