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Winnats Head Cave - 31 Oct 2007

Wednesday October 31st 2007

Members present: Debbie Flowers,  Lauren Ellis,  Simon Herrod

Report by Debbie Flowers

This trip was ace, just what I needed! We got in the cave at like half 4, the entrance practically right next to the car. The farmer let us park on his land for free :-)

The cave is quite tight, and goes down in a tightish crawl/boulder choke, but there's no real wayfinding issues. When the main chamber is reached, there's a sign warning you about loose boulders, and the way on is just next to it.

Way down was really fun, and nothing particularly difficult, although tackle sacks do get quite annoying. The 6m wide sump is absolutely amazing, such a pretty sight and really clear. bit eerie on halloween though. don't throw a rock in without telling lauren first, she will scream! teehee. The sewer is not as bad as i was expecting, just wet and tight! The weirdest thing was getting to a upwards pitch on the way down! Thankfully already rigged, and recently according to the man in HnH.

Another rope was found but we didnt go up it as we considered the way on to be downwards. It was, but the next few pitches were literally in a waterfall (one deviation mentioned in the description, but could not be found anywhere by us). The last pitch we didnt do as again in water, we were getting cold, and also only one visible bolt.

Going up was when we realised why it was graded as it was. One really awkward squeeze, and a really tight climb. But we all managed it without too much difficulty yay!

ooh keep an eye out for fossils, there's thousands and some are huge!