JH Over-Engine Mine

Saturday February 28th 2026

Members present: Abbie Heathcote,  Paulina Poterlowicz,  Rosie Marshall,  Tyler Hudson,  Will Barlow

I'd first heard about JH as a huge connecting trip with Titan, so hearing about it as its own trip - let alone one I could do this Saturday - was pretty intimidating. A lot of anticipation built up over the coming few days, I think people (read: Ben) got pretty tired of hearing I was doing it :))

Sunrise, parabellum - the morning of the trip, my alarm tried its hardest to sabotage me but I was up and packed and by the store with ample time to continue packing and leave for the Peaks. We had a pretty pleasant drive down, Abbie pointing out all the sights on the way including the remarkably constructed church spires. (as the saying goes - fat spire, thin spire.) We stopped at Abbie's old house and got to see their very cool snake.
We breakfasted at Dolly's Tearooms who do an excellent BLT - given the recent closure of my second-favourite BLT spot, finding one that's just as good was a nice surprise, as much of a trek as it is to get there. Paulina told me about a previous incident that had occurred in the final pitch and I was warned about loose rocks and not dropping them on others - pretty solid advice. Abbie took me on an impromptu sprint up to the nearby Peak entrance, which was very impressive but nowhere near as cool as JH's trapdoor-in-a-field. (I say that only because Squill was rather saddened at not coming with us, peak is actually way better, hopefully he doesn't read this, sorry Squill)

The rest of the drive up to the cave entrance was pretty cool. The valley we went through was beautiful and the farm made for a pleasant place to change (although I managed to totally lose my gloves.) We completed the arduous walk up to the cave entrance, Paulina rigged and I followed, once more unto the breach...
The entrance pitch is an amazing opener for JH - it's super vast and moody, the rock billows out beneath you and curves back and forth but you can still just barely see the rope leading all the way to the bottom. It's pretty good for a hole in a field. I survived the pitch and looked up at Rosie descending down, the sunlight a small speck above us.
After Rosie made it down the pitch, we exchanged bags (although I cannot remember if I ended up carrying one, I think I did but given the hassle it would have been in the next section I feel like I would have remembered more clearly if I had!) and continued on. The death pits were a fun traverse, the rope was a convenient handhold as I struggled with my footing. Quite reassuringly, they had filled up completely so had been downgraded from death pits to puddles and I passed them without too much issue.

The next section is, like all good things, simultaneously very fun and a little bit concerning. There's a lot of hunched walking trying your hardest not to notice the decaying supports holding the rocks up above you, and in the process looking down at all the clearly fresh rubble beneath you. There is a rotted warning sign at one point, which is good as it clearly means the mine is safe now and you don't have to worry. The fun culminated in a nipple-shaving belly-crawl, which might not actually be that tight but given the state of the ceiling I'm not chancing it.
Eventually we made it to the top of Bitch Pitch. Despite the name this pitch is actually pretty pleasant! It has a slightly far deviation but nothing too bad - the pitch is narrow enough to wedge yourself so it's pretty easy. The section is, like the rest of JH, quite atmospheric and the traverse on the beams over the top makes you feel like an actual miner, especially seeing the headlamps below and the passage behind you.. Speaking of, I do think the miners that were once working there must be laughing down at all of us using SRT kits instead of whatever they used to get down. (Although I really have no idea how the mining could have been done. It's pretty narrow and vertical - how did they carry anything in or out?)

Post-bitch pitch is when JH really gets good. We looked around at the old mine equipment and strange-smelling room in the workshop while waiting for the others. Once accumulated, we continued in the same order down through the short climb - I'm a big fan of avoiding climbs, so I just down-prussiked the in-situ and scrambled down to the start of Leviathan (with some very helpful tips from Paulina). The first bit is a small chimney leading down into Leviathan proper.
Leviathan is awesome. The view from up here, near the top, is absolutely gorgeous. It's a large gaping chasm stretching out far above and beneath you - the word 'intimidating' is pretty apt. What was also intimidating was the thought of kicking any loose rocks down below! I did some very terrifying descending as Paulina's warning echoed in my head, trying my hardest not to fall myself. It's a fun experience, I highly recommend. The actual descent is also pretty sick. Something about wide, open pitches really keeps me on-edge - I guess they remind me exactly how high I am, and how easy it would be to just let go!
Having reached the bottom of Leviathan, I released my simple and heard a horrified shout from behind me - I turned around to find myself met with the other half of the chasm looming beneath me. I don't know why they built the cave like that, but I really should have a look around before I derig my descender in future! (In fairness to me, I wasn't the only one to do it :)) I quickly clipped in so I didn't fall and die and proceeded to watch Paulina rig the next part as I prepared to follow. There's a pretty cool pipe here diverting water away from the pitch, which is very helpful and just adds to the mine vibe. Actually, having mentioned that, there's also some large beams presumably keeping the cave from collapsing. It's a very odd feeling to look at the supports for such a behemoth of a passage. It humanises the cave a little - it feels more old and weary.

The last descent is probably the coolest. The organic cavern snaking up and out of sight and the sharp drop beneath you contrast with the pipes and beams and walls to give a rather unique feeling. There's the alien, almost paradoxical design of the cave and yet the unignorable signs of the people that once worked there and the people that still care for it. The cave sags away, releasing you as you spiral down the rope. Also, there's like a ton of ropes currently rigged and I kept getting tangled. How many ropes could they possibly need?

We all made it down safely and discussed the various cool parts of the cave. The five of us had a wander over to Cow-Arse Worms only to discover it was actually the way to the streamway (although it is pretty sick nonetheless, the passage leading to it is very fun and the river is like a 9/10 piss spot.)
Squill and Abbie beat me over to the actual cow arse worms and so I had a solo wriggle down. I had a dig around and saw no worms but it was cool to be there nonetheless, I'm actually strangely excited to hopefully be able to go through it on the TSG weekend. Despite Squill politely requesting otherwise I did however get pretty muddy, the approach is not the cleanest and while turning around it was hard to avoid sinking a little bit into the Worms. I hope I tasted good to them.

The ascent was just as cool as the descent, but it was of course a little harder to look at the cave while focussing on prussiking. The cave was feeling pretty human now and my god what a dick. There's no reason at all to be that tall, it's just unreasonable. The first section was tackled without much hassle bar the large amount of ropes and the vaguely concerning rope rub after the first rebelay - I passed these difficulties and continued up to the next bit. Here, I managed to jam my hand jammer fully into the knot, just absolutely wellied it in there. If anyone's reading this looking for tips, that's actually a pretty bad idea, so try to avoid that.
I did briefly consider just leaving it there but I eventually freed myself and continued up the rest of the pitch. I made it up without further difficulty (the top of the last bit is pretty fun to exit though) and eventually re-entered the Workshop, finding a zip-tie on the way. (cave litter - ew). Rosie, Paulina and I waited there for the others to derig, discussing choice of food for the evening and various interesting cavey gossip. Just as I was starting to feel the cold, Abbie and Squill made it back up, a bit tired but apparently without issue. I'm quite impressed by anyone that can carry a bag up an awkward climb (I am as mentioned pretty terrible at them), and I really was thankful I didn't have one at this point.
Continuing up bitch pitch I found it was probably named going up instead of going down - it's nice and narrow and a little bit finnicky to prussik in. Not sure it's fully worthy of the name, but it wasn't making it easy for me! I'm a big fan of narrow pitches so it was quite fun. Lots of small steps! Reaching the top was nice and moody, strangely foggy - Paulina's light was casting some dramatic shadows through the beams over the pitch which was very cool.

Then was the return of the Cartgate passage! It wasn't any more reassuring on the way back. Paulina kindly pointed out a large pile of rocks being held up entirely by a tiny chunk smaller than my fist, and Rosie pointed out a piece that had collapsed since they were last there - of course, right before I had to crawl under them. I actually did really enjoy the passage, it was a lot faster on the way back and I was a lot bolder over the traverses. There was one slightly silly moment where I bumped my head and fully thought I was going to die but I was fine in the end!
Coming to the final pitch we continued in the same order, Paulina opening the trapdoor followed by me and Rosie. I'm pretty happy with the lack of trouble I had with the relatively large amount of prussiking in this cave, although nearer the end I was largely motivated by the thought of a fish and chips. I never got to a point where I felt exhausted, although I was pretty knackered at the end - I'd been practicing pacing myself on the long prussik, and it really does help. The long prussik is awful but it has its benefits, apparently...

We exited the cave to the warm welcome of some bitterly cold wind. It was quite horrid and I was really feeling the missing gloves right there - I had packed so carefully the night before and yet I was a silly enough billy to forget them at the car. I did however get to use this exit as a good excuse to finally use my new sling for an extra foothold although it's totally not at all needed, mantling is far less of a hassle. Paulina and I wandered quite quickly back to the car taking the tacklesacks but leaving poor Rosie to wait for Squill and Abbie to derig in the cold. We got changed and warmed up in the car and I started to feel my toes again - until the others got back and quite rudely insisted on opening the car and letting all the warmth out so they could change, or something. It was like they didn't even see us shivering.
It was a bit tight but we did make it on time for a rather satisfying post-cave fish and chips. The shop we went to then closed down forever just 3 minutes after we left, which was a little bit unfortunate but the food was nice!

Moral of the story - JH is just bigger Aquamole. I'd really love to go back.