Ireby Fell Cavern

Sunday December 15th 2013

Members present: Adam Walmsley,  Catherine Moody,  Sarah Jefferys,  Toby Buxton,  Vicky Bailey

Awww Walmslers, I had no idea you'd had such an epic! I'd just like to add/clarify a few things though as it makes it sound like we didn't care about poor Walmslers!

After clambering up for a nosey along the passage, I was fairly sure the cobble slope had to be the right way based on the survey/rigging guide but it was all scarily loose and I didn't fancy the look of the continuing passage, so asked Walmslers to see what he thought. At some point in the proceedings I/we had lobbed a rope round a natural at the top of the cobble slope of doom as a handline. Unfortunately, because of the availability of said naturals, it had to go round a corner out of sight which meant that when Walmslers disappeared on his quest I couldn't see if the rope was free. I'd gone back to the bottom of the slope to keep Vicky (a fresher at this point) company and check she was ok. I'm pretty sure she was stood up and relatively comfy so although cold, not at any risk from suspension trauma. When Walmlsers had been gone for a while I tried shouting but the sound of the water was overpowering and I wasn't convinced I'd hear him even if he was there. I didn't want to load the rope for fear of dislodging Walmslers/rocks in case he was on it, so we waited patiently for a while, getting slightly concerned but not overly so - Walmslers is an unbreakable machine. I was just starting to contemplate setting off on a rescue mission when he returned, reporting that nah, he didn't fancy it either, so off we set down shadow. Now being at the wrong height, rigging across to the next p-bolts was entertaining but I got there in the end.

We eventually caught the others up at the bottom of Overshadow, where they were waiting expecting us to pop down a rope and were a bit confused when we appeared trundling down the streamway. We carried on together until we reached the duck. Time was getting on a bit due to the immense faff earlier and there was heavy rain forecast for an hour or two's time. Not wanting to get stuck the wrong side of the duck or drenched any more than necessary on the pitches we wisely opted for a retreat.