Ireby Fell Cavern to Jupiter Cavern - 23rd May 2009

Saturday May 23rd 2009

Members present: Alexander Stelfox,  Chad B,  George Bunyan,  Matt Gosling,  Thomas Blakey

Along with a recent Easegill trip this has to be one of the most satisfying trips that I have done so far. We had a focussed team of five who embarked on a mission entitled ‘Operation Silent Echo’ with the aim of getting to Jupiter Cavern. This was a total success ensuring that we were the first members of YUCPC to reach Jupiter cavern. Matt G put so much effort into planning this trip that it became the most organised trip I’ve been on and every member of the team was very grateful for this.

As we approached the Yorkshire Dales we were slightly concerned by the heavy cloud cover, this was certainly not in the forecast that I saw, after asking at Bernies only a shower was forecast. So we decided to go on and assess the cave which turned out to be damp, more so than when I did it last but of no concern, so we were all satisfied that the trip could go ahead. Thankfully there were no other teams already in the cave so we had free reign to go in and rig the traditional route. One of the good things about getting an early start!

I was in the fortunate position of being the rigger, which was fantastic fun. It was great to rig again only a week after Marble Steps. I knew that for this trip I was left to rig with no input from anyone else which showed I had the confidence of the other team members. Ding-Dong and Bell was rigged in about an hour; the only hold up in was when I was rigging the top of Bell pitch. There was a low and a high set of p-hangers around the traverse to the top of the pitch. I was convinced that when I de-rigged this last time that the top p-hangers were used. This seemed to be the more uncomfortable option but defiantly the correct one. I did a lot of thinking on the knot lengths and how I was going to use a sling to make a better Y-hang; the first sling despite doubling up was way too long so I changed to a shorter one. By the time I had rigged it George had been waiting behind me for some time with Tom, Alex and Matt joining the queue so it did feel like a pressure cooker. After rigging Pussy (how much tat is there!) Well (great bit of swinging) and rope (wet!) I felt like my work had been done. I was now beyond where I had been in Ireby Fell before so I was eagerly anticipating what was to come next.

Duke Street was so quiet; this was a giant sand cavern a world away from what we had encountered before. We weren’t stopping here though it was up an in situ rope into skylight passage. The crawl through the dig was no where near as bad as I was led to believe especially when I look back at my solo crawl beyond the Hall of the Mountain Kings in Craig y Ffynnon. At the end of the crawl another in situ rope followed dropping us into a stream way into Ireby 2. A short wade through waist line water led us into Duke Street 2, another fantastic chamber. This one though was even more impressive with the unusual formations that were in the roof. Matt then led us round to Escalator Rift where an in situ rope was going upwards beyond site. We knew from the survey that Jupiter Cavern was on a higher level but weren’t expecting to have to prussic up three pitches. Interestingly there was a rock stuck in the rift at the bottom of the first pitch, touch it and you get quite a shock at how easy it moves. Matt had the unenviable task of going up the in-situ ropes first not knowing how they were rigged above; I followed and was very reassured when Matt shouted down that the rigging was well backed up. While Alex was following us behind us Matt and I went for a bit of a wonder before deciding to prussic up the next rope, this proved to be unwise as this part of the cave was very unstable, I looked on as Matt stepped on to a boulder that was now on the move – it made quite an echo in the cave, so maybe we weren’t being silent! Thankfully all was fine and we decided to go up the next pitch and then to our surprise another one. There was yet another one, but rather than go up this Matt went for some more exploring and found a crawl, it really isn’t that obvious especially with the formations that you pass. Then I heard from Matt ‘I’ve found it!’ so I duly followed and told Alex to follow me. So the trick is not to go up all of the ropes although I believe that there are still some interesting formations to see above.

After the crawl is a slippery slope down in Jupiter Cavern, a spectacular chamber where we couldn’t even see the roof. To the left was a slippery climb up where it was clear that a waterfall was somewhere in the distance. There was some nice crystallinity on the wall in this section. I went exploring to try and find the waterfall but I got to a point where you might actually need some rope. To the right was the way out to an alternative and much harder route back to Ireby 1 via Cripple Creek. Just by the ladder out were some surveys just in case anyone needed them. In front of us back at the entrance to Jupiter Cavern was another in situ rope going up to Milk and Honey, this gives rise to potential future trips in this cave. The others came up and Tom said that there was another group of cavers behind us, apparently they had no survey and were just exploring. A few minutes later one of their team came in as they decided to go up the ropes since they saw that we had. I’d admit that it did take away a little of the atmosphere at this point as they had never even heard of Jupiter Cavern and would not have gone in there if we didn’t go up the rope.

Nethertheless, spirits were high and it was time to leave and head out the cave, with my SRT kit caked in mud it made for a 4-bar rack decent, a lot less intimidating than going up these ropes though. After a bit of a rest in Duke Street after the crawl Matt, Alex and Tom went ahead while I helped George de-rig. George did a fantastic job! I was using my foot jammer for the first time, it was certainly quicker to prussic and I haven’t even mastered the technique yet. After been the first in and last out along with George it added up to 10 hours underground which has to be my longest trip to date, but what a trip. However I was feeling quite fresh really. I think there will be many more trips to Ireby 2 including going into Milk and Honey, I wouldn’t mind doing a trip one day via Cripple Creek, that really would be an epic !