Trips & Reports 2009
Chad wrote...
We had hoped to do both this and Logarcek, having been the first team to leave Specleocamp hopes were high. However we were probably not well prepared in the map department with only having a drawing that showed our path to the cave and non others adjacent to this. We soon left the cave trail (although we were not actually sure at this stage what the symbol of circles / triangles meant). As it happened we stumbled on the team... read more
Matt wrote...
In terms of understated presence and beauty, the main chamber of this cave was one of the most fantastic and spiritual places I have ever had the privilege to stand. This cave is not brash, overt or in your face, yet it sums up something subtle in human nature that has been forgotten in these times of excess and competitive wrangling. Upon reflection I saw this in Franck’s face when I first asked him about it “ah the owl cave…”... read more
8 photos by Matt...
Mark wrote...
Never has a guide book been so wrong. "Well worth a visit"? Not if it's the last cave on earth! The entrance is small slot between a tree and a boulder which proved to be virtually impossibly to rig sensibly and impossible to rig without plenty of rope rub. Andy went down first without bothering to change, just to see what was there and after seeing a spit, decided to come back up to change into gear. It was at this... read more
Alastair wrote...
hard because i was loosing my light from my helmet and light, who knew that you had to recharge new rechargeable batteries before using them for the first time. but not hard in itself, great chamber with crickets in it and some lovely formations, and a small mud hole with mud sculptures in it.
Mark wrote...
Having sampled the Christmas meal catering (again) the night before, the caving day started later than usual with us already in the Dales… the 8am alarm still felt early though! It somehow took us until well gone 9 to get to Bernies and several courses of breakfast later we had parked by the marshals setting up yet another 3 peaks walk. The sun came out and after an amazingly long time sorting out gear (I don’t think any of us... read more
Catherine wrote...
The alarm went off at 8 – as usual we chose to ignore it and went back to sleep. 15 minutes later Mark came knocking at the door (disappointingly without tea) and we were forced to get up. Deciding it was too late to have breakfast there, and as there was lots of shopping to be done in Bernies, off we headed. Having not had a first breakfast, we opted for 2 courses. It turns out that cereal in Bernies is... read more
Mark wrote...
Usually known for my phobia of inefficiency, I really enjoyed the trip despite copious amounts of faff at various points! Just goes to show that it's largely the group that make a great trip :) Having read a fair bit about Small Mammal Pot, it was nice to finally descend it & it was good to do a bit of rigging again too. Much muddier that I'd expected though, although it is another all-weather route & sections could be mixed... read more
Catherine wrote...
Quite a faffy trip, but fun nevertheless. Small Mammal Pot is a good alternative to the standard Bar Pot descent. Be warned though, it is more than a bit muddy (as the rest of the team could verify by the state of my face and oversuit at the end of the day!) and not ideal for "larger" people - quite a bit of squeezing and contortionism were required in places. I dont think Matt enjoyed going through the keyhole at... read more
Laz wrote...
After a few beers, Kev made me think that it would be a good idea to go for a potter about in Peak Cavern at the weekend. This was to be the first time Nikki and Gover had been caving in a long while and so it was intended to be a slow wander around some stompy passages... We headed down to the TSG making good time, and sat about chatting while we made a monster breakfast. A few cups of... read more
Chad wrote...
Thankfully this week at least one member of the team had a clue where the cave was, it seemed that the previous week we just didn’t go far enough down the field, after getting very confused by another fenced off section. This was the de-rigging trip! After the late time getting back from the trip the previous day I was rather glad to be at Bernie’s having a hearty breakfast. There is a choice of about three holes to take within... read more
Alexander wrote...
Change 2 only for midges. In other news: Awesome rating 5/5 Man rating 4/5 Near death rating 3/5
Jonathan wrote...
Awesome rating 5/5 Man rating - not sure what this meens Near death rating 5/5, but only because I was cloth-lined by a rope from another club when one of them swung out across the bridge
Hayley wrote...
I’m not very good at writing trip reports as I can never remember what came where regarding routes. So instead I’m gona take a different approach and explain why I voted the way I did! Faff; High level of faff on the way due to a road being closed. Luckily I keep a map book in my car and so with the aid of my sat navs (Anna, Josh and Christian) I was instructed to take various exits at roundabouts... read more
Chad wrote...
A fantastic day out! I was really glad about this after the failure of a trip the week before. Mark had been given an interesting selection of names of those wanting to go caving at training, initially I wanted to go on the Rowten trip as it’s a cave I really wanted to do. Instead I was asked if I would rig and lead a trip down Aquamole pot, I jumped at the opportunity at being able to lead my... read more
Imogen wrote...
High scummyness due to the huge amounts of sweaty flesh while dancing.
Kevin wrote...
It looked a lot smaller from the top than I had expected but it just opened out into a lush green pot. that seemed to grow the further you go down. It was a pretty cool shaft with Jackdaws and a football at the bottom. I went down last after rescuing foolish lambs that watched to jump on Alex whilst he was rigging! The crawl at the bottom was pretty minging and thankfully quite short, but it wasn't as bad as... read more
Mark wrote...
The plan for the day, as always, was super-efficiency :) With 6 people wanting to go we decided to split into 2 groups of 3 as 6 is never a good number to have in one group. The early bird team (Me, Cat & Andy) aimed to leave at 7:30 (we settled for 8!) whilst Ade, Chuck and Chad were to follow at 9. Our early team were doing well, in Bernies at 10ish in time for our Yorkshire puds, although... read more
Catherine wrote...
What can I say… AMAZING! Dihedral is a truly fantastic descent, and standing on the ledge half way down took my breath away. There was a bit of worry on reaching the entrance that it would be too wet as last time Matt went down it was bone dry whereas today the stream was flowing through. But there was no way we were going to back out now so decided to rig it and have a better look -... read more
Catherine wrote...
Mud Hall is muddy
Alexander wrote...
An amazing trip to a truly unique cave. Team arrived at the container mostly on time. The journey was very efficient, even having time to stop for some breakfast (unfortunately not at Bernies). Lots of fun, some of the passages almost seemed purpose built for sliding down. The multiple routes also allowed for a lot of enjoyment to be had in repeat descents, all of which were completed due to overall good efficiency. The change was also very pleasant, better than any caving trip... read more
Charlie wrote...
It rained so Otter Hole was out so we ended up going down this one. Its a great cave. VERY easy to get lost as there are loads of different promising-looking routes to go down. Our main focus of the trip was to go down the La La slide (yes that is the one next to tubby hall) and also to see the white crystal pool (or something like that). Most of the cave is completely dry, except for a... read more
Alastair wrote...
the day started with the purchase of a blindingly white helmet, note for future referance it was actually white when i got it. we parked up and me and mark got out, while ade and cat were driving round the entire of ingleborough mountain to actually find signal for a callout, me and mark just had a little sunbathe/picture of ingleborough. then it was time to get changed, cat really didn't want to get changed even saying "i don't want to... read more
Mark wrote...
I started feeling pretty ill derigging the bottom pitch and things got worse on the way up. The bottom of the second pitch was probably the worst point and it was quite a relief to get out in the end. Thanks to the other guys for being so helpful! I hope I don't feel like that again for a good while...
Catherine wrote...
A pretty efficient start – Ade actually turned up on time to pick me up, shock horror! I was anticipating him being late as per usual so ended up having to finish my breakfast in the car… All was going well til we parked up at the foot of Inglebrough and started to get changed. I asked what time call-out had been set for… “Call out, whats that again?” was the response…. So Ade and I hopped back into the... read more
Jonathan wrote...
Awsome! Everthing good about Kingsdale in one short cave. An impressive entrance pitch, a wet crawl, a waterfall pitch and a huge chamber, all in 20 minutes!