Ireby Fell Cavern - 01 Mar 2009

Sunday March 1st 2009

Members present: Adrian Turner,  Alastair Gott,  Andrew Vick,  Anna Barnard,  Catherine Moody,  Chuck Holder,  George Bunyan,  Jennie Hill,  Luke Brownbridge,  Mark Sims

started from york in the car wonderful sunshine, got across the other side of the dales and was not so wonderful, some could even tell it was going to be foggy when we got out; don't know how.

long walk up hill and through bog with a full tummy of bernies and a brand new metal waterbottle; which was to be christened.

we arrived at a concrete hole which was to be our entrance and exit, and decided who was going where. it was decided i was to go down Ding, Dong, Bell and where i was to come up would be decided when we got down and if we got lost we were to come up the same way.

several pitches later and we were down, by this time i was moderately wet and really needed a walk to warm me up.

jennnie who was in our group decided to go back up ding dong bell, leaving me, andy v and cat and we were shortly joined by luke. we then pressed on after a determined ade and mark (they were after bigger fish, IREBY II). whilst the rest of the group returned up ding dong bell.

we had then committed ourselves to come up shadow.

it was then left to follow the twisted passages with crawls, climbs, walks and stoops- to duke street.

duke street, the furthest point down and along the cave was surprisingly the dryest. here we found a YUCPC tackle bag and knew by process of elimination that this was Ade and marks bag. we needed a way of telling them to DE-RIG BUBBLES. so we proceded to dismantle the crabs and sling. we first just wrote BUBBLES using 2 crabs for each B and a sling to make the U and L. luckily this was enough for anyone to see there was a message there, so we got one of the shovels used to make the path to IREBY II and wrote the ES and DE-RIG in the sand.
(we also wrote ade smells in the sand but apparently he "didn't see it")

then we sauntered out happy about our achievements. i led the way, Blindly because i have never been in this cave before but luckily we found the first rope for the prussic up shadow, my longest prussic ever, with a deviation flung in for good measure. followed by several awkward half traverses up and a squeeze at the top.

we then waited for an exhasted cat who did a sterling job at rigging and de-rigging her first cave and doing it without being in the cave before.

then it was back across the bogs, this time as the prediction said it was foggy and cold i knew it would be as i had popped out for a wee while waiting for cat and andy. luke had already said it was colder outside so we would wait inside.
cat, andy and luke then proceded in going first through the bog showing where all of the really deep bits were.

warm clothes, blankets, pizza, hand warmers and stories of car traversing awaited...