Trips & Reports 2013

Just to clarify, this wasn't an exchange/through trip as that would involve diving - probably a bit hardcore for the freshers (and me!) :p We did one then the other (it didn't seem necessary to add both trips individually) Both are fun little stompy streamway caves, neither really worth doing on their own but combined with each other and/or Calf Holes, make a good day out. Getting to the Birkwith canal seemed a lot shorter than last time I was there,... read more

After a night of bbq, fireworks and mayhem in Manchester the previous night, Matt was giving Tobes and I a lift home. He wanted to be back in Leeds for 1pm but also really wanting to go caving en route... Meaning a 5am start - ugh! Arrived at New Houses at 7am. A reluctant change and walk up and we were at the entrance around 8am. I was nominated for rigging, a great plan since I'd had the least sleep... read more

Five years of caving, and despite it being on my to-do list for a long while, I'd still never been in Daren! It was time to finally rectify this. To be honest, enthusiasm wasn't particularly high after a 12 hour trip the day before. There were ambitious plans of getting up early to ensure getting to Hidden Earth at a reasonable time, but we all completely ignored our alarms in favour of an extra hours snooze. Over breakfast, Andy decided he... read more

Fantastic trip and one I've been wanting to do for ages! The Geryon is stunning, as are all the formations at Medusa's Children; I could have happily spent hours there marveling at them all (I spent a fair while as it was!) Navigation was straightforward, as Mark and Andy had been most of the way before. There's nothing at all difficult but it's a flippin' long way to get there! The return trip took pretty much bang on 12 hours despite... read more

Craftsman's had been mentioned a few times over the summer, and at the pub earlier in the week Toby & I thought we'd make the best of a wet forecast and see what it was like, and Andy soon decided to make it a three. I'd not read a description recently, so I was slightly off put the night before when I read about flat out crawls, mud, and loose rock all the way down, but it's always worth visiting somewhere... read more

After a lot of umming and ahhing about the weekend's plans, I finally decided to tag along with Rackman and Bobbin on their excursion to Craftsman's. I hadn't heard of this place before, but knew it would be interesting when I was told it could be found in NFTFH. Not owning a copy, I did some internetting and found a Black Rose report from 2000 (http://www.blackrosecc.org.uk/reports/craftmans1.html) and a rather unhappy report on UKcaving (http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=2116.0). Neither of these filled me with... read more

We fancied a short excursion, and our gear was all filthy from Saturday's activities in Easegill, so Diccan seemed like the obvious choice, especially given the hot weather. Mark and I had never actually done it before so were quite excited with the anticipation. It didn't disappoint. Mark started off first and made things a bit tight in places. As the day continued, we all got very moist. Despite the experience being over quite quickly, we finished feeling thoroughly satisfied;... read more

Woo! 2 pretty solid caving trips in one weekend after 5.5 years of no real caving at all! :s :p :p There was all manner of technical ropey what-have-you: weird rebelays with no slack, tight deviations with no ledge, big traverses, y-hangs dropping down into space, etc. I was really having to concentrate to remember what on earth I was supposed to be doing, and didn't always manage with much style or efficiency, but funtimes anyhow! I was... read more

First proper caving trip and first SRT for 5 and a half years! (though I did go down a mine last year). :p Genuinely fun, and for me genuinely quite hard and tiring. There was a bit of faff on one of the pitches in Top Sink but after that it was pretty speedy, 6 or 7 hours of constant clambering over boulders, squeezing along rifts and streamway, and slipping around on mud. Well done to whoever was navigating,... read more

Having not been for ages, I was feeling the need for some Easegill action, and given that we had permits for Top and Lancaster, the choice of trip seemed pretty obvious to me! There was a lack of other trip suggestions from other people so the number of people on our trip steadily grew to 8. The pull-throughs were unsurprisingly rather a faff with so many people! But it all worked out fine, eventually. At the bottom of the last... read more

My fourth time in this delightful cave. Stopped off on the way home and wandered up the streamway until the first cascades which were sporting.

A good trip. On approaching the churns we noticed that water levels were high. The forecasts were uncertain and contradictory but the sky looked ok. To be on the safe side, while the others did the usual Dolly Tubs route I rigged the direct route into Alum in case the weather worsened. Standing on the 6 inch ledge above the rebelay I say a broken spectre (your own shadow surrounded by a rainbow halo) on the south wall of the... read more

Epic is an over used term these days, but abseiling into Gaping Gill when its so dry with two other routes coming in side by side was simply epic 8)

I love that this looks like Walmslers just went up to GG and did this on his own :p

Pretty bold for a solo trip! :p

SumP extravaganza!