Trips & Reports 2005

Great trip - the most efficient round trip I've ever done, despite the water levels being slightly higher than normal. In future don't think we'll bother rigging 2 anchor points for the pull-through though as the rope got rather wedged!

Really fast trip, I'm sure we marched through most of it, there were some good sized puddles to jump in, Debbie F should steal my hair care award for the number of times she took off her helmet to faff, and it was so damn happy a trip that Andy V came out singing christmas carols...

We didn't venture much into the mine other than the exchange trip, but on inspection of the survey Hillocks has lots of potential good trips. An exchange with Knotlow will have to be on the cards soon as the area has a huge network of mine shafts and a mixture of mine and cave tunnels.

A nice short romp around an interesting system. A couple of narrow crawls on the way in, and we were through into nice open bouldery chambers. Numerous passages remained unexplored by us however, and having seen the survey since, I agree with Gary that a return trip must be on the cards next time we are staying in Derbyshire.

this was a fun cave to do. but what can i say, this is my tip to all of you DON'T CAVE WITH 2 BROKEN RIBS!!!!!! apart from the pain it was easy and fun with a few good thing to look at ;-) I would'nt mind doing it again.

Quality trip for after a few beers. Although a bit of a squeeze for those of us with baby! Even a bit of a social/party going on in the middle, might have the next committee meeting there. :-)

Ha ha! I beat everyone else getting there (apart from Steve and Ellie)! Does that mean I get to name parts of it?

;)

I had a go at going in the obvious Big Orifice entrance but found it stupidly slippery and icy. Went round to the other end and entered through The Tradesman's Entrance. A small chamber followed with a short climb up through a simple squeeze made more 'interesting' by the presence of many small and spiky rocks (OK: rivets!).... read more

And for those who have yet to see this wonderous construction, here is a photo! And for those contemplating it, can we have no 'horny' puns please, they're just painful! [[a href="http://www.eichgallery.dabsol.co.uk/mowbray/beyond.html" target="_blank"]]Artist's Website[[/a]] Or in its current, more rusty state: [[a href="http://tlfe.org.uk/imart/bretton%20park/Dcp_0440.jpg" target="_blank"]]Photo[[/a]]

Proper hardcore! Hehehe loved the way I ended up upside down in the central part, good job it was dark or I might have looked silly! The horn didn't quite give birth to Steve, he went back in and hid. Ahhhhh.



Hehehe if we're bored some day we should hide in there and make knocking sounds every time someone passes, scare the pants off them!

What can I say apart the fact that although this trip was relatively "short" (had time to go to Bernie's for a nice hot chocolate), I've never had so much muscle ache the next day, it actually killed me! I hate deviations, here I was dangling 35 metres above the bottom (screw the distance, I'm not good at estimating, but you couldn't see the bottom), and somehow re-attached the deviation thingy in the same place as where I detached it.... read more

There was one hell of a lot of water down there! We sacked it off once we reached the bridge cos we didn't really want to come out with hypothermia :s. I had wanted to go for a play down long churn (with it being even more in flood than I've ever seen it), but when feeling quite cold coming out of alum, decided against it.

And I thought Long Churn was flooded a month ago! Could not believe how much water was around, we had to do 3 river crossings to even reach the waterfall!! Pretty awesome sight though to see it all falling from the sky, just a bit chilly at the bottom! (Once I got there - after a 20 minute re-belay) =s Greasy slab was fun though, just...rather greasy! And we made it back in time for homemade soup at Bernies! Yuuuuummmmm...... read more

Totally hardcore! I mean the ice, the wind, the sliding around, the chocolate cake, the pub - extreme!

I agree! And then Ade came along and walked on a frozen puddle...breaking in and getting a drenched/muddy shoe! Amazing views at the top, but very very chilly and slippy :p

Yey ice fun for sliding on :) Got through two reels of film as well. Nice little stroll up a hill

We were beaten again and failed to get past Oxbow corner, let alone find the way onto Wretched wabbit. But a fun, nice and easy trip nontheless. As usual, very enduring and a lot of pretty things to look at and a nice mix of crawling, climbing, sliding, crawling and a bit of rope stuff too. The rope at Fall pot had been recently knotted, making SRT down impossible, and making for an interesting climb. Gary... read more

We went to Easter grotto, then down to the main drain. Then went back out again. Had coffee in the entrance. Very icy walk back. Nasty changing.

Only not so much fun cos I had a BIG ethanol induced headache. Wouldn't have though it was possible to have an epic in sunset but it was. Grrr to Steve's dodgy gear!

Felt like a journey through a toilet cistern...

Hmm, thats one way to put it!

Amazing, apart from leaving a bag at the top which Nikki went back for, it was a trip with almost no faff! We even got back across the fell in a direct line without getting lost, partly helped by the moon, and of course my expert navigation :p

Cool cave (took the dry entrance), but down there we had to drench ourselves in this blistering cold water (ask Jess), aglagla. At the bottom we found three frogs, which to me still doesn't make sense apart from the only explanation being that there must be a Frog Kingdom beneath our feet, and those that we saw were just spies of the King Frog (with a crown on his head). A quick-paced jog down the hill with Ollie after we... read more

One of my favourite trips to date, perhaps tied with James Hall. I took the wet route down (which was more or less completely dry with the exception of a couple of splashes from above on a few pitches). Some excellent (awkward) SRT at times, including a rather large swing-out on the first pitch after a scary traverse. The Y-hang is somewhat of a stretch to reach from the ledge, challenging the nerves a little. For... read more

Great Cave. I rigged the wet route. Fairly standard ropey goodness, with a nice treverse along an exposed ledge in it. I would say the SRT is technically fairly simple, but could be quite intimitating, especially for the short :-)

Glad I went... we made it more or less to the bottom. Unfortunately I couldn't fit up the chute leading to gower hall or whatever that bit's called... possibly the tightest squeeze I have ever attempted (and failed)! However, we reckon there is an easier way in there. Otherwise, a fun, crawly, muddy cave, quite tricky to navigate around, making it more exciting. And a bonus that you're never more than an hour from the surface,... read more

I've been down here loads of times and I still find new bits!

We took down the description from http://www.braemoor.co.uk/cavingtrip/route9.shtml and tried to follow bits of it:

Rigged the entrance shaft off the tree and then rigged the second pitch and lobbed down the rope. Headed back to entrance shaft and went across to the other side and down Robert's Passage. Passed Robert's Inlet on the right, and passed a rope going up on the right. Ignored this 'cos it looked a... read more

I have never seen so much water down Gaping Gill in my entire life!

A very fun trip with a fantastic waterfall. My legs were too short to reach some footholds and Aimee's were too long for others. We changed outside a church and Aimee wondered if it was wrong to flash your bum at it. Only un-fun part was getting my hair caught in the rack. Ouch! The drive back was scenic because of bonfire night fireworks going off all over the place. Pretty...

Well it was rather a giraffe, wasn't it? We decided on glow in the dark sheep trousers as Christmas prezzies, had random old farts looking scandalised to find cars driving on a road, bushes leaking, Audrey nearly collapsing into a pile of mud before we even got near a cave, me taking six attempts to correctly put on knee pads, the hair incident (Ad's now considering a change of career) Dom morphing into a dog, Audrey and I getting stuck... read more

Well, long churn three weeks on the trot! I'm beginning to know it well. Its been getting steadily wetter too, so we can't go next week as it sould be completely submerged!

A bit of a chilly change, but not actually raining, and a long walk up the hill. Only two people fell down Dr. Banisters this time, despite John putting knots in the handline. Those who took the sporting decent option where well fielded by Laz and John though, and... read more

Well I haven't been caving in over a year so I would've had fun in Mother Shiptons Cave ( www.mothershiptonscave.com ) let alone the watery delights of Long Churn. I enjoyed myself anyway, splashing around in Dr Bannisters Handbasin, catching 1st years with Laz and playing hunt the submerged welly.

John C and I also did Wilson's Cave. The bottom end looked particularly wet so we went in at the top. I got as far as where my ear was touching the water and decided to turn back 'cos it was probably sumped!

Fun little jaunt, though.

Oh yeah, John C and I came out through the Diccan entrance where there was pretty much bugger all water, and then got to laugh at everyone else doing full submersion coming out the resurgence... read more

Sorry about the welly! Not my fault I ended up with size 6 instead of size 9 wellies and had to borrow an odd pair of Ollie's - size 11 and size 12! Good job I didn't break my finger anyway... and yes that plughole thing was freeeeezing!

A very scary amount of faff! I don't think god wanted us in a cave on this trip. Many people who would have gone caving had a very nice breakfast in Inglesport (cos Bernies was full) then went back to York! Thankfully we managed to salvage many of the freshers and get into the cave by me and Ollie driving back to Gargrave to pick people up from the broken down mini bus while everyone else went home either in... read more

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on a damp saturday morning, many cavers pile into two cars and a minibus and head off to the dales. Whilst passing through gargrave, someone noticed a smell of something burning. Praying it wasn't the minibus, we told matt to stick his head out the window to check it was coming from outside. It wasn't. We pulled into the car-park for the Anchor Inn and the minibus emptied as plumes of smoke bellowed from the... read more

Bat passage is VERY VERY pretty, although you have to do a nasty wet squeeze and go up a pitch backwards to get there.

Adam + Will also went on the trip!! thought they should get a mention too :)