Disappointment Rift, Peak Cavern. 5th December 2018. Present: Corin Donne, Alex Reid For several months I have been on about about re-bolting and replacing, or removing some of the in situ ropes around Wigwam Aven and the NCC Shafts on the basis that they should either be safe, or be gone. This idea came to mind when me and Michael Holliday ascended a rope mistakenly in Wigwam Aven and found corroded hangers and generally dodgy rigging (trip report through the TSG). We had repeatedly attempted to organise this trip before, and this was the closest we had ever come. The drill, bolting kit and rope was all ready at the TSG and we had a date planned well in advance. It had rained heavily through most of the day, water levels were up at the showcave and I spent the entire day at work hoping it would flood so I could go on a nice Oxlow or Maskhill trip with Botch and some freshers (though it turns out they just went to The Wanted and never made it underground, the perfect trip). The objective was to aid or free climb up to the entrance to Disappointment Rift and install bolts […]

05/12/18 Members Present: David Botcherby, Adelaide de Diesbach, Ben Thompson, Phil Hughes Apologies: Leila Mason I’ll admit, I wasn’t that keen on the trip from the start. My kit was still muddy from the P8 dig, and I really couldn’t be bothered to put it back on. But, given that work today had consisted of sitting in my car for two hours and then going home, I felt that I may as well take a trip. I had already failed to take this group on their first SRT trip twice, so it was a clear choice to take them out for a good rope trip. Maskhill still needed derigging from CHECC, so we agreed to meet at the kit store at 1800. I turned up a bit late, hoping that everyone would be about ready by the time I got there. My hopes were dashed when I found no freshers in evidence at South Road. I checked the group chat to find they were both waiting for buses. I settled in for a long wait. Phil actually wasn’t too late, so I busied myself helping her get ready, making sure she had all the kit she needed, and watching her […]

All of you are aware of the rescue in March from Prov-Dow and unfortunately as a result of this, I lost my love of caving and haven’t been since ☹. I had been toying with the thought of never making a return and talking myself out of getting back into it again but Rob (Middleton) gave me a good push in the right direction after a chat at CHECC. Since this, I have already been on my first caving trip since – Gautries. As it was just myself and Helen, there was very little faff and we were at the Perryfoot layby for 7. Fees were paid, we donned our kit and were quickly underground. The lid over the drainpipe had already been removed so there was no wait for the water to drain out of the entrance passage and we soon realised that the mechanism had been taken apart and placed to one side. We were mainly heading to have a look at new gautries because although I have been down Gautries many times, I have never been to the end. As the entrance had been unblocked for seemingly some time, the usually wet section before angle chamber was […]