Titan Shaft - JH Over-Engine Mine

Sunday April 19th 2026

Members present: Abbie Heathcote,  Elliot Rushton,  Erika Lang,  Sophie Brazil,  Tyler Hudson

Titan, if you haven't heard, is one of the tallest cave shafts in Castleton. Because of this, a Titan-JH exchange was decided on the Saturday evening as a good solid Sunday trip to round off the TSG weekend. We had a bedtime trip report reading for motivation and went to sleep ready for a nice and early 10:30 leave for Titan.
Come morning, I wandered over from where I was staying in the YHA to find breakfast already cooked and waiting and thusly filled up on the weird potato ball things. Chris and Rosie arrived with the JH rope and we all packed and left, with the plan being to change upon arrival. The ever-benevolent Sqwilliam drove Abbie and me over and went back following some goodbye hugs to retrieve the others as we started to change. We got some very funny looks from some passing walkers (who obviously thought we were really cool) and Sqwill returned, flanked by a posse of motorcyclists who were less cool than us as they weren't caving. Sqwill parked up and Sophie, Erika, and Elliot emerged and began to change quite efficiently. Limited faff was had as we decided whose phone to pack for the exit, as we would of course have to ask Sqwill to come and get us, and Erika engineered a very secure and waterproof pouch for it out of most of a roll of duct tape and a few spare buffs which would probably maybe help it survive the Cow-Arse Worms crawl. We also packed some paracetamol and Sophie's sock (just in case.) We took some pictures and Erika asked if I would write a trip report for this trip - it was my first time down Titan, after all.

"Hmm, I dunno. Maybe if something big happens."

We started the walk over to Titan after saying our goodbyes to Sqwill and Abbie demonstrated her Titan expertise by beelining at the exact right angle to reach the trapdoor first try. Erika unlocked it, didn't drop the padlock, and rigged the 52 metre rope into the entrance shaft cleanly and quickly. It was all pretty uneventful and boded very well for the trip to come so for a bit of excitement we told Elliot about all the scary things that happen on big pitches (did you know rack bars can pop off if you feed it too quickly??). Erika descended, followed by Sophie, me, Elliot and Abbie. Descending the entrance shaft is itself quite interesting - it's like a timeline of different digging techniques as the walls transform as you descend, and looking back up gives you an appreciation for the time spent working on it. It's an ingenious feat of engineering. A lot of debris is still left at the bottom, and on the left is an old smashed padlock (environmental storytelling.) There was a fair bit of rope left at the bottom, but that's fine, it's better than having too little. We didn't even get lost in the dig as we wandered over to the window overlooking the shaft. At this point, my headlight was being a bit erratic and so Sophie lent me their backup light to put around my neck. Erika did some further efficient rigging, said her goodbyes, and descended, leaving Sophie and I at the window all alone, until Abbie and Elliot appeared pretty soon after. At this point I was able to lean over and get a proper look at the size of Titan, and, not to exaggerate or anything, but it's pretty big. Even the drop down to the Event Horizon is staggering and your light just cannot reach beyond it. Knowing that ledge with Erika's tiny light sweeping across it just hangs over the second half of the chamber is hard to wrap your head around, and, upon Erika's call of 'rope free', watching Sophie's light slowly shrink down to join her was very spooky indeed. Some brave stals are starting to form at the top of Titan, which I noticed as I had a look around to try and spy Horne's Gulley which, despite being on the survey, I am not totally sure actually exists, as the top of Titan seems to be only a few metres above the window without any obvious further up bits.

Eventually, it was my turn to descend, and I got to do one of the coolest steps out as I walked out over the flowstone ledge of the window. Leaning down over the 60m first half is an awe inspiring view and would be an epic piss spot were I a braver man. A few careful steps on the worn stals (making sure not to dislodge anything) leads to the pitch head and you can rig your descender before taking the leap of faith and swinging out over the top of the largest cave shaft in the country. The descent is pretty sick - people focus on the height of Titan but she really is a gorgeous cave, with great swathes of flowstone following you down as you twirl down towards the ledge. I think it's worth braving the prussiking for the experience alone but the prettiness just adds to it. Eventually, I reached Sophie and Erika at the Event Horizon, just as Erika was completing the rigging and beginning the descent down to the second half of the shaft (past all that scary rub.) Erika seemed pretty grateful she'd only have to do it once. The second rebelay was completed and Erika was frankly speeding down the shaft. We were going to have to wait so long for the other group at the junction, no way were they going as quickly as us. At this point my headlamp was increasing its silliness so for safety we tried to fit it around my helmet. This involved taking my helmet off, with an Erika below, who would probably not be a big fan of having a heavy object dropped down a pitch onto her. I clipped a cowstail into my helmet and clipped my second cowstail into the backup light as we installed it. I've never been so safe before. This high level of safety rendered Sophie and I rather giggly and our cackly giggles echoed up and down the shaft, probably making the others think we were a little insane. We then shifted onto more serious discussion about zebras and some other things but I remember the zebras the most plainly. We also held hands as an extra point of protection and sampled the taste of the Event Horizon. At this point, we noticed that Erika had been gone for quite a while. We then suddenly saw her light again as she had, for some strange reason, prussiked back up to us.

Sophie shouted down to ask why Erika was back at the ledge.

"I...HAVE...THE...WRONG...ROPE!"

"WHAT?"

"I...HAVE...THE...FIFTY...TWO!"

Earlier in the trip report, when I said Erika had rigged the 52 metre entrance rope, I may have somewhat lied. Through some silliness, the ropes had been switched around and the rope Erika had descended the last 60-70 metres of Titan on had been about 15 metres too short, as she realised with about 2 metres to go till the knot. This was not very ideal and she had to turn around and come straight back up to us. Fret not, the mix-up did nothing to quell our giggling and really only exacerbated things. Once the giggles had somewhat subsided though a plan was formed to have Sophie derig the top pitch of Titan, thereby trapping us inside, swap the ropes, and send Abbie down to hand over the bag. It was about an hour into being on the event horizon by this point and I was becoming very familiar with its charms. If you look very carefully at the opposite side of the shaft you'll see a great fuck-off boulder hanging off of seemingly nothing leaning over the boulder choke at the bottom which is pretty cool. Anyway Sophie abandoned Erika and I and we huddled for warmth before we got the silly idea to initiate a welly dance on the ledge for even more warmth. We VERY VERY CAREFULLY manoeuvred in such a way that we could execute this welly dance and began the famously unstable move at a pretty glacial pace, as despite being cowstailed in we were still definitely halfway up Titan. We stopped after a few moves and re-huddled to conserve any gained warmth.
At about 1 hour 30, I realised Titan looks like a giant toilet bowl. This was not a nice thought as I had been needing a piss since the first pitch, and Erika wouldn't let me piss off the event horizon, so I was still having to hold it.
Through all this waiting, the giggling did not once subside. Erika said she was very willing to accept 50% of the blame for the situation, but it has to be at least somewhat someone else, which I agree with. Every now and then we'd remember we were 70 metres up Titan on a slippery ledge and sit a bit further back but overall it was just quite silly.
Eventually, an Abbie appeared and joined us on the ledge, tacklesack in hand. (well, clipped to her.) This meant Erika could commence going over the scary ledge for the 3rd whole time. She did so, survived, called rope free and fuck, I have to do it now! I rigged my simple and began the careful walk backwards, avoiding knocking any rocks, and then got to the point where the rope kinda has to rub a bunch but it's fine because a second later you can clip a cowstail in and definitely be fine. The super exposed feeling of the rebelay was very fun - all my fear of heights was absorbed by Brewery Shaft so it was just a nice view :)
The rest of the descent was nice and smooth. It's under an overhang so you really do feel the fact that there is a single rope holding you up. Total time on ledge: 2 hours

I touched down a little later and man, I really needed a piss now. I rushed to get my SRT kit off and pissed for quite a while at the opposite side of the boulder choke to the entrance (so we wouldn't have to crawl through piss.) Erika found a bunch of nice blue john rocks and crystals, and after a little bit everyone made it down safely. Suddenly, we saw a light coming through the boulder choke. This light was Chris, having done all of JH and the connection in the time it took us to just descend Titan. The rest of his group then followed, Rosie, Jed, Ben, and Joe. We had a brief catch-up and explained the whole incorrect rope thing to them before leaving to worm our way through the boulder choke, and what a marvellous boulder choke it is! It DID smell like piss, but I don't think that was mine. At one point there's a scary-looking squeeze where you actually have plenty of room but it would look really dramatic in photos. One of the squeezes is a bit of a wedge but when you get through it releases you very suddenly and it feels like you're being born so we all got new names after that one. (Sophred? Abster?)

Post boulder choke was some pretty fun horizontal caving. There was a handlined climb, some scrambling, a mud formation, some silly ladder climbs, Sophie almost killing themself by blindly following the route description, and some fun silly traverses. Actually, the fun silly traverses were over what could be described as maim pits and the handlines were anchored in the most sketchy conceivable way with some very falling-apart maillons so we fixed this issue by using various members of the YUCPC as anchors. This got everyone across with minimal issue and we could continue on to some even sketchier ladders that definitely held but should maybe be looked at. This was concluded with a brief group hug for moral support and we continued down some more muddy brown chambers to reach THE muddy brown chamber, the Cow Arse-Worms. I think I mentioned in my JH report that I was pretty keen to do this, and oh boy. I was hyped. We had a snack and water break, and continued into the Worms.

The Worms were kinda muddy. They have this fun little fake-out section at the start so you get through it and think wow, that wasn't that bad, I'm a bit wet but not very dirty. Then the crawl continues on for a bit longer than it should and you realise that totally wasn't it and the worms are actually yet to come. A bit more crawling leads to a heavy gate which in turn leads to the actual worms. The mud deepened and we were in! It oozes and slimes and sticks to you and somehow manages to enter every single crevice. There's a bit of a squeeze halfway through which is made harder by trying to avoid the mud before you inevitably give up and just allow the worms to be on you. A brief respite makes you think again it's over before you're back into the wet, sticky, runny, gross, wormy mud, going under the duck as quickly as you can while avoiding splashing your face too much. Also it smells very strongly of blood the entire way through. Around halfway through I found an ACTUAL WORM and so I can confirm first-hand there are genuinely worms in cow-arse worms, it's no longer a rumour and you CAN cite me. To leave cow-arse worms, you crawl through some nice sandy grit - some feathering to conclude your tarring? This all rendered us head-to-toe brown except for Elliot who seemed to have levitated over the top and somehow kept his entire upper half clean of the worms. We had a fun post-worm clean off in the peak streamway to conclude the connection.

Those that know this cave will know exactly where we are now. The biggest, The best - We're in JH, BABY! This cave is pretty tremendous so I was excited to commence the 180-190 metres of prussiking ahead of me. However, we were running somewhat short on time so some people would have to go ahead to adjust the callout. After much deliberating, those people were chosen to be Erika and Elliot, who prussiked up and out of this trip report. (for now.) I, then Sophie, followed the runners, with Abbie derigging. The bollocks load of tat at the top of the first pitch was still there, which was pretty cool, and I continued up to the end of the first bit and waited for Sophie to bring a bag. In the process of this waiting, some rocks suddenly fell from the top of the pitch and scared me a little bit, so I waited a bit further back. Bag received, prussiking re-commenced! Leviathan was again really sick to prussik up but in all honesty I had been in TITAN earlier so whatever really. As if Leviathan isn't scary enough alone, carrying a bag which is a bit of a dick makes it worse. There were seemingly more loose rocks than before and Sophie is pretty cool so killing them did not appeal too much. By means of some measured prussiking they are still alive and I was finally out of the pitch and in the workshop where I couldn't accidentally kill anyone. Sophie eventually appeared and I took an extra bag to lighten the load for the derigging.

In my previous report, I said bitch pitch was probably named on the way up. Correction: It was named by whoever was carrying the bags. Bitch pitch and I have had a falling out during this trip. The bags kept dragging and being below me and pulling on me and I couldn't properly turn because the silly sausages they are kept getting caught. I kept standing on them and the pitch kept going even when I was quite sleepy. What a bitch.
I looked down to see Abbie following me and at the next rebelay down, seemingly not having much more luck. At the narrowest bit, my footloop did something quite silly - it managed to get caught inside my chest jammer and stop it jamming. I then watched helplessly as, when I stood up, my jammer tore a nice neat line of core-age straight down my footloop. I was kind of stuck here but the way I solved this problem was very safe and recommendable but I've since forgotten it so I won't write it down here. Regardless, I was on my unmerry way once again.
As I was about to exit the Bitch Pitch, I heard a loud crash beneath me. I kind of assumed Sophie had died at this point but I was too tired to really worry but luckily the next thing heard was them shouting up at us. As Abbie explained upon reaching the top, her tackle-sack had simply decided it was its time to be on the floor and took action to achieve that goal. The crab had unclipped but it was a terrible shot so it missed Sophie who then brought it up with them.

Abbie and I had now reached the top of the Bitch Pitch with a collective two bags between us. The plan was for me to go on ahead to make absolutely sure cave rescue wouldn't be hearing about this trip, and because I am a massive dickhead I left one of my bags behind with the other two (in fairness they're much harder than I am and Bitch Pitch took it out of me.) The cartgate level was no more stable than before but if you're just running through it you hardly even notice the big rocks above you. You kind of enter a flow state of swearing at bags and forcing your way through the fiddly sections. The pitch came far earlier than I thought it would and I greeted Elliot who confirmed Erika had in fact met Sqwill and adjusted callout with a whole 10 minutes to spare. I was supposed to add an extra half hour again but Sophie and Abbie made it to the first pitch before I made it out.
The last pitch was absolutely agonising. I haven't felt this tired on a pitch since fresher's bullpot lancs, and I was back to the classic 3-steps-break technique. But I dug deep and kept going and eventually reached the rebelay, which is high enough to feel like you're basically done. Elliot kept apologising for his speed but in all honesty I wasn't going any faster and I've done JH before!
Eventually, 23:15, after exactly ten hours of very giggly suffering, I escaped the cave and I was out into the lovely warm reassuring clutches of Sqwill tossing a pac-a-mac at me. Him and the two left in the cave planned to make a hauling rig to avoid having to prussik the bags out so one final lock in was required as I followed a very speedy Sqwill back to his car, where Erika and Elliot were waiting with garlic bread. (just to reiterate, sqwill had brought garlic bread to the top of the cave and deserves a medal or something along those lines omg he's actually the best.)
Sqwill grabbed his stuff and presumably hauled the bags out of JH but I saw none of that due to my getting changed. However, just as one final extra little bit of silliness, I took my oversuit off to discover Sophie's sock had fled, presumably into the Worms, and I had totally lost it in the cave. I broke the news when they got back and donated one of mine as an apology.

And so concludes the silly ten hour titan trip where everything went completely right and nothing silly happened. If you ignore the faff, it was actually a pretty efficient trip, Erika was the only one that didn't piss and cave rescue is unaware of any of today so it's a win overall. We got back to York at about half 3. Titan was pretty fun and I'd like to do a JH-Titan at some point in the future.