Quaking Pot to Gormenghast - 7th Oct 2010
Thursday October 7th 2010
Members present: Chad B, Marcus Roby, Toby Buxton
Report by Marcus Roby
A drunken, capitalized text message from Chad at Hidden Earth prompted the final organization of a trip which had been in the planning stages for some months. The trip began with a relatively relaxed start of 8am rope packing at the container, a somewhat quiet group busily prepared ropes and mulled over what was to come.
Setting off at 8:40 we made good time to the dales, though we arrived to find bernie’s were not serving food this week, so we moved next door to inglesport for breakfast, wondering whether eating was actually a good idea before such a tight trip, but the energy would be needed. A 25 hour callout was set, planning a roughly 17-18 hour trip time.
The weather was sunny and quite warm for the change, and the long walk up to the cave was somewhat uncomfortable in the heat of the day, myself and Toby stripping down our PVC and enviously watching Chad in club cordura. Arriving at the cave we took the dry entrance route, a short muddy crawl led to a chamber and the top of the first pitch which was quickly rigged and descended - unable to see daylight the trip was underway.
Following this there is short, there is a short, tight section leading to the second pitch, and the beginning of an ongoing battle between myself and the tacklesack, and also with my wellies, one of which actually came off at this point and joined someone else’s at the bottom of a tight narrow rift, luckily the squeeze descended and opened out enough just after for me to reach in and get it, otherwise the rest of the cave would have been very uncomfortable indeed.
From here it was (relatively) plain sailing down the second, third and fourth pitch to the skydive, a constricted roof level crawl traverse ending in a 2m climb down (skydive). At this point Quaking started to show it’s ugly side. A very tight, sharp corner (coitus corner) lead into the crux. Able to push himself through the very tight by-pass, Toby began the job of ferrying our SRT kits and the tacklebags to beyond the worst of it, while Chad surveyed the route we’d have to take. Deciding even the “easy” route was probably too tight he backed off allowing me to have a look. I squeezed myself through the first bit of the crux, looking through it, trying to think of the best way on I very nearly agreed this may be a bridge too far. About to surrender I gave one final effort, and I was through. At this point Chad was determined he wouldn’t be beaten and after alot of effort he joined us on the other side. But we weren’t out of the woods yet, a long stretch of very tight winding passage stood between us and the next “comfortable” part. I pushed on making quite good time through and arrived at the start of a roof level crawl (explorer’s prerogative). I stopped for a break and waited for the others but after about 10 minutes alone I opted to go back and see what the hold up was, Chad had encountered a section which was easy for Toby, but attempting the same method Chad couldn’t get through, since I was on my own I’d not been mislead by Toby’s route and was able to give Chad the real, if somewhat unpleasant route involving a stream level crawl, sticking your head under the freezing water for a spell.
Explorers prerogative ends at the fifth pitch which was descended, though there was some disagreement about whether what we descended was actually the fifth pitch, and after about 15 minutes of route finding issues we finally discovered the way on to the sixth pitch, an enjoyable (if wet) descent which joins a waterfall about half way down, and continued on to the seventh pitch. At the bottom of the seventh pitch we entered the W bends, a brief section of crawling in elbow deep water through a twisting passage. The entry to the W bends took Chad several minutes, a very narrow rift beginning in a tight bend which he found difficult to negotiate. Watching this I took a separate entry which bypassed the initial bend, and was soon right behind him. Beyond the W bends is the beginning of the fly crawl bypass, which requires a 4m free climb up a nearly flat wall. I began climbing and, very close to the top couldn’t see any way up and came back down, after a short analysis I restarted (remembering that any accident here would be a serious problem), and finally made it to the top. Once there I rigged a rope from a natural to allow the others to prussic up safely. The fly crawl ends in bridge hall, and cuts out several of the pitches, making the trip slightly quicker. From here a very muddy section of cave finally lead to the last descend into Gormanghast chamber. We sat for a while enjoying a little food and water, congratulating ourselves on having reached the bottom. It’d taken us 9 hours to get here, and everyone was confident we’d make the 18 hour estimate, maybe even be quicker, after all, it’s normally quicker on the way out...right?
Maybe not. We began the return journey, since we’d all rigged a section we took it in turns to derig a section to share the loads, I took the first section (forgetting this meant I’d have to carry a tacklesack all the way). The first bit of the cave was relatively straightforward. We passed back through the fly crawl and rigged a pull through in order to descend safely. We entered Explorers prerogative and began crawling, and crawling, and crawling...it seemed the section had elongated since we’d last been there, after what seemed like forever I arrived at the formation rich passage at the end of this traverse. It was at this point the gear loop on my harness snapped, sending Maz’s personal bag plummeting to the bottom of the tight rift, very much beyond reach. Feeling somewhat guilty I entered the tight rift. Unable to look up I kept moving until a confused Toby shouted that I’d entered the crux, or more specifically the tight crux bypass. I backtracked slightly and climbed into the crux proper, though I was unable to get high enough, re-entering the crux from this side proved a nightmare. There was just no way to propel oneself up far enough in such a tight environment. I sat in an alcove thinking it through, and round the corner, having just entered the crux, a shattered Chad found a similar alcove to sit in. After several hours of sitting and planning, planning and sitting I finally decided enough was enough, the only way was to force my way out. I reached up, found a ledge to hold on to, and, braced for the pain I pulled myself up, trying to compress my ribcage enough, to squeeze through, then using it to prop myself up. Finally at the right height the crux itself was simple, a very quick wriggle and I found myself at coitus corner. I waited here for a while longer as Chad still hadn’t figured his way through. All I could do was listen to him struggling, unable to help as he painfully forced his way though the tight bypass, unable to muster the strength to get up.
Running very late we climbed up skydive and into the traverse, I moved relatively quickly, calling what little energy I had, but Toby and especially Chad were exhausted, I waited for around an hour for them to join me at the bottom of the 4th pitch. Once here it was decided that, with 2 hours to callout I would blitz out, moving as fast as I could to cancel callout, so the other 2 could have longer to get out without worrying. I started quickly, running up the 4th pitch. Though I was quite tired I managed to fly through another very long traverse at the top. Just before the first pitch the tacklebag became horribly stuck around the old boot which had taken up residence in the rift and I was unable to free it. Reluctantly I had to abandon it, feeling guilty that someone else would have to carry it, but concentrating on the time issue, with no way of telling how long I’d been I was just aiming to be as fast as possible. At the top of the first pitch I saw daylight, and, with renewed energy ran up the short rope and the muddy crawl entrance.
Emerging into the world I wanted to collapse on the floor and sleep, but only half my job had been completed, I still needed to get to the car, thinking I was at best close to my 2 hour window I set off running, not an easy feat in full SRT gear, oversuit and wellies, I got some funny looks from walkers on the way down but I had to keep going, close to the end I stopped and asked the time from a group of ramblers, finding I had 40 minutes till callout I was visibly relieved, but having run the first bit I decided to still run the rest.
Shattered, and with 20 minutes to spare I arrived at the car and called a very relieved Blakey to report I was safe and would take over the new callout. Once changed, and after a brief sitdown and nap I set off back up the hill, 5 hours after I’d got out, 7 hours after I’d left them at the 4th pitch I saw Chad and Toby emerge from Quaking pot. The trip was complete. Total time underground, for me 25 hours, for Chad and Toby 29-30 hours.
