Ireby Fell Cavern - 14th Feb 2010

Sunday February 14th 2010

Members present: Alastair Gott,  Chad B,  Christopher Jones,  Chuck Holder,  Jennie Hill,  Marion Holloway,  Mike Rippon,  Toby Buxton,  William Burns

A fantastic trip with lots of variation to keep us all entertained. The group were all in high spirits, the enthusiasm and banter shared (not to mention the countless innuendos) made this trip to Ireby Fell one to remember.

The route down Shadow was great fun, requiring us to show off our spider-like skills climbing up to the high traverse, before descending onto a ridge above the other team where Toby was busy rigging Ding Dong Bell, and down the big pitch.

Maz had claimed Pussy pitch for herself (no surprises there!) and got to work tying a series of butterflies to assist in the return climb.

I was assigned the task of rigging Well. With a few pointers from Chad (this only being my 2nd rigging experience) I rigged the two pitches and the traverse in between. I especially enjoyed the swing at the bottom of the first pitch in order to reach the next p-hanger. After a few pushes off of the opposing wall I clipped into the start of the traverse. Climbing up onto the ledge proved a challenge as the walls were very slippery with no footholds. But I wasn’t to be beaten and continued along to the second pitch descending alongside the waterfall.

Maz rigged Rope pitch before we made our way along Duke Street. There were lots of pretty formations down there, some of which almost completely block the route ahead requiring us to crawl flat out. Chad commented that one such formation could be the alleged duck if the water was higher obviously!

At the end of Duke Street we waited for the other team to join us before ascending an in-situ rope which led to a long crawl and Ireby 2. After about 10mins on our hands and knees we descended into “thigh high” freezing cold water. No Chad, Maz, Toby and I were practically swimming! With the squeals echoing around us Mike decided to take advantage of his long legs and traverse above the water. After some further exploration, some of us getting muddier than others, we turned back. Mike’s smugness of evading the cold water on our way in ended in a splash as his second go failed, mwahahaha!

Our exchange ascent led us up Ding Dong Bell, efficiently de-rigged by the machine that is Chad, and out into the cold night air! Thanks to everyone who made this an awesome days caving!