Cliff Force Cave

Sunday February 23rd 2014

Members present: Adam Walmsley,  Steven Spall,  Toby Buxton

Preamble:

I seem to be quite enjoying caving at the moment and have peculiarly high levels of enthusiasm for it, reminiscent of my youth. Consequently Toby and I conspired to arrange an extra-curricular weekend meet and put the call out for other participants. Now I generally do my best to shun any form of responsibility so when I was asked to choose a cave for this trip, I was taken aback. My immediate response was the Buttertubs, on account of its funny name. Take note: this is how I make decisions. After looking into the matter, I discovered that the Buttertubs are actually just a series of open pits by the side of the road. Toby and Steven would be most displeased if I dragged them all the way to the Dales for that ;@. However, by chance, there is a proper cave in the vicinity by the name of Cliff Force Cave. That would do! 8)

I picked Steven and Toby up from Settle Station and we drove over to the Buttertubs Pass, the weather deteriorating all the time. On arrival, it was gale force wind and horizontal rain. Toby felt car sick :s. Steven and I made several brief recces outside to try to locate the entrance. We came perilously close to bailing. Finally, a break in the cloud allowed the entrance to be viewed across the valley, though not everyone was happy about this news. A trip back over the pass was needed to phone for callout. Faff levels were high. Similarly high was the change grade, ameliorated only slightly by sheltering behind the car boot.


Fact-cannon:

Due to astoundingly poor design, rainwater falling on the raised rear door of a Peugeot 107 drains straight into the boot and all over one's dry clothes. :(


The cave:

This seems to be the first YUCPC trip to Cliff Force Cave so I thought it worth a decent description. Parking is at the Buttertubs and the cave entrance can be seen across the gill near a resurgence at the foot of a small crag. The entrance is an unenticing little grot-fest. A slippery and somewhat loose climb followed by a short bendy wriggle leads to a drop into the streamway. The water gets fairly deep immediately, and though you can traverse over this first bit, you will get wet legs on this trip so why bother. The entrance series is characterised by varied caving along muddy or sandy bypasses and overflow routes which weave above and around the main streamway. Although it seems fairly complex, you just follow your nose and can't go far wrong. Soon, you reach the lower streamway proper and it's a case of following the water upstream until you can follow no more. This is essentially a cave of two halves, the lower streamway and 'The Drain Queen's Highway' (the upper streamway). The lower streamway is comparable to a typical above-ground watercourse, with meanders, pool-riffle sequences and an abundance of mobile substrate. For the most part it's a nice easy walk, though occasionally the roof comes down and you have to crawl. When the streamway sumps, there is a conveniently placed dry bypass (a flat-out crawl but not tight) which emerges into Fault Hall. Pause here and admire the view.

Fault Hall marks the beginning of The Drain Queen's Highway and a change in the character of the cave. This is a long, straight, canal-like section with chert ledges jutting out from the walls. The water is typically knee high, but does vary in places up to one's nether regions :o. Wade along this passage for a good twenty minutes and you will most likely come to an unexpected termination. Go back perhaps 40 yds and there is a window through the true right wall into a parallel passage which leads on to the Room of Dangling Doom. The Room is a stooping-height chamber of approximately 25 × 10 yds, covered with large, flat slabs of rock from the roof. Here it is nice to rest on one's back and study the pattern of cracks in the roof between the next layer of slabs waiting to be dislodged. I would tentatively suggest that this would be a suitable turning point for most trips, as it was for ours. There is a short continuation (called the Killer Crawl) towards the sump. Though we looked, we did not find it, and I doubt it would add a great deal to the trip.

The water levels on our trip were elevated but not in flood. It was raining on saturated ground but not heavily. The lower streamway could become impassable in flood conditions. There is supposably a high level alternative to the lower streamway called the Spar Shop Series which we passed by in blissful ignorance. As I was leading the trip we had neither description nor survey with us. The water was very cold as a proportion of it was melt water. Extra warm gear may be a good idea for future visits. The upper streamway in particular is very photogenic. I would recommend it for a photography trip, as well as fun times with a dinghy/mattress. Cave swag gathered included a whistle and a Cadbury Brunch bar which Rochelle had the displeasure of eating a week later ;). Trip time was around the 3 hr mark.


Epilogue:

I believe we were all pleasantly surprised by this trip. Having very low expectations to begin with no doubt helped. However, I would gladly return given suitable opportunity and I would encourage others to check it out also. I would also encourage more unusual trip selection in general. You never know, you just might find a gem.

After caving we headed down to Hawes for hot chocolate and cake, as is the custom :p. Thanks to Steven and Toby for a good day out and for naïvely trusting in my judgement. :)