Ireby Fell Cavern - 09 Mar 2008

Sunday March 9th 2008

Members present: ,  Andrew Vick,  Gary Douthwaite,  Luke Brownbridge,  Matt Ewles,  Matthew Chubb,  Thomas Blakey

A superb and highly successful trip. With the exception of an aborted attempt six months back (water levels too high to pass Bell pitch), I haven't been down Ireby Fell since I was a fresher myself. This trip reminded me what an excellent and varied trip Ireby is.

We arrived to find numerous cars parked at Masongill, and given the recent wet weather we expected Ireby to be rather packed. We were surprised to find ourselves to be the only people there. We made quick progress down Ding pitch, and I proceeded to rig Dong (which uses a continuation of the same rope as Ding), only to find the rope to be about 5-6m too short of reaching the floor. Ropes were packed in accordanace to the CNCC rigging guide, and so for future reference, add an additional 10 m onto the recommended rope for Ding/Dong. Gary was able to re-rig the traverse line at the top of Ding (by removing on the the higher up back-up points) and send just enough rope down to me to tightly rig Dong and make the descent. Bell pitch was also a close on on rope length (only a couple of metres to spare) and was slightly aquatic. I couldn't find the flake for the deviation, so we went without, encountering rather a lot of spray towards the bottom.

Progress was then quick through pussy/well/rope pitches and the duck and down to Duke Street. A short stomp later and we arrived at Sump one, feeling rather pleased with outselves. On the return journey we met Andys team (down Shadow) just before the junction towards Duke Street. We made quick progress up to the bottom of Bell, where we made the exchange onto the Shadow route.

The ascent up the shadow route was very wet and cold, with a downpour on your head the entire way up (and while faffing at the deviation). A little trouble was then encountered further up where Alice's chest jammer was being very naughty and refusing to let go of the rope, making for a rather cold wait for me (derigging at the back of the group). But with a little bit of a struggle the jammer was freed and we made quick progress out to a cold, dark, but dry change. Total time underground 7 hours.