Trips & Reports 2005

I want to see a survey to find out where we went! Change gets 2 because it kept raining on me :(

The seeds of cock-up were first sown when we didn't take a survey OR description with us. Why did we think we could look blury-eyed at the survey in the garage for five minuits at 8am and remember the whole way on. In the words of Ade: I know they way... yes this definatly looks right. Hmm, well, I think we shall ignore Ade in future. Ended up going under Lancaster in the streemway and about a mile in the... read more

A fantastic trip. I don't know what all the fuss is about, although possibly Dom would disagree :-) Didn't go to the bottom, although we probably would have got there as the entrance is a bit hard so we didn't want to be doing it when knackered.

We got further than Gary :-)

~Ouch, pretty sore the next day. Cracking trip. Rigging the first pitch involved being wedged in a constricted rift and reaching to thread a fig 8 single handedly. Plenty of awkward moments. Return journey was far tougher than way in. I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that the first pitch head is the most difficult and awkward I've ever experienced. This cave certainly deservers a place in my top 10 most hardcore trips. Serious error->BHP is listed in... read more

My hips will never be the same again...

A fantastic trip. Both teams went in at the same time, the Oxlow->Maskhill team had to wait for two hours at the bottom for the others to catch up then we got out of Maskhill and over to Oxlow in time to watch Laura coming up the entrance pitch. Generally a very pleasant cave except the scummy entrance pitch in Maskhill.

I got soaked climbing down under the waterfall to the terminal sump. Really wasn't worth the effort,... read more

A top trip, and relativly efficiant, we all managed to get out by about 4:30. Some very scary rigging in Maskhill though, but great fun and a good challenge. Both East and West chambers are well worth seeing, somthing about the size of Mud Hall, quite awsome. Very interesting to see old mine workings, nice bit of variation to a totaly natural cave.

The scummy enterence pitch in Maskhill was my favourite! almost as good as mud hall! + the really big chambers at the bottom were good too :o)

i got to rig!! i was crap and slow but i got there in the end! then i fell into a waterfall and got v wet! sheer luxury of short nearby caves: met at 10, out by 4 and to a beer garden! what all caving trips should be like! :)

More fun than a sackful of badgers. I particularly enjoyed watching Nikki falling off Idiots Leap and landing under a waterfall.

I am never going down this cave again. Quite unpleasant.

Not the most enjoyable cave I have visited. Much of the bottom half looks nice and big on the rigging guide... hmm, must remember to think in 3 dimentions! On reflection, it wasn't tooo bad, a nice change and a bit of a challenge. On the way down the entrance pitch I thought I may never see the light of day again, but on the way up it wasn't half as awkward as I expected it to be, no more... read more

I didn't make it to the bottom I'm afraid. I took one look at the final(?) pitch, looking narrow and rather wet, and I opted to return to the surface. Everyone else carried on, am glad I didn't from what I've heard. The entrance pitch was fun, went down for AGES, three re-belays at least, and seemed tight, but wasn't nearly as bad coming up as I expected. Not a great cave at all, not much... read more

Walking to Flood Pot from Southerscales cottage via ingleborough is a seriously stupid thing to do. I recommend it isn't reapeated cos it's just fucking MILES.

Derigging the intestines is fun!!!!

Higher scumminess factor than everyone else put cos i went the wrong way and ended up waste deep in the scummy sump. lovely! Had a bit of an epic trying to get out of the sump too, seeing as i could not touch the bottom of it + had to climb a rift with no footholds assissted only by clothes line.
anyway, apart from that slight mishap + another bit where i got the stuckest i have ever been and... read more

This cave is evil. It tried to swallow Holly, and it made me claustrophobic. But I think I enjoyed it in the end!

the fun rating would have been much higher if we'd got a bit further! steves too big!! we'l have to chop his legs off or something. but we went to a beer garden on the way home so i didn't mind too much!

fun fun fun, pretty pretty pretty!! shame on those who were too wussy to go you missed out :P and caving cures hangovers!! one of my favourite trips so far, very pretty things to see and fun streamway and waterslidey things! and we didnt get lost at all thanks to nice guide man! and we even got out in time for afternoon tea, and i found shampoo in the girls showers afterwards, sheer luxury!

Much fun. Very good pretties, the chute down from the upper levels was great and a fantastic streamway (unfortunately a bit dry). However, the definate highlight for me was seeing Matt H's face when I told him that's where we were going - and he couln't come. Closely followed by Steve G's face when I told him we'd done it.

A very long walk there (thankfully following a path most of the way). Must have been at least an hour. Not to be done in the dark! A nice easy cave with some really PRETTY formations. Stalagmites and stalagtites changing direction all over the cave suggesting geological goings-on. And some lovely curtainy things. One of the prettiest caves I have been down :-) And I didn't fall over once :-) Next time we shall abduct a... read more

One comment, the Welsh are insane!!!! Big drop under a traverse line (about 23m) and you might want to consider a rope! The only point they tell you to use a rope (by which point in time the rope you took has been used...) was impossible to get through!

Apart from that was fun! (Well that was fun too really!) Next time we take more rope!

Hardcore! i mean running up and down muddy slopes above reasonably sized cliffs while trying not to get your trousers muddy is one heck of a challenge.

Got many photos and a few videos of people making prats out of themselves including people absailing off waterfalls jumping off waterfalls and falling over while exiting waterfalls

Ok, so I wussed out of caving on the Sunday! It was a really nice day, and we took a picnic and saw two major waterfalls, and found a cave (though unfortunately others had found it first!)

Faff factor = none



It was a late start and I was under orders to 'please hurry up' but finally did manage to make it out of the cottage after everyone had left for complicated wet caves that were apparently "our worst nightmare"! We had no map, no directions but did pack yummy food and a GPS nav. Anyway, somehow we managed to take the alternative route to the waterfalls, passing many people in the opposite direction who had... read more

After the previous days attempt (see report - Faff) it was great to actually manage to do the round trip!!!! Was wanting to do this for ages and finally did!!!!! Was a lot of fun, quite fast too! (We got to Lamb and Fox in 40 minutes, that's where we turned round previous day!) Favourite bit was the squeeze at end of the squirrel bit, good sense of achievement after that! (Even though Ade did decide to drop a bunch... read more

Suprisingly enjoyable considering the epic lack of motivation I'd managed to build up in the 20 mins we were waiting in the car park for Andy. (Assuming, that is, that's it's not a contradiction to build up a lack of something).

Dom's fall was really quite impressive, and made the sort of noise that usually preceeds a big cheer at rugby matches. I had visions of broken ribs, before Dom just brushed himself off and said "yeah, I'm fine, just having... read more

Was a good trip, but now I'll never feel I have the need to do the cave again (which in my opinion is a good thing).

Faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff incompetance faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff faff, oh, and FAFF. It only took an hour an and a half to find a photo copier. Why is Wales always closed? Once we finally got into the cave after MORE FAFF with the lock, it was a good trip.

Yes, a bit of a faff, but we got to see more of Merthyl Tydful, which we seemed fated to do considering every road in Wales leads there. The lock into the cave almost defeated us but finally we were in. Didn't like the squeezing very much on the way down, am sure I almost didn't fit! On way back up my light fell off and went out just as I was half way up a waterfall... read more

Erm.... Faff!!!! Never seen Gary so annoyed before!!! Once we actually got into the cave, was fun! Shame we didn't actually get to the Lamb and Fox chamber in the end!

Faff factor = extreme!

Ogof Draenen – What a fantastic name! This was the trip that very nearly wasn’t. The greatest challenge lay above ground! We must pay credit to MFI and Carpet Right for their (little known) copying facilities, it was a mixture of ‘Treasure Hunt’ and ‘Challenge Anika’ but there was more to come... Finding the cave wasn’t easy but Gary’s SatNav came into its own and soon we arrived at what appeared to... read more

Definately going to spend a good amount of time in this cave in the future. Great fun!! Did I mention ducks are pleasant in a wetsuit?!

Altogether far too efficient for my liking, assuming we gloss over the fact that Andy had to return to the cottage, and I couldn't find my arse from my elbow (or Dragon from OFD, OFD from Dragon, and neither of the above from anywhere else in Wales). I feel I should apologise to Holly here, although I'm sure it was as much her shoddy navigation as my shabby memory.

Anyways, trip was as pleasant as you'd expect from a top-c.d. trip,... read more

Dave!!!!!!!
My navagation was fine I knew exactly where we were, only problem being that neither of us knew where OFD was!
Anyway twas a lovely tour of the brecon beacons nonetheless complete with dinosaurs!
OFD nice as always, not sufficient amounts of singing thou.

Next time remind me to bring a bucket and spade to dig out the exit.

Having to reverse due to the pile of gravel that builds up in front of your battery pack is not fun.

While everyone else says the exit was not that bad i was the largest person there by far.

i wonder if they'd let me take a pneumatic drill?

Yes, I know I cocked-up all our plans by getting lost. We set off to go down Centipede and ended up half way down Monastery before we realised that we were totaly in the wrong place! Never mind, we had to suffer the embarasment of meeting most of the others when we got back to the point we went wrong. I blame the blond! Despite that though, we still made it to the bottom ahead of everyone else to rigg... read more

I bought new shoes :o) !!!
Then I went caving - its hard to decide which was the most exciting - they were both good!

I went back up Monastery, as did Steve. Dom and James went up Dome derigging. Not sure Andy can claim to have almost got to the bottom as he didn't go down Valhalla :-) A very fun trip as always. I've now done all the routes so next time we need to do an exchange to Boxhead Pot.

Steve is a wuss if he thinks that was a grade 4 change.

It was snowing i think that counts as a level 4 by your definition if 5 is a blizzard by the gover scale. For instance ade graded a three when it was still light and it wasn't snowing therefore i feel perfectly justified in my rating (plus my battery pack got stuck under the duck and i got propperly soaked).

But yeah asside from that great fun trip. I was however followed by some kind of cave daemon that... read more

A great fun trip, especially as we (team Gary) didn't have to derig anything on the way back :-p though I suspect we shall pay for that on the next trip! Superb traverse just before the bottom, and some scary seems-terrifying-at-the-time-but-actually-good-fun unprotected traverses... good for boosting the confidence! The technical stuff was great, nice and varied, and as usual, I got strung up on the easiest pitch in the entire cave. Hrrmmpph. Really enjoyed the trip,... read more

Supurb trip. So nice to visit a relativly new cave. We actually met a team that were finishing off the bolting in the last pitch! Nice variation although, a bit of guess work on the rigging as no accurage rigging guide has been produced yet. Click on 'View Cave Details' above to see my description for this cave, good for future referance as there is no official rigging guide.

Twas a cold winters night when the five cavers mounted the moor the wind chilled them to them bones and they were feeling quite dejected. Then we found (with no searching around) aquamole pot. as gary rigged the entrance we were bullied by sheep who surrounded us and looked at us funny (i'm sure theyd've demanded our marsbars but sheep can't speak).

We were rescued from the sheep by three wondering cavers (Sheep never mess with grumpy... read more

I almost forgot about the demon sheep - they were soooo scary.
Yeah the cave was fun, except for the old (no fun) cavers who complained about my singing + then altered our rigging for us!

Above the bottom pitches there is a point where many a caver has obviously been left waiting a while. Clay can be found nearby, and there is a good rock on which to place models. I made a snail.

i found a cave in the dales my dad hasn't done! hurrah!!

Not really joking about the blizzard conditions either!

We Shall return (possibly with ropes) without the aid of ropes and srt kits this cave proved too much. started with a 10 m free climb down a vertical shaft (with scaffolding 1/3 of the way down) then a muddy crawl to a 4m free climb then a bit of a scramble then from the front i heard calls of "this is a bit extreme" and it was decided that it would be beter to attempt it with ropes.... read more

Really good fun cave :-) with a scary traverse pitch-trasverse-pitch one-rope wonder over an almost bottomless hole. Such a nice view from the bottom of the big pitch when we finally got there though. And completely exhausing to prussik up again. I am being a bit rubbish writing this report a month and a half after the trip, so can't remember anything else. Doh!!!

good cave tho would have been more fun if we hadn't had to wait at any point -very very wet and very very cold!