Trips & Reports

My last minute decision to come on that trip meant that there was no space in the cars left, so that I had to take the train up to Clapham, where someone was supposed to pick me up and take to the cave. However, when I arrived at destination, I got a call that the car was still miles away, and I phoned up John Holloway whose group had already arrived at Ingleton for breakfast. At last the second car... read more

Did I mention how good binch eating at a random fast food at the station feels after such a long caving day???

Intense.

The trip had been in the planning for a long time, and this was it. The others were off to Heron, but we didn't fancy that. Not one bit. We were going for it. Big time. Toby, as usual, was having a lie in, but I really did fancy the trip so whilst I knew it was cruel, he had to be forced out of bed. He did not look happy. It was pretty foggy as we left the YSS, but... read more

I gave it hard 2 for the rig, it wasn't trivial and provided some decent entertainment.

A really really fun pitch to rig....what is it doing in Yordas?! Ridiculous.

There's 2 things I never remember about this cave: - How wet it is and how much you have to get into that wet. - How long the walk is, it just seems to go on forever. But there's also a lot I do remember: - Face melting SRT which is glorious to rig and de-rig - Amazing passages and chutes - The connection through to Ireby II and the wonders therein Well worth a(nother) return trip!

Agreed. Ireby 2 has everything in it, SRT, horizontal bits, commitment, isolation (for Yorkshire), formations (best ive ever seen but SHHH) its got it all

After a standard serving of shittalk & breakfast at Bernies, me and other members of the York University Crippled Pothole Club assembled and made our way up to the beautiful entrance of Marble Steps. I had been selected to rig the gully route, while Jonny lead the second team down Sidewinder, a decision I was quite pleased with as I hadn't rigged anything since I'd been back from Australia and I was anxious to get my rigging hat back on. The... read more

Perfect cave for someone still getting to grips with SRT. Thanks guys, really enjoyed the trip :)

So good we all went twice apparently! Despite this being my 3rd trip to Sell Gill I don't think I've ever bothered to walk further than 3 metres from the landing of the bottom pitch. My bad. This time we went to see the wet route waterfall, which was pretty huge, Lieke likened it to GG, in terms of power, noise and spray. It was certainly hecking it down. Further downstream there was plenty to climb around on, I was surprised how... read more

There's a dig off from the bottom of the entrance pitch, and it is (just!) about possible to free-climb the entrance pitch if there is a group of slow people in front! ;) There's also a bit of crawling about / exploring to be done between the second and third pitches on the dry route (while waiting for someone on the rope). I did find some chicken bones in there. I don't think it had got in there under its own... read more

At the top of the second pitch on the wet route a handline goes up and connects to a couple of avens and some narrow muddy passage. I explored it but it got a bit too narrow, found a survey of it on cavempas though! :p

I’d been wanting to do this trip for nearly 3 years! For various reasons, planned trips had been put back and put back, but finally we were going to do it – and it didn’t disappoint! :) The only bad part was that I didn’t go fast enough on the zipwire. I only had the option of going first or last. I opted for first but didn’t know how fast it would go and didn’t want to crash into the... read more

Neither Mark or I had been to OFD 3 before so we were both looking forward to an exciting trip after hearing stories of crazy traverses, pole bridges and awkward climbs. Martin had offered to be our guide with the hope to capture a few good photos along the way and having caved with him before I knew we were in good hands. The walk up to top entrance was definitely an incentive to get underground, wet, poor visibility and the... read more

The description is a bit misleading in terms of locating the entrance, you can easily end up at Llygad Llwchwr 2. After parking on the side of the road climb over the stile and walk straight. To your left there is another gate and stile which you need to go through. This takes you past a shake hole on your left (this is the entrance to LL2). Carry on straight until you hit a path and follow it and the... read more

On our way to Llygad Llwchwr we got chatting to a fellow caver who recommended popping into Llygad Llwchwr 2. This is a relatively new find and has plenty of formations to impress. After our trip in LL we made our way down to the entrance which is located at the bottom of a shake hole. Covered by some corrugated sheets is a short climb down into the stream, nicely supported by scaffold poles. There is no route finding issues here... read more

Getting up at 6:45am is surely one of the most unpleasant things you could possibly do on a Sunday morning, especially if it’s the first weekend of your well-deserved Christmas holidays. When the alarm rang on that 18th December, I was cursing the person – oh, it was me – who had set the alarm on such an early hour. But then I remembered the reason why: caving with two of my closest friends from ULSA, Kristian and John (who... read more

After a fair bit of faff with a hire car, we eventually made it to Kingsdale at about midday. We had a rather fresh change in the snow, before making our way to Valley Entrance to rig the ladder at pitch head into the West Kingsdale Master Cave necessary for the way out. John went first, followed shortly by Kristian, while Sophie and I waited outside for what should have been a 15 minute job. 45 minutes later, noises were... read more

Rigging took absolutely ages! When it came to lowering down ladder 7 and ladder 8, the weight was almost taking me off my feet. But it did look pretty impressive. I expected it to be fairly hard to climb a 60 m ladder, but it was much much worse than I was expecting! I have a huge amount of respect for people who did this for all their trips. It was an awesome sight to see ladders stretching out of sight... read more

Only hardcore 2 because I bailed on the ladders after my hands turned to ice and decided to prussick up the lifeline. I've no idea how people did caves like Alum and Juniper in the 20's and didnt freeze to death

Would wooden ladders have been more comfortable? The Bradford lot were pretty impressed!

Get's a 3 for scummyness because it was so cold!

Good effort Mark!! Sounds awesome!

Alum didn't disappoint as always! Going down Long Churn & Dolly Tubs was good fun, with a few moments to keep it interesting as always (watch those edges next time Laura :p) I only made it about 15m up the ladder (in the waterfall), before my arms got tired, so I decided to use the rope instead, rather than destroy myself any further (maximum credit to Mark, who made it the whole way up). After bailing, I found I actually struggled on... read more

Also there was Tom on this trip - but I don't know his last name. Eldon still smells quite nasty at the bottom.

We need the change and faff ratings back for trips, this one gets a 4 for change, not the worst, but very unpleasant.

I've incorporated Change into Scum, it wouldn't have any otherwise.