It was Saturday morning at the SWCC on our final pre-exped “training weekend” (read – good excuse for a long drive and a piss up), and of course, I was a wee bit stressed. However, as I sat eating breakfast and contemplating the upcoming day, a well spoken gentleman by the name of Clive Westlake appeared and offered to lead a trip into Dan yr Ogof. I nearly immediately accepted, and buggered off with Jake, Antonia and Jolene leaving the washing up to everyone else. To access the larger system you must first pass through the show cave (and it’s accompanying dinosaurs), which is categorically more impressive thanthan  the nicest bit of peak cavern. That would, really, have been enough to me. However we climbed a barrier, to the horror of the tourists, and were quickly engulfed by the further reaches of the cave, which Clive informed us stretches for some 10km (or was it miles?) Initially we passed through some deep puddles, which in more normal weather were swimmable. This led us through the 1937 series with its straws and some pretty things, and later into the 1960s connection to DYO2, which was an entertaining crawl with some flat […]

27th/28th July 2018 Members present: Will Whalley, David Botcherby, Louise Baddeley Others: Peter Winn and other volunteers from the Sandstone Ridge Trust, Carolyn from Beeston Castle, and a representative from Cheshire Bat group. Background In March Graham Proudlove advertised on the Cave Biology Group facebook page that he had been contacted by the Sandstone Ridge Trust (SRT), a volunteer-run group who preside over the mid-Cheshire sandstone ridge. This piqued my interest as a Cheshire-native, having spent a lot of time in the area as a child and knowing some parts of it very well, although little about the caves. (Link to SRT website: http://www.sandstoneridge.org.uk/) In June, me and Botch visited the ridge and were shown three of the caves on the Bolsworth estate with Peter Winn, one of the trustees of the SRT. We learnt that the trust was mostly interested in the archaeology, as the area is associated with a long history of human activity from the last 6000 years. Some of the caves on the ridge are known to have been inhabited, and all are thought to have been enlarged by man, mostly to mine the high quality white sand of the triassic sandstone. There is also a long […]

Last two weeks of caving Denial – Washfold Pot Group of 7 Wandered around a field for a while Very early call out Great entrance Took 1hr to do the first 10-15 mins of caving (urgh) Quite cold Forgot kneepads Headache Squeezey bit Fell 4m and bounced off a rock near pitch head Cool traverse Cool 40m pitch Sketchy climbs Wished I was taller Descending in rifts Crawling in water Polyprop handlines Standing on Pete’s head to get out Pete and I out at 4.10pm Getting changed while Jack and Benji sat and watched from the van Changed call out for the rest of the BPC group Rest of group out at 8.00pm Bruised Ate a lot of biscuits! Excellent trip VERDICT: 10/10 (Brilliant) Anger/Frustration – Swildon’s Hole Very cross at going caving Ladder broke No water in many of the ducks Blisters and bruised feet Fell down the climb, managed it on the second attempt Fell down Blue Pencil Passage Didn’t manage to hit Rob’s 2hr target time around VERDICT: 4/10  (-2 for no water) Bargaining – Lost John’s, Craftsman’s, Voldemort, Notts 2, Swinsto Faff-tastic to the extreme – see Jethro’s report on the day. Swinsto was the nearest we could manage to getting underground that […]

Date: 06/07/18 Members Present: Myself (David Botcherby), my family, a very familiar tour guide, some other punters As my results were coming out that day, we preemptively decided to celebrate by spending the day exploring the princes’ paradise that is Monaco (it being around 40 mins from where we were staying). The hope was that I’d be able to receive my results while having a drink in a sunny bar. To ensure this, instead of taking the normal route, we instead took the much longer, windier mountain road. This cut our time down from 40 minutes to a mere 2 hours, with only two long stops due to carsickness and 3 close calls with the cliff edge, though the views were incredible. As a result, I received my results in an uncomfortably warm 7 seater, surrounded by 5 other people who felt like throwing up. At length, I was awarded with my celebratory drink which, due to the locale, was an overpriced Leffe, although I did have a good view of the harbour from where I sat. As I placed a call to Kyrgyzstan to inform my friend who was on his own (much better sponsored) expedition of his results, […]

Apparently, I have to get you excited so allow me to commence with a little poetic line; “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven [William Wordsworth, The Prelude”]. On Saturday June 2 George Mitchell and Brian Thomas [two Life Members] may have exchanged this sentence with doughty Botch and Louise as we all walked effortlessly along the gentle path up to Peak Cavern Entrance. We were alongside three Irish young cavers – UCDCPC or DCUCC? – I assume they were in a Dublin Caving Club. Previously [9am], the TSG hotel complex had been a revelation to George and myself. The door windows and floors had obviously just been cleaned; the kitchen was floorless. Upstairs the rooms seemed to be pleasant and satisfactory – both airy and secluded, as indeed was the large back garden. Sadly, we did not have time to explore all TSG. The Ablutions Suite was stunning and took some of our breath away.   SUSS kindly lent us all the necessary clothing – my tight over suit was replaced by Louise lending me hers. I am – was – a stalwart firm believer in caving boots but was […]

It was a fafftastic Friday and I had just had the clamp removed off my cursed car and driven up to Clapham. I walked up to Gaping Gill to find one drunk Nat, gin infused and ready to pass out, but not before she insisted that we would do Hensler’s to Disappointment Pot the following day I remember very little of this conversation and was very surprised to see her the next day. The next morning, we kitted up and were ready to head off in a crowd of 6, but not before Nat had attempted to boil water from the beck…  In my defense – the hangover was strong and the will to go caving weak. It wasn’t boiled but instead warmed to a much more bacteria friendly temperature, but if I continue to winged about this event, I wont talk about the caving trip and instead would rant about how unnecessary this was and rants are for ULSA. Our team of Helen, Rob M, Dan (BPC), Nat, Ryan (NUCC)and myself headed to the Hensler’s entrance, with myself going first because I’m impatient and Rob want “a small person to go first to tell me what it’s like”.  I would […]

Bolts of pain like electric currents surged my body, throbbing from my heart, blood leaking from my calves. I tried to move my toes. Spasms of pain shot up my entire being and tears quenched my eyes as my sight became blurred. I felt warmth of my own limp body leaking into my boots, blood mixing with water. My DNA Becoming one with the cave. Then, a wave of avid aloofness tore through my body and I softly closed my eyelids. I drifted into consciousness only for a second, feeling my body hanging in the air, but plodding slowly along. I felt two thick arms jabbing into my rips and folding round my waist as I pressured my own head to check my surroundings. Forcing my head up, I begun to open my eyes. My limp body was collapsed onto another being, carrying me through the corridors in the cave, over the large unshapely, jagged stones. He quietly and calmly spoke to me with meaningful words. “So long as my heart still beats and I can still breathe, I will do everything in my power to get you out of this cave and get you to safety”  Besides feeling the […]

A small Sheffield contingency headed up to the dales this weekend; Jack, Will, Leo, Lydia, Jolene, Helen and I. On Sat we rose late, breakfasted and got ready to leave…. by 12.30pm. Packing and repacking the rope we finally got ready for Meregill (the whole premise of coming north). ‘Right, pass the crabs!’ Said Helen confidently. ‘What crabs?’ Said Leo nonplussed ‘Shit!’ Said Helen, and the tone for the trip had been set. In my eagerness to make sure we had the right ropes I never specified to bring crabs (on the basis that it’s kind of obvious…) The six of us went on a mad hunt for crabs in our kit and managed to find 15 between Lydia, Helen and I’s kit. We decided this wasn’t going to stop us and began looking for a new trip we could do with the rope and our limited crabs. We suggested three or four black book trips and Will didn’t look keen. So we went back to the CNCC rigging guide and eventually decided on Big Meanie to the bottom. We repacked the ropes again and Will bailed; deciding to go bother a revising Jack in Ingleton. We arrived at Leck […]

Otter Hole Sunday 20/01/18 Members Present: David Botcherby, Louise Baddeley, Helen Fairclough, Jack Dewison, Will Whalley, Adrian Fawcett (HCC) I believe this trip first formed in the pub about 4 months ago. Someone was telling me about this brilliant cave with a tidal sump that SUSS used to go down once a year, that needed to be booked months in advance. Instantly keen, I wrote a note to self on my hand, and next day found the calendar online, and booked a weekend that was (at the time) free of SUSS activities. Otter Hole lies on the banks of the river Wye, not far from where it flows into the Severn Estuary. When the tide comes in from the sea, this acts to push water in against the river current, raising the river level. Inside the cave, this diverts the streamway, filling a sump at high tide. This tidal sump is impassable when full, but only waist deep at its lowest. As a result, two kinds of trip are achievable: a between-tide trip, in which the sump is passed just after high tide, and returning before it closes again; and an over-tide trip, in which the sump is passed as […]

Over the past two weeks I’ve been down P8 for a hydrogeological quest on behalf of John Gunn (BCRA), Viktoria Nemeth (MUSC) and Liam Kelly (dirty non-caver). What started as a simple dye trace from P3 (Gautries) to upstream Sump B in P8 (Jackpot) ballooned into an exciting whistle-stop tour through the hydrology of the Perryfoot Valley when we found a total lack of flow in the P8 main streamway. The hydrology of P8 has been considered mysterious for a long time, previous literature (listed below) shows exploration in the upstream sumps as early as 1967 with Clive Westlake (a salute and a cheer, please) diving Sumps C and D to find a connection between the two. Drought trips by Ben Bentham in the 1980s lead to the discovery of a fabled “Third Streamway” seemingly unrelated to both the P8 Sink and the main streamway flowing out of Sump B. I’ve only been able to find sketches of these as full surveys are still unpublished. Trip 1 – 15/5/18 I went down P8 to place a charcoal bag in Sump B to hopefully pick up dye that John & team were going to inject in Gautries on the 18th. Viktoria […]

// I know it’s been a while. Exams were this week. Having finished them, without further a do…// I begun by helping Blaire to her feet, now fully conscious. Apparently some warmth and affection undid her hurt and she was able to hobble across the rocks, with her loving arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders. Small step by step, we both clambered our way up the rocks and, with the rest of her strength she managed to clamber to the other side of the wall, lowering herself down back within the presence of the others. She gives me a strange look, her eyes delving deeper into mine. “After this is all over, you should take me out sometime” She says in her calm and clear voice, it hit my ears like honey to the bee. Jack, Leo, Gamble and Will simultaneously gave me a weird look and I felt a sense of shame. “Look, at least I got her back, alright?”  I protest. Leo rolls his eyes and sarcastically comments. “yeah. Your mother must be so proud. Let’s just get out of here before anyone else kisses each other” We all agreed and set off, marching down the looming corridors. […]

The bank holiday weekend was obviously designed with caving in mind, allowing 3 days of fucking about in the Dales. With this in mind, I joined Jack, Rachael, Helen, Creg and Nat at the Dump, freshly excited for what caving trips might lie ahead of me. Perhaps a solo trip down Deaths Head, or a trip into Pen y Ghent, or maybe even a fuck about in Ireby Fell. I even brought a Yorkist, Hannah, with me, with the promise of a fine caving weekend. Hannah and I arrived on Friday keen to join in the party that was sure to have been started by Monsieur Dewison. He wasn’t there, actually, there was a BPC committee meeting discussing the fineries of the forthcoming GDPR. Fascinating. We went to the pub in Horton. It was later that Jack et al., arrived, having fucked about a bit, and some 0100 before Rachael turned up, having apparently decided the M6 north from Coventry was a nice place to park. It was Saturday morning that Jack persuaded me to join them on a trip down Ingleton canyon, and that we did, picking up ULSA Nathan on the way, before having an Inglesport breakfast. Kitting […]

I’ve done a few dives over the last few months to try and tidy up the resurgence sump of Peak cavern. This suffers from stuff being washed into it when the show cave floods, and over the years a variety of plastic chairs, Christmas trees, and plastic baubles have been removed. On a recent dive to plan a DCRO exercise I noted the level of junk in the sump that was offensive to my desire to see a clean cave and also might possibly be something to get caught and stuck on while trying to dive. A particularly offensive part is the air bell near the beginning of the sump (the Schoolroom) who’s walls are covered in polystyrene beads in a layer about 1m high. It is believed that these are the remains of various fake rocks that have been used in the past for film / TV work and ended being washed in here. Getting rid of them is not an easy task and will require multiple trips with a sieve and some container to put the beads in. I had a trip which removed some planks, a Christmas tree trunk, a wire rack for the sale of chocolate […]

Trip Date: 28/04/18 Members Present: David Botcherby, Olly Hall, Jack Dewison, Todd Rye (MUSC) Relaxing in the Orpheus after a fun, if not particularly taxing, day of Waterways Swallet and a walk down Dove Dale, I was feeling the need to add a bit of adventure to the evening. I remembered reading about some dug out bit of cave not far from the Orpheus earlier on. Placenta Pot, as it was called, was only 300m away, visible from the hut in daylight, and was only 27m deep. Perfect for a midnight trip. I quickly assembled a strong team of whoever was closest, and set out towards the entrance using the GPS location on my phone (cheating I know, but the description was vague and I didn’t have a compass). It was a clear night, hardly needing torches, which was lucky because some of the party had forgotten theirs. We quickly discovered the entrance on a hillside not far away, with scrap and vegetative growth covering it implying it hadn’t been opened for a while. Not to be deterred, we opened the lid (with some difficulty), revealing a rather long fixed ladder. Despite a bit of wobble this looked safe enough, […]

Sunday 29th April Present: David Botcherby, Jake Sturgeon, Olly Hall, Ryan Quinoa On Saturday night we were looking at trips in the Caves of the Peak District. I was interested in the Gentlewoman’s Shaft to Youd’s Level, as I’d heard legends of the longest coffin level in Derbyshire. Discovering that you there was no clear reference to Gentlewoman’s in the guide, I promptly decided that it sounded like a problem for tomorrow. I was right. We set off the next morning quite late, after waiting to supply some keen first timers from Birmingham with some kit and doing some washing up. Olly had been down the entrance of Gentlewoman’s (but no further) so said he would recognise the car park. On the instructions of ‘a quarry near Matlock Bath’, I directed us to the nearest quarry to the Youd’s entrance, a decision I think was reasonable, though perhaps misguided. On the off (or more likely, on) chance that we couldn’t find the entrance, I thought we should pick up the key for the Youd’s entrance from the lead mining museum. This turned out to be absolutely massive, which basically made my day, and carrying that made up for any trouble later […]

Earth Leakage Trip – 14th April 2018 Present: me, Jack, Rachael, Mark We started the day with bacon butties at Fir Street, Mark’s plans to go climbing were cancelled so he decided to come caving with us and we changed our plans from Pilkington’s to Giants. I had been wanting to visit some of the more obscure corners of the cave as if you look at the survey you realise there is a lot more there than the round trip and East Canal. We decided on the Ghost Rift Series and possibly Boss Aven too. Ghost Rift is near the end of the round trip so we decided to climb up into the Crabwalk and get to it the opposite way to how the round trip is usually done. This skips the Crabwalk, but does involve doing the Giant’s Windpipe twice. We set off and I rigged Garlands, then climbed up into the Crabwalk for a look at the top near Garlands. Found a p-bolt for rigging the traverse over the pitch that I am now keen to try. We set off down the Crabwalk not really knowing where to climb up, a couple of abortive attempts were made early […]

29/4/18 Louise, Michael H, Jolene, Conor On the Sunday d the Orpheus weekend we were trying to find trips, as it turns out the far side of the White Peak is a bit shit. So as Olly and George had left Titan rigged we decide to go down under the pretense of derigging for them.   After a usual if frustrating amount of faff and hut cleaning, we were finally kitted up and at the entrance by 14.15. I was feeling quite calm and composed as the leader of this trip, which made me pleased. Michael rigged the entrance and we were down quite quickly.   I led the way to the top of the main pitch, we were all quite nervous. As some others were down there was a spotlight rigged over the pitch, which was handy although made it more visible and scary. I checked the rigging Olly and George had left in, and added a crab to clip our rope into the traverse as a backup. As everyone seemed happy, I left them and descended to the event horizon. After waiting only a short time Conor joined me seemingly exhilarated and proclaiming “that was intense”.   After […]

Eldon Hole exchange trip – 1st May 2018 Present: me and Louise. I’ve been finding it a little difficult this year to get much rigging practice. On a given trip the rigging is either very straightforward and easy or it’s a long trip and I don’t want to slow things down. That and I have done a lot on pre-rigged stuff in Peak lately. Me and Louise met up after work on Tuesday  with the idea of doing one or two exchange trips down Eldon for rigging practice. After negotiating some rotting sheep and getting to the shaft we made a start. Louise rigged the North Gully and I rigged the South Gully. It turns out that Eldon on a mild evening is a ridiculously nice venue for this sort of trip because it’s light, it’s warm, it’s dry and you can each rig a route alone, but still not be very far apart so you can chatter and laugh nervously as you try to remember a sensible way to join ropes fifteen meters off the ground. Louise practiced hauling her tacklesack while I took an age adjusting a rebelay and installing a knot pass, then we passed each other across the impressive snow […]

  [ Catching up on trip reports now that I can actually log in again – this was originally on Facebook. ] Moorfurlong Mine, 31 Jan 2018. Present: me and Louise Having largely failed to achieve anything this week I was a little desperate to get underground, and Louise was game for a spontaneous trip on Wednesday night so long as it wasn’t too long. I suggested Moorfurlong Mine as I’d been reading about it recently, and as no one else seemed keen the two of us set off for Bradwell. We had a nice time exploring the narrow, steep, winding backroads of Bradwell in the snow while foolishly trying to navigate using the map in Caves Of The Peak District, then enjoyed a short drive to a small quarry which Google Maps claimed was the farm we were looking for. Eventually, by having driven along most of the roads in the area already, we found Within House Farm and paid our £2 each to the farmer. As we set off into the fields in heavy, horizontal snow I was pessimistically wearing a coat as I assumed we were about to spend a lot of time wondering around in the […]

Like all good ULSA liberal-minded Northerners, I decided to give Derbyshite caving a go. After such little faff, of only 3 shops visited to try to buy a Rostam-sized wetsuit and no less than 40 minutes of waiting for Botch and 35 minutes for Louise, I felt unprepared to go underground. I’d forgotten all my pants and freshly charged batteries and Rostam didn’t even have a furry. I gave him a thermal, he offered me some pants.   ‘They’re new to me,’ he claimed – I declined.   My knee pads were donated to Rostam and elbow pads suctioned to my knees. Botch reassured my there was very little crawling. Hmm. The faff was over. Fortunately, we struggled with the lock on the gate and time was recovered.   More at ease, we stomped through the show cave, through the gate, Botch didactically leading the way. I took the steps rather than the slide, thinking how shiny my oversuits was. Oh how precious I was. The water level was pleasantly low in the ducks.   I went to look at the ladder for something view whilst Rostam carefully explained where the Treasury was not. Several times. With demonstrations. Back the […]

“The fool is the precursor to the saviour.” -Jordan Peterson As I wonder round stupidly through the deep black corridors of stone, my heart races. The electric cold water runs deep into my wellies and around my toes, my very being learning to fight my own self-criticism. I had begun to process my deepest of thoughts: To be a caver, for me, you must start out feeling unsure about what’s going on. You trip, you don’t understand how others can travel faster than you, you don’t understand the mechanics of how your mind and body have to work together and it’s a clumsy adventure, really. But the very fact that I was full of faults doesn’t mean that I had to stop. You see, every time I tripped up, made a mistake, got scared or felt too shaken to carry on underground, it could only grow me into a stronger caver. My thoughts race whilst I calculate each jump, step, and navigation. Every time I stumbled and clawed my way through the darkness, I knew I could only grow stronger falling into the unknown. My boldness fuelled by sharp steps and I hurled my body across each hallway, barely being […]

Twas a fine weekend for a south Wales visit, so on Friday evening I found myself picking up Mike Butcher from a youth rehabilitation center in the aptly named Belle Isle of Leeds. We proceeded to the suburban Manchester borough of Denton where my car was abandoned on Benji’s driveway and Jo picked us up. The journey down was boring and uneventful but improved otherwise by good company and doughnuts for 6p. Saturday was biology time. Led by Jules Carter from the museum of Wales, we had an entomological gander in Powell’s cave, which, if I lived nearer would be a pleasing dig. A good amount of beasties were found, including but not limited to Meta menardi, Metellina merianae, Androniscus dentiger, and several springtails of unknown provenance. After an explore we proceeded into OFD I, which is, as one UKC member put out, a few plastic dinosaurs away from being a show cave. Nethertheless, a good few crustaceans were found including Nephargus, if I recall correctly. After a break, we all had a go identifying such using the microscopes. Thom Starnes became very excited examining a ball point pen. After this we had a discussion about the future of the […]

  Means of access: All of the caves in SK lie on the East side of the country, and I live on the West. Therefore, every cave takes 3 hours to get to at the least. Whilst a long journey sounds promising, don’t get your hopes up: caves will last about half an hour to an hour of exploring. (an hour if you go round it twice but much slower) No more from my experience and the experience of a few others I had talked to on the trip. Of course, there may be longer treks out there.  Show caves are show caves, no entry allowed. Every other cave seems to be very free to enter with no permission, although I don’t plan the trip so I could be wrong on that part. BATS:Seeing bats is freaken cool. They are really tame so you can just pick them up and they’re fine with it. I don’t wanna touch them but goddamn they’re cute. How do they stick their little feet on the wall like that? Leading on from this: our group takes bat urine and spit samples to make sure they are not diseased in any of the caves they […]

Welcome to Chapter 2 of this caving adventure The TSG Caving Hut; dark, black and surrounded in the very whisper of the fear of death. … It wasn’t always like this. Only an hour or so ago it was vibrant, colourful, full of my friends, talk of beer and chatter of our latest trips into the remote darkness of Giants or Peak cavern.  I can still remember Jack’s smile as he began to explain what his latest brewed beer was, and his plans to get everyone to try it. Even through my hatred of beer, I still would have given it a try if he had brought some round. We’re family: that’s what we do. But now.. everything has changed. Jack isn’t here. I’m here. Guy is here. The whiteboard is here. It reads: “Call out 11PM”. The clock is here. It reads 11:30. Whilst we are out of breath from running, my thoughts collect themselves to what really happened inside that goddamn cave. Just one hour ago I thought I was going to die. I was on the floor, with something that I can only say is ‘not human’ about to kill me. I wanted to cry. I wanted […]

// The name I have used for the main character is ‘Guy’. Feel free to replace this name with your favourite caver you know whilst you read. // For this fresher trip, a handful of leaders decided to go to Peak Cavern. We make our way through the small roads and side passages, until we find ourselves staring at the gate. The sky is dark, dull and the wind hits us as if the night was fighting our very heartbeats.  We hurry inside, chatting whilst the freshers follow on, becoming daunted by the large entrance that rips into the side of the hill before us. We are all excited to lead the freshers for the round trip, to guide and help them. I had previously asked one of the leaders, Guy, if he’d take me to explore more of this cave. You see, whilst Peak Cavern round trip was interesting, I wanted to explore more into the depths of this wonderous cave. I wanted to see what it has to offer and what lies beyond my very little experience of the cave. As our group made its way in, the fear and wonder of the fresher’s faces can be seen […]

On the Sunday of NCHECC I found myself rather trip-less. I had no freshers to take underground and none of the other trips going out seemed particularly appealing. I’d brought my dive mask in anticipation of a Kingsdale Pullthrough ending with some sump practice, so I decided I’d go and have a solo play around in the Rowten Sumps (2m, 3m, 8m; from Valley Entrance), having had surprisingly little experience in free-dives to date, and I’d quite like to do the pullthrough trip this summer I left at a leisurely 11am, leaving a callout with a cluster of people near Tony Seddon’s car. I got to Kingsdale in time to see two gentlemen getting ready, I told them my trip plans and they said they’d been planning to do the same but they’d forgotten their wetsuits so had resorted to practicing using a small dive bottle in Keld Head. “you know the air is very bad between the 3m and 8m sump?” they informed me, “you can take the rest of our bottle if you need?” I politely refused, it had no gauge so it could have fuck all air in it for all I know. I suited up and […]

Moi et Olly avons passé une super journée dans un pot de marteau. Sludge Crawl est fini, bien ouej! C’est magnifique!

The weekend came to attend NCHECC which I am gradually becoming too old for. After having a nice catchup and going to bed at 4am I well and truly couldn’t be fucking arsed to do anything even resembling a cave so went with Brendan and some MUSC and NUCC folks down Lancaster -> Wretched. Having lost my SRT kit on the prov rescue, I didn’t have one so made do with some static cowstails, a stop of unknown provenance and a nice new harness from Tony. The walk over the moor was pleasant and I chatted to some folk probably. I remarked in my head the drained nature of the moorland here has lead to a dominance of Eriophorum and what I suspect is Campylopus introflexus. Very disappointing frankly. We soon arrived at Lancaster Pot and off we fucked down it. Due to the clusterfucky nature of this trip it took ages to get all 9 people down so me and a nice Todd fellow, plus NUCCs new pres Laura wandered off into a side passage to look at some pretty bits which was nice. After everyone had arrived except Brendan we fucked off because Brendan was okay. The trip […]

It didn’t start well. I woke up to find that Creg had binned shit-loads of delicious vegan curry. Then was told that the bpc members had binned loads of potato waffles. Fucking unbelievable. I took a dip for a bite of one but it was not worth it. Thankfully, Mr S. Booth had provided a wheelie bin of shredded wheat to sustain me for the weekend, and well into the future. Free of any and all responsibility, myself, Black Jewishman and Olly set off for a speedy run through Penyghent to the downstream sump and back.  We met lots of inquisitive walkers on the ascent, a nice lady offered to be our call-out. We politely declined but it was reassuring to know she had our back if things took a turn. Listening to the rumble of the stream below at the entrance Olly didn’t seem too sure about things, “I’m not sure about this” Olly said in between noises of unenthusiastic disdain. Water levels were pretty high, and the entrance crawl exceptionally cold. Twin Falls pitch was very wet but the rope was still in place and in decent nick. At first I was a bit concerned as the stream […]

Those who know my Derbyshire Caving habits will know I absolutely adore Winnats Head, so when the chance arose to assist in furthering its exploration – I bit Rob’s hand off. I left work, my kit packed ready, and tore through Chapel-en-le-Frith to arrive at the farm just in time to wait an hour for the others to show up. Once Rob arrived with a carful of keeno-carriers (Olly, Helen, Botch) we packed 5 bags and set off to the entrance. I chose the bag containing 5 SRT kits as, though it was one of the heaviest, it didn’t contain a bottle so I could fling it willy-nilly down the many chokes in Winnats. Rob gave us fair warning that he only just fit down Winnats and to prepare for a steady-pace trip – Olly, Botch and I prepared ourselves by promptly fucking off ahead of him and getting to Fox Chamber to have a good play on the rope swing in there while we waited for him to slither down the squeezes with Helen for company. We reached the bottom choke into the first pool chamber, Olly and I shuttled all the bags down through the choke – and […]

Doggers cock blocked Ferreting round wrong quarry James got lost but found

Some of you may have heard about the first attempt at this old mine in the Heights of Abraham, we tried it originally three weeks ago but ended up searching the wrong quarry. Not only was it the wrong one, but it was also more than twice the size so took us two and a half hours to search before giving up. There was one vaguely promising hole I found, but once Corin came to help it became clear it was literally just a hole that fit about half his body into. The trip was essentially a long hike interspersed with brambles scratching my face off, and a few small urbex trips into some fairly small bunkers, but it was a still a nice walk – #getfit4exped. The second attempt was not without its problems, but we did eventually get underground. After searching for an hour in the opposite direction to last time we regrouped and realised James was completely missing. Retreating to the car to cancel callout and put warmer clothes on took us to half past eight – three and a half hours after leaving the kit store. We split up and started looking. Corin and I finally […]

This was the first Tresviso expedition training weekend at the YSS hut. On the Saturday the plan was to survey part of Hammer Pot with George, a nice part just before the fifth pitch and Sludge Crawl. After helping to cook breakfast and making sure everyone had a trip so George and I didn’t have to take anyone else, we packed and got on our way. As we were based at the YSS hut the drive wasn’t as long as the walk at the other end, which was quite a windy, cold walk. When we got the entrance it had some nice icicles blocking it, which had to be snapped off. George pointed out how a stream had been flowing into the pot the previous weekend so it should be a nice dry trip. I headed off down the entrance crawl which alternated between hands and knees and flat out. It wasn’t too long before we were at the first pitch. All the rope had been left in so all we had to do was throw it down the pitch. After the first pitch you are in a small chamber which is perfect for taking your SRT kit off ready […]

It was early on Monday afternoon when I got the message from Jack about a super secret caving trip he was planning; a raid on Christmas Aven, to reclaim it back for SUSS. Utmost secrecy was sworn, and then promptly forgotten, as come the day everyone seemed to know that a “secret” trip was happening, although the exact nature of it fortunately remained covert. We set off on Wednesday evening  after leaving callout with Jreg(?), in the mental rental, Jack’s courtesy car as his plush VW was out of commission. Not an aux cable in sight unfortunately, so the music choice for the drive out was an old Nightwish disc, a remnant of Jack’s edgy past, followed by a few tracks from Sieben’s “As They Should Sound”, a CD that Jack found on the floor in Peak Cavern. Upon reaching the P8 car park, and quickly getting changed in the freezing weather, Jack realised that he had forgotten his helmet and light, fortunately however, he had an old ULSA helmet still in the back of his car, so he was able to use that to remain safe. Unfortunately the light on it was woefully underpowered, and so I had to […]

This week I managed to tick off two (or three depending on how you count it) bread-and-butter Derbyshire caving trips, that I’d somehow managed to avoid visiting thus far. Must be all those exciting trips down P8 and Oxlow I end up taking… Last Sunday I visited Knotlow and Hillocks, and this week I finally got round to doing Rowter. In my defense Rowter was basically just a 70m entrance shaft during my first year, with an abandoned DCC dig at the bottom, barely worth a visit. Nowadays it is a decent length SRT trip with some nice-n-spicy horizontal to boot. Mark, Rachael, Leo, Olly and I set off to the Peak District, after making a sketchy drive down the track to Rowter Farm (the snow had banked up several metres high on the side of the track, and more snow was due) we kitted up. I say “kitted up” in the loosest sense of the phrase, as I’d forgotten my oversuit and wellies. Luckily I carry a pair of knackered old boots in my car for emergencies, and an orange hi-vis jacket for roadside safety provided perfect upper body protection. The jacket was given to me by my dad, […]

  Last weekend, I volunteered to carry down Speedwell and decided that if I was going caving that I should do a trip into Peak at the same time. Dragging Alex and Helen into my plan we decided during the week that we would carry, then head to Peak via White River and Moose Trap. I arrived in Castleton late on the Friday evening and headed for the pub. There weren’t many still around after the CDG meeting so it was a small party of Alistair, Rob, Helen, Mike Butcher, Benji and Ash. We all disappeared back to the TSG and took part in the noblest of caving weekend traditions – having a good old moan and bitch. Everyone wander off to bed leaving Helen and I to our discussions. About 4.50am, we decided we need to totter off to bed if we were going underground the next day and accidentally woke up everyone in the members room when Helen was looking for Rob and her sleeping bag. – We missed the first boat due to disorganisation and a late start and Rob was very amused by Helen’s apparently inability to walk in a straight line. Armed with cake and rope, we set […]

This weekend I persuaded Gamble to come caving with me in the Dales. Kathryn was drinking in the pub with Jack and Will in Sheffield on the Friday afternoon lamenting that there were no trips going over the weekend when she was bundled in Gamble’s estate with enough provisions for a weekend – and seemingly half Jack’s wardrobe – and magically transported to the BPC. Whilst waiting for a late NUCC to appear Gamble, Kathryn and I settled for irritating Benji and Stemple and generally making mischief before celebrating when NUCC arrived with more wine/gin/unknown alcohol and merriment irritation to the people trying to sleep in the guest room. Eventually I toddled off to bed at 6am unable to find my keys so I could get my sleeping bag out my car. I decided, therefore, to pick the two NUCC freshers that were sleeping closest to each other, burrow between them for warmth and attempt to get a little sleep. Earlier than I would have liked – 3 hours later – I was prised out of my prone position by Jacob whose sleeping bag I promptly claimed. Around elevenish, a very hungover Benji and I decided to surface and go in […]

The day started off slowly for our little group of four. Nat and Benji both had spent the entire previous night having Adventures With Gin, and so neither of them seemed inclined to actually imitate life till nearly midday. Nevertheless, we ignored Nat’s bruising (she’d tried to fit through a coat hanger at some point), found the car keys, and by noonish were on our way to Ireby Fell. Gamble drove us, as we had unanimously decided that whether Benji and Nat were still half drunk or half-hungover, they really shouldn’t be behind the wheel. We arrived in the allotted parking space and found ULSA there as well, preparing to go down the same cave. I feel like it should be noted here I don’t know a single thing about ULSA, (still don’t tbh, they’re from Leeds, right?) and I’m pretty certain I had never met a single member before that moment, but there they were, ULSA exists. Pretty sure I still haven’t actually spoken to any of them. Gamble, Nat, and Benji did know them however, and after talking it out we agreed that we would let them go ahead of us, rigging the cave, and we would follow […]

On Tuesday evening, Rob posted to the SUSS group asking for a bottle carrier down JH on Friday (27th). It would be a long, hard trip, joining him and Lydia going up Cliff Cavern for Rob to dive Cliffhanger sump, then out Peak to join the others at the TSG. I thought “Why not; I’ve not done enough caving recently?” and in my tired state quickly signed up. Typically, I didn’t consider that this would land me in for 4 days of caving, with cleaning up P8 on Thurs, and a full weekend following. This seems to be my style now: caving in short controlled bursts. I was resigned to it. The prognosis was looking poor for the trip by Friday. A chance encounter with Phil Wolstenholme on Wednesday had not been inspiring about the condition of the sump (“It’s been checked, and it’s choked”) and seeing Rob Eavis on Thursday had not improved things. I had hoped that Rob (Middleton) would be more optimistic about the dive, but I was having no such luck. Friday was a gloriously clear autumn day in the Peak District and Rob was only interested in one thing: Climbing. Unfortunately, we’d all agreed to […]

I spent the morning of the Saturday of Peak freshers catching up with Lydia, Alistair and others, but when everyone came back from taking the first lot of new cavers underground I felt obliged to actually go caving. No one had asked me to take a trip and it seemed like every group already had at least one second – this provided a good excuse to go up Victoria Aven instead. This was a trip I had been meaning to do for months. It took all of 10 seconds to convince Michael to abandon the afternoon games and go straight back underground, and then Sam decided to join us. There was then a fairly long interlude while Tony helped me make a Dyneema footloop, new safety and new cow’s tails and get all the lengths correct (turns out this is important). If you think it’s excessive delaying a trip to fettle your SRT kit like this then you clearly didn’t see my old cow’s tails. Victoria Aven is only a little way in past the showcave, so called because this is as far as Queen Victoria made it on her visit. We found the in situ rope and headed on up. […]

The day started with a healthy organic faff, nonetheless ridiculously long, Monseigneur Botch, head of the group of heathens, trying his very best to sort out the 20 odd cavers walking around aimlessly in a morning haze mixed with the alcohol still lingering in our veins. Since Natalie wasn’t caving that day I took over SUSS’ complaining department and loudly dragged my feet and whined around, until the hut itself grew tired of my shit and I fell down the stairs, right before Olly decided to fuck with me, gave out my kneepads to Catherine (I let her keep them because it gave me an additional reason to complain) and stole my sexiest buff. However the enthusiasm of the freshers was contagious, and the little troupe’s mood was excellent as we set off in the mist, rain, and flooded paths. The way there was extremely merry, sliding down hills on the wet grass (Leo using the Lack of Friction of his PVC suit to impress us with some cool ass slides, with that smug Leo look) and crossing a tumultuous river. We got in the cave, Alfie leading the way and getting really excited by the pretty unimpressive entrance crawl, […]

Headed out with Sam and Mike to go digging down Gautries. The plan had been Sam’s dig in Peak Cavern but access hadn’t been sorted, which was a positive as Gautries has a much nicer dig. Got underground before 20:00. I headed up to the dig face under Sam’s direction. Had a go at the face while Mike panicked over where to put spoil before realising there was a lot of room. There was a lot of room at the dig too so sitting and hacking away was possibly pleasant. Everyone else had a go, Sam told us about some fossils, and we made it out in good time for the pub.

Despite only being around for the Sunday of Peak Freshers weekend, I still encountered a lot of really keen fresh faces (as well as some filled with a mild dread). I spent the morning helping Creg and Mark out with the classic get-to-know each other games, which was really fun. It was great to also be joined by Nottingham, which was a lovely way to get the new cavers immediately used to how close the uni caving community is. Caving clubs seem to be one of the few examples of uni sports clubs fostering friendly inter-relations (sometimes too friendly, admittedly) rather than tense rivalries, and it was nice to introduce the freshers to this. I think the early start lent us a helping hand, as everyone was too bleary eyed to argue when we gave them instructions like “get into a circle and hold the hands of the people next to you”, or “tear up this single sheet of news paper in such a way that four people will fit through it”. Pretty soon everyone had got over, or got used to, their social awkwardness – lets admit it, this is fairly inescapable in the caving community.  The morning culminated […]

For those that haven’t heard me waffling on about getting this cleanup underway, The Great P8 Cleanup consists of shifting all the crap that can be found in Keith “Ben” Bentham’s old dig out of P8. Preliminary work last Summer consisted of collecting all the old digging kit into one big pile and filling up as many old dig trays as we could in preparation for taking it all out. I never knew Ben but I’ve spent a fair few days in his dig over the last 4 years, surveying, digging and clearing – Jesus Christ could that man dig! At the current count we have 27 broken dig trays to get out of P8, they seem to be 50L water containers and every single one has the bottom broken out! It seems Ben just brought more in every time one broke and he didn’t bother taking them out (it would eat into precious digging time!) Of the 27 containers 7 are filled with old digging stuff; cables, chain, rope, tool handles, tubing and conveyor matting. Anything salvageable as digging kit has been moved into the face of Ben’s Dig as I intend to carry it on. The plan is […]

After spending nearly a month away from Sheffield, unable to cave despite spending a tantalising week in the karstic playground of the Western Pyrenees (including a brief trip to the entrance of Pierre-Saint-Martin) I was keen to get back into caving as soon as I could. With American Mike back for a fleeting visit we arranged a trip to Winnat’s Head with Leo, Jreg and Liam. We set off to Castleton at 6:30pm and were underground by 7:30 – determined to make it out for Last Orders in the village we hastily made it through the gravelly entrance crawl which, despite me clearing out all the big rocks on the way in, is usually filled back up on the way out! Jreg lead the way down the bouldery chaos, followed closely by the rest of us. We made it down to Fox Chamber where we split up to see how many different ways down through the chokes in the floor we could find. I found one I think I went down on my first ever trip to Winnat’s Head, Jreg went down the quickest one, and Mike went down one I’ve never seen before, popping out in a letterbox squeeze […]

Posted by William Brian Thomas I caved and potholed for 7 years until marriage in 1970 scooped me up and away from fulfilling my masochistic needs. NB if anyone can think of a name which is the opposite of a Fresher then, don’t bother, I won’t remember it! I even slid into biospeleogy, discovering, along with dear-departed mate Robert Miff Smith, a unique cave snail since named [by CRG] “Trichoniscoides thomasum”. About 16 of us meet for four days each June at our annual reunion near Buxton – to chew the cud and imbibe a little liquid. I am persuaded to respond to the Elise Freshwater Blizzard SUSS website “trip report”, containing her amusing and very true post-activity thoughts. My paragraphs are based on Elise’s ten thoughts. “The pub could close in about ten minutes!”. Not a chance, as our beloved Joan Prime organises the entire four days with, if not Pinochet Precision, then great background efficiency. The whole reunion purrs along thanks to Joan and her August husband Min/Dave. [we have about six “Dave’s” so this Dave is known as “Min” – you can guess why]. “I’ve never seen so much clear water in my life”. A big reason […]

I’m so organised. Everything has a set time. Everything has a date, a schedule, a particular way. I am constrained by the clock, an invention of man that has me in its noose. Every lesson must not be missed. Every book must be in alphabetical order. Everything task must be done in a specific amount of time, or it’s pointless. Every action must have meaning. Every emotion must be analysed. I have lived like this for years and it’s something that has secretly tortured me. It never stops. It’s there every second of every day and I can’t begin to comprehend a life that would allow me to be free of this ‘thing’ that holds me down. I’ll get back to this point later. The small pools in the ground became bigger and bigger as we headed into the depths of the cave. The large corridors surrounded us and made me feel but a needle in a haystack. The more we walked, the more I noticed how the water in these small pools were beautifully blue and transparent. I could see the bottom of each one, and felt indecent for stepping my muddy boots into the centre of them, but […]

So this last weekend heralded the final SUSS weekend (in Britain) before everyone gets bogged down with revision and deadlines and the sort. A good number of 21 members descended on the Croyden Caving Hut in South Wales which all made for good company and overall, a fun weekend. The Friday night was met with typical drunken merriment which went on till the early hours as we all laughed and talked our way through the night. I think there was only one fight that night between James and Adelaide, cannot say who won but it was a rubbish attempt at fighting none the less. Saturday Saturday morning greeted me well and I sat outside with the others basking in the warm glow of the morning sun. I heard mutterings of a trip to OFD 1 – top entrance (OFD 2) just no one knew the way. I fortunately did and was keen on the trip so that was the day sorted. The team for Saturday was to be myself, Craig Hamer, Liam Overett, Olly Hall and Mark Holdcroft. We got our gear together and were soon on our way to the SWCC. We were ready and making our way to […]

I’d been talking of attending the Irish Student Caving Forum for a while, and with an impromptu ferry purchase after the worlds kindest kick up the arse from Tony me, Molly, Liam, Michael and Botch actually found ourselves assembling at mine and Liam’s on the Tuesday morning; full of beans and ready to sit in a car for 7+ hours. If anyone isn’t familiar with my car at this time of writing, she’s a silver Diesel Renault Megane with a ‘character mark’ on her rear left door and her name is Megan (as she will be referred to for the remainder of this report). This being said, it was rather ambitious to attempt to fit five people + belongings, gear and food into her but goddam it if we weren’t going to try. However, after a lot of cringe as I watched Megan’s suspension creaking ever lower we managed it and were all squeezed nice and snug into our respective spaces. And thus, clad in the party hats I’d sneakily bought for Liam’s birthday when we were buying food, the five SUSSonians relinquished all ties of fixed abode for a week and began our journey. The drive over to Holyhead was […]

//안녕하세요! 저는 영국에 있는 엘리즈 입니다! 지금 한국학을 공부해서 이 글을 썼어요.  한국어를 공보하는것이 좋아해서 글을 한국어로 써는것이도 좋아해요. 여러분! 읽어 보 주셔서 감사합니다! 다음에 또 볼게요! //    최근에 동굴 탐험에 빠져서, 피크드리스틱에 있는 동굴을 자주 탐험하고 있어요. 저는 보통 셰필드 대학생친구하고 같이 버스를 타고 피크드리스틱에 갑니다. 그 친구가  동굴 탐험 경험이 많이 있어서 그 친구가 무엇이든지 말하면 저는 자세하게 듣고 있어요. 사진 안에 있는 사람이 잭이에요. 잭씨 성경은 착하고 고요합니다. 동굴이 위험 아냐고요? 글쎄요… 조금은 위험하니까 처음 동굴 탐험을 시도하실 땐 조심 하셔야돼요!!  처음에는 뜨거운 옷을 입었는데 우리 그 옷을 입을때 오븐처럼 더웠어요! 그 다음에 헬멧을 썼지만 둥굴 밖에서 전혀 필요없어요. 입구에서 중간까지 걸으면 삼십분이에요.  그 날에 비가 오지 않았고, 날시가 맑았어요. 그 동굴에 한번 가본 적이 없지만 신기했어요!  동굴 입구 까지 왔지만 들어가고 싶지않았어요. 어땋게 들어가는지 몰라서 잭씨 따라왔어요. 들어가 자마자 동굴이 홍수처럼 물이 엄첨 많아서 막힐 것 같았어요. 잭씨가 걱정하지말고 집중하라고 해서, 저는 그렇게 했어요. 저는 잭씨를 믿었기 때문에 걱정 안했어요. 그렇게 하지만, 입구 도착했을때  저는 집중하는 척했는데요. 지하이라서 바깥 상황에 대한 고민이 전혀 들지 않아요. 내 고민을 녹아 내려요. 그냥  ‘죽으면 안돼요’ 생각했어요. 동굴은 더랍고 미끄러웠어요. 넘어지면 안돼요. 넘어지면 다칠거예요.  오후에는 친구하고 같이 동굴 탐험복을 벗고 같이 평하게 이야기하고 간식을 먹었어요. 다시 가면 좋겠어요. 꼭 다시 도굴에 […]

//I want to thank Creg and Gamble for putting in so much effort to organise and hide all the eggs. I also want to thank all the drivers who carried us back and forth to the mine and our homes, thank you, all of you, as you made this happen. I had the most fantastic time and I hope you enjoy my report.// After a scenic drive with the sounds of Will’s wonderful road rage every now and then, we were all smiling and ready to put on our kit to start this journey into the mine. Not knowing what to expect, a few nerves ran through me. But, looking around at my fellow SUSS members, I felt a warmth of trust and love rise within me, and I knew I was ready to kick some ass and thrash them all. Whilst I am not experienced, and always become a nervous wreck before any caving trip, this time felt a little different: I was feverishly excited. Gamble hands us all little Easter buckets we can collect our eggs in. We are all engrossed by its design. While we are spectating and discussing if we should go in pairs or go […]

Living up to my new acclaimed title of ‘diving bitch’, I agreed to help Benji by carrying dive bottles to Main Rising. Which, overall ended up to be quite a short, but fun trip with good company. The trip involved myself and Benji, as well as Corin and Molly who all awoke a bit bleary eyed one Saturday morning – Molly being particularly grumpy as per. But still we arrived at the Speedwell car park in good time (0900 hours). There was a bit of a wait as the boat we were on left at 0945 so we sat and rested before getting dressed. A couple of us were dreading it slightly, but I was quite looking forward to it. I didn’t let slip that I was more excited for the boat trip but hey ho. The bag was surprisingly heavy, but I have carried heavier so it didn’t phase me, just knocked me out of balance a couple of times. None the less, we were soon on the boat, destination: The Bottomless Pit (or Speedwell cavern as one of the guides called it *Humpf*). This took about 20 minutes until everyone was off and getting into the far canal. […]

Dying in caves was never a preference of ours. But we do so anyway. For it is our passion. I follow the others, boiling hot, the sun pounding down on us with our thick caving gear. On this magnificent day, we try not to remind ourselves of all the people outside sunbathing and going to the beach. We plunge down into the steep cut of rock in the ground and the cool air hits us as we walk towards the entrance. It is so refreshing. As soon as I clamber inside the entrance I regret it. It is only a small squeeze, but I already feel claustrophobic. // It was later brought to my attention that the plug hole has previously been blocked and some cavers have had to free dive out// “I don’t want to cave. I could turn back now.” I could have made a hundred excuses as to why I needed to leave, but I stop myself and wait for the others to follow through the entrance. I don’t want to let myself or these people I admire so much down. They are my fellow cavers, after all.  Jack busies himself finding a rope, which he calls […]

A trip report told in the styling of haikus. In fact, this is a series of them.   Leo’s, rope sorted Destination Giants Hole In car, music loud. Oversuits dog-eared One short, one tall, three between All off underground. Jreg rigged Garlands pitch All waited, all descended Crabwalk is entered. Songs sung – hard caver Corin lead, crabwalk is long Waiting for The Vice. The Vice is traversed Some went over, some under Me? Under and wet. Crabwalk ends. Relief Some fun had, climb over drips Now to East Canal. In situ we trust Handlines. Traverses. Pitches. Following water. Michael​ leads us on. We stay ‘dry’, some look. One swam Jack and I did wait. Heading back out now In situ we trust … again Up towards windpipe. Short break was required Water and snacks sent around One climb then windpipe. Crawling then windpipe Comparable to torments Worse than remembered. Walk above crabwalk Rig pull through. Metallic ring Corin now descends. Eyehole sounds more fun Sketchy traverse, squeeze enjoyed Others felt likewise. Bit of pathfinding Climb down into the crabwalk Garlands ascended. Warm air, starry skies We are out, out of Giants In car, Sheffield bound.  

** Disclaimer: I know there is already a (brilliant) report about this particular trip by Elise, but as we’re both early in our caving careers but coming into it quite different directions I thought it’d be interesting to see the trip from two points of view. Plus I’m hungover and I’d like to sit in bed writing a trip report. ** Jousting down Peak — a trip to Moss Chamber It was a warm spring evening as a fellowship of five threw themselves enthusiastically from the TSG, made merry in the graveyard and were soon swallowed up by the cavernous mouth of Peak Cavern — Sam: “It’s the biggest cave entrance in the UK!” Henry: “Does that mean it’s the most likely to collapse because there is so much unsupported ceiling?” Elise: *squeak* But such comments soon petered out as we passed beyond the realms of mere mortals, travelling even further into the mouth of the earth than had a monarch centuries before. The banks were muddy, but crystal clear currents passed around our rubber soles as we waded into a diminishing tunnel, like entering the chocolate factory of some sadistic mole, made more so after passing a swirling vortex in Buxton Water. After […]

Why Do I Do Caving? Why Did I Slap a Butt? Two questions that I shall never be able to answer. After training me for a while, I know that Gamble and many in the group want me to actually go caving, rather than just go to the pub and drink pints of water. So Gamble mentions a suitable trip, and quite naturally for me, on the day, I am nervous as a porcupine in a room full of balloons. But I need to go. Why? My life has not been the best for the last two weeks.  It’s been miserable for me if I’m honest, I needed “a reset button” (Creg, 2017) by going caving.   I meet Louise, and she’s very smiley, we get to know each other. We all head in the car over to this small village where there’s a car workshop-looking building. It reminds me of my father who used to race and fix cars. I’m soon told it’s a ‘TSG’, and that most of the group stay here for the weekends. Can’t imagine. Suddenly everyone is getting undressed and into their caving suits-  I begin to panic. I’m not ready for this. I can’t do […]

The first time I went to Hillocks, I sat in hole for 5 hours with Rob Middleton waiting to be rescued on a DCRO training day. The second time I went to Knotlow-Hillocks, Gamble and I got lost at every possible turn and therefore explored most of, or what felt like most of, the system and because of this we were 15 minutes shy of callout. We were out so much later than the other group on that trip that Helen’s car had run it’s battery flat from listening to the radio. So with my third trip to this system, I didn’t think anything could go wrong… We left Sheffield at around 6.30pm, after a short game of kit tetris and ‘how does Helen’s Jazz fit that much’ we were off to then immediately turn around and head back to Leo’s to collect an adjustable spanner. After this short detour were off … again. The journey consisted of me getting taken the piss out of, standard. Michael Holliday not knowing what hummus is, that boy is so uncultured. Corin offering around baklava and Antonia being that guy, if you’re a stranger reading this, I’d watch out, she may email you. […]

Unfortunately the title is not caving-related but typical conversation starter of the weather, which was absolutely fantastic and was a part of many events that made for a very good NCHECC weekend! Saturday Members present: myself, Glen and Hugh (GUPA). After waking from a short slumber, I wandered around the hut aimlessly whilst eating breakfast and asking around for a trip. I heard some were going to Lost John’s, but there seemed to be quite a few, so I didn’t bother with that one. I then found Glen who was doing some rigging training with Hugh from GUPA and so I decided to tag along, suggesting somewhere in Kingsdale as it will be a bit quieter. My light decided to pack in this weekend (reminder to self to get that sorted), so I ran around the hut (again), like a headless chicken looking for a helmet and light for me to have. Tony Seddon turned up to the scene as the knight with caving armour and let me borrow his for the day, which in turn led me to borrow it for both days. There was also a bit of time choosing a cave, which we decided was Heron Pot […]

Members present: Myself, Alan Bretnall (Guide), Molly Smith, Liam Overett, Michael Woodward, Michael Holliday. As this past weekend was our annual dinner weekend in the Peak District, I booked a visit for a couple of members to visit Water Icicle Closed Cavern near Monyash. We all awoke feeling a bit fresh and heavy headed, ate some breakfast, drank some tea and were soon heading off to meet Alan in Monyash. We made a couple of trips up and down the track as we were a bit confused as to whether we were going the right way or not. After all the faff, we were going the right way, so headed back and pulled over at an appropriate place. We were all suited up in our suitable attire including some of the equipment that we had gained from winning the CHECC competition (many thanks are extended to Jane Allen who provided the equipment) and heading for the entrance. Liam rigged and we were soon descending down the mined entrance. It is a fairly nice slot that drops down until you enter the natural chamber that the miners broke into. Alan pointed out the way to the rift which eventually leads to […]

One Morning, while the night before, Lay restless in my head, There came a ringing on my phone, That filled my heart with dread. At once I flung, with lightning speed, My body from my cot, As i’d agreed, with much regret, To go down Rowter Pot. My bag was choked with caving kit, And one spare pair of drawers, My stomach grumbled angrily, Awaiting Pevrill Stores. With Rob and Helen in the car, We totalled nought but three, And set off westwards, caving-bound, Towards the TSG. Our mission was as such, you see, To dye dear Rowter’s sumps, For this we wouldn’t be paid in coins, But pints, from The Cobden’s pumps. We feasted with much merriment, On bacon, egg and bread, Then off we drove, with bellies full, Out town, past Winnat’s Head. We paid the farm its rightful coin; Its daily dose of dime, Then struggled into oversuits, All caked with mud and grime. At last, we journeyed through the field, T’was moist with morning dew, With nought b’tween us save the dye, A vibrant, greenish hue. In no more than a quarter-hour, Spent underneath the dale, We stood in silence at the mouth, Of Rowter’s Ice […]

I WILL NOT Assemble a custom SRT kit using the club equipment. Fall in any of the following: Elizabeth shaft, Suicide Pot, any of the many holes that suddenly appear mid-crawl. Rely on leaders to carry heavy tackle sacks. Form an attachment to the following: Alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, freeloaders, perverts, ascending too far so that I get strung up, mountaineers, Southampton. I WILL Buy my own SRT kit. Aspire to become an Equal. Consider buying a Pantin. Reduce circumference of waist by 1 inch (for squeeze purposes)   Friday 10 March: Nettle Pot to Derbyshire Hall (sounds lovely) Song of the day: some Irish thing that Jreg was singing, followed closely by the intro to All Stars (obvs) Cigarettes: 0 (don’t smoke, v.g.) Aperol: 50ml (excellent) 4 p.m Assembled custom SRT kit, much to horror of Leo. I just really prefer simples to stops, okay? Bought snacks. (v important) 5 p.m. Left Sheffield, having had to wait to procure the minimum number of krabs and for Hallam Jack to come back from his vulva conference. (not a gendered slur) (two unrelated) After the usual paying of the farmer and listening to his three warnings to avoid […]

Date: 1/03/17 Members present: Myself, Thomas Smith, Olly Hall and Adelaide de Deisbach We departed Sheffield at a reasonable time of 6:15pm with much excitement for the trip ahead. Maskhill has been a trip I have been wanting to do for some time as I have only ever been to West chamber via Oxlow. However, we didn’t get to bottom it, but instead made a good attempt in the process. A brisk wind meant that it was a bit chilly getting changed into our caving gear but we were soon in our appropriate garments and making our way to the entrance. By the top of the hill I was well heated up for the wait as the others descended down into the nether regions of the Earth. I was last so got myself clipped in and then shut the lid but realised my descender was the wrong way around which was a faff to sort out in the position I was in. But, none the less I was soon descending myself and with the others. I ended up descending into some random little side passage at some point but other than that it was a quick descent down into the […]

Saturday   Bar to Flood – I am aware that Jack has already written a report about this trip so I tried and keep it short but I’m not at all good at that so sorry (in my defence I drafted it on the monday afternoon)! So far I haven’t managed a GG trip without it turning into an epic and nearly missing call out. Never mind, third time lucky I thought. The day started well with the hangover from hell – let’s just say I should stop trying to keep up with my past student self. The day got worse when I realised in my hurried packing after work that whilst I had packed my personal kit, pantin and personal tacklebag I had managed to forget my entire SRT kit. Now as you can imagine the thought of attempting GG with only a pantin and a personal tackle bag as pitch kit made me very apprehensive so I went on the hunt for a spare kit. Once again Benji came to SUSS‘s rescue (we would go on far fewer trips without him) and I was able to go underground. There were a lot of us so we decided to have one […]

Fresher Dales – Oct 2016 Fresher dales was way back in October but it was a fun weekend with a turnout of over 30 people with the freshers going on a variety of trips. The car spaces meant that there were 5 leaders and equals left over so we decided the night before that we’d attempt to do a ‘proper trip’ the night before. Breakfast was an interesting affair. Jethro and I were definitely paying for our sins. Apparently 3 bottles of wine is a bad idea and who knew drinking Gin in 250ml servings makes you feel rubbish in the morning? My petition was (as ever) Swinsto but Rachael refused to walk up the hill, Rachael suggested something that Mark pointed out we didn’t have enough rope on us for, Helen suggested Box Head to which Rachael then suggested Death’s Head. Jethro and I contributed by staring at our shrivelled bacon and beans willing them to eat themselves. An hour and half after Rachael finished her breakfast Jethro and I were down to one hash brown each and daring each other to finish our breakfast first in the slowest most intense eating competition that has ever taken place at […]

A weekend at The Dump is always a winner, I enjoyed a fun and eventful New Year there just over a month ago and was more than happy to return. I decided to augment my weekend caving with a trip either side for good measure, and I now present to you a single report on all four trips. Friday – Yordas Pullthrough I was picked up at 3pm by Alex and Jacob from NUCC, we stopped briefly on the way up to the Dales to check out GUPA Sarah’s art exhibition in Bradford Cathedral “The Rhythm of The Dales” which was fantastic, and the Cathedral gave me a new outlook on Bradford; perhaps there is some beauty to it. The three of us arrived at the Craven Cottage to pick up Sarah and take her caving, I thought I saw her in the Crown pub but it turned out to be Kristian Brook sat alone writing trip reports, it’s very easy to mix the two up… We left him to his writing and went to go fetch the right person, then headed to The Dump to pick up Stu, the final member of our mottled group consisting of SUSS, NUCC, […]

TOP Ten Trips of all [my]time caving. I used 5 factors = [1] time underground [usually, the longer, the better and the harder] [2] amount of water in any form [the more the better] [3] how awkward and number of obstacles encountered [4] enjoyment [5] tiring and exhausting [usually, the more the higher the mark].   Over the period 1963 to 1970 1 LOST JOHNS 2 SOUTHERN STREAM PASSAGE IN AA 3 OXLOW-GIANTS-OXLOW 4 GIANTS-OXLOW-GIANTS 5 FILTHY FIVES EXCHANGE IN GIANT’S 6 P8/JACPOT MOCK RESCUE 7 PENYGHENT W/O WETSUIT 8 OGOF FFYNON DDU 9 POUL NA GOLLUM 10.GIANTS TO EAST CANAL AND BACK     Most disliked and liked caving trips – by a SUSS Life member over the 1960’s decade. Least enthralling – Yorkshire Dales None!! Even Bar Pot and Calf Holes were enjoyable! Most thrilling and therefore best trips in Yorks dales; Penyghent Pot [PyG – SSP], when not in flood. Did this one without a wetsuit, with a butty box and a metal thermometer. Strangely, this trip went against one of my basic caving tenets – it was with 5 complete strangers = Leicester Uni students. Took about 5.5 hours [so slightly quicker than the Eldon PC […]

Sunday 19.2.67. GIANTS-FILTHY FIVE EXCHANGE.   Brian Thomas brings this unique event alive for you, right now. In 1967. Reviewed after only 49 years. Excludes details about a normal Giant’s trip. Bailing, “Down” Party [F5]; Jeff Phillips [JP], Dave Wear, Pete Lord (Fly), Bob Fowle and Tim Brett-Holt. (first two on carbide; all members of Sheffield University Speleological Society). Geology Pot, “Up” Party [F5]; Brian Thomas [BT], Dave Prime [DP], Brian Chadwick [BC] and Brian Dobson (first two not in wetsuits) [all in SUSS]. Other concurrent parties- Eating-House Round Trip Party; Michael Binns, Joan Graham-Guthrie, Bob Smith, Keith Dennis, 2 of DP’s mates and “Carole” [all except 2 mates and “Carole” in SUSS]. Pegging in Ghost Rift Party; Bob Dearman, Bob Toogood [EPC?] [what a DUO! And in a cave!] JP took his party down at 11.40 am. Snibb’s (MB) group vanished into Giant’s entrance at 12 noon. BT’s quartet entered at 12.55, already in overdrive and highly expectant at the epic journey ahead. They passed the Snibb Round-trippers as the latter were climbing up to the North East Swallet Series. BT shouted “Banzai”; JG-G riposted “Shut up”. Giants was wetter than usual; no hitches yet; BT’s “Up” party reached […]

Thursday June 16 1966.  GIANT’S-OXLOW-GIANT’S. THE NEW CONNECTION by SUSS members; Entrants; the late Keith Dennis [KAD], Dave Prime or Min [ DP] and Brian Thomas [WBT and author].   J G G [Joan, daughter of Bob Guthrie and soon-to-be the new Joan G Prime] deposited our triumvirate at Watson’s Farm with the weather set fair now but with a forecast of storms later. The entrance was rather dry, at 12 noon, so we had a little snigger at KAD, the only one girded in a wet suit. We took ten minutes to get our little hoard of tackle through the near sump [the Days of The Dams!] and Garlands was very unwet. We left it doubled and were in excellent good spirits as Min ascended the Crabwalk to the Upper Series [trailing a rope behind him]. My right hand had been rope-burned whilst recently digging in Bradwell. KAD and DP had no present injuries, although KAD was already very warm indeed! Ascending out of the Crabwalk I always find the last few sheer feet a bit exposed, but, once in the Upper North East Swallet Series, we all three soon arrived at the right-hand turn up to Poached Egg […]

I usually feel personally offended when the sun dares to peak out from the thick cover of the British clouds and hurts my precious pupils, but that day the sun was more than welcome, warming us up while we were lazily changing in front of Winnats’ head. Who the fuck is this Winnats anyways? What kind of name is that? Too shit to be a winner, too boring to be a brat. But I digress. We made our way to the cave, reaching the mass of boulders that constitutes its entrance, both Jack and Jreg enthusiastic about the trip that was about to unfold, Jack even claiming this cave was his favourite. I stepped in with confidence. Now the cave was probably having a hard day, going  through a rough patch of its life, who are we to judge? Being eaten by water, little by little, doesn’t exactly sound like a perfect life. Whatever frustration Winnats was battling through, it was getting ready to pour it all on us. Or maybe it was just a douchebag cave. Who knows. A crawl greets us at the very entrance, which I only mildly complained about; followed by a few vertical squeezes, which we overcame […]

Date: 31.01.2017 Members present: Myself, Rob Middleton and Helen Fairclough. It appears there hasn’t been a trip report since the Christmas weekend so hear is something for you all to read. I don’t mind caving down Gautries as it is a fun trip, and can easily be done in a couple of hours if you want something short. Usually most trips involve getting a little bit wet, especially as there is a duck part of the way through, but this trip involved getting a thorough soaking. We arrived at the cavers car park at Perryfoot to find members of the TSG arriving for their midweek caving trip. The weather was a bit miserable, so took us a bit of time to pluck up the courage and get changed, although I cheated and got changed in the car without getting wet at all. Once I was all suited up, Rob and Helen were still sorting out the diving stuff so I grabbed one of the bags and headed towards Gautries to drain the entrance whilst they caught up behind. This time it took a bit longer than usual to drain, but that was most likely due to the slightly more than usual […]

The Christmas weekend, the last weekend of the year, had the promise of a very good two days in the Dales. And it lived up to expectations. I arrived with the first car of SUSS cavers to a hut full of ULSA. Just after claiming a bunk, I found out that an ambulance was being called for a blackout drunk ULSA member. The first ‘broken’ thing of the weekend. Already things were getting interesting and most of SUSS weren’t there yet! As the night progressed I was requested to go on a couple of trips: taking scaff down Penyghent with Rob Wotson and George or Broken Finger Pot with Sam and Tom. Both are in the notorious black book so it was a hard decision but I chose Broken Finger as scaff is awkward. Little did I know there was a more awkward cave waiting for me the next day. After a quick breakfast Sam Tom and I were one of the first groups to leave and were looking forward to a fun days caving. We parked up and got changed in good time and set off to find Broken Finger. I forgot my helmet and shiny new Fenix torch […]

Members present: Myself, Thomas Smith, Olly Hall I must warn you that this tale is no happy one, it is a dark story of a man that by the end has been both mentally and physically broken. You may get a better story from Olly, but I don’t think there ever will be a cheery report of this god-forsaken hell hole. It all starts when I awoke from a slumber of two hours, feeling the effects of the night before. People were still cooking breakfast so I lent a hand stirring beans and still managed to let them stick to the bottom. Breakfast was eaten, some washing up done and then we were on our way to Kingsdale. We arrived and it was fairly misty with fog on higher ground which was going to be fun finding the entrance as it is in a shake hole, but also made worse due to the fact it is surrounded by many more shake holes. We were ready quickly and were on our way up the side of Whernside, a few breaks needed to catch our breaths back from the steep ascent. Visibility was around ~30m, so finding it was going to be […]

This isn’t a usual trip report, I’m just transcribing this old report here for reference. Mainly for Ash Hiscock’s usage but I assumed other people may be interested in the report’s contents – it documents dive explorations carried out by Martin Farr, Roger Solari and Colin Fairbairn using the SUSS Hut as a base. I’ve transcribed it from the book as best I can, but I may have some bits wrong! W/E 20/1st July Diving trips P8 SAT After navigating(?) around in the vastly crowded campers field with cells etc bottles etc etc eventually got to Perryfoot about 1pm. 3 divers + bottles + sherpas bottomed P8 then came out. After an (?) attempt to dive the sumps divers inc. left bottles etc for Sunday – Martin having been as far as Sump 4. Evening spent in Castle Divers – Roger Solari, Martin Farr & Colin Fairbairn SWCC Sherpas – Chris Pugsley, Neil Craven, Steve Muir & Deej SUN The three divers left early to continue the dive, 10:15 A.M. underground. After Saturdays SPAS effort the dive went very successfully to Sump 9. Martin diven in Sump 9 and added 250′ of line to Parker’s 300′. At this point in […]

A lot of people were initially keen to help me in my endeavour to clean up Nettle Pot – at one point we had about 8-10 people wanting to come and assist, the trip soon suffered the usual drop-outs and Tuesday evening saw five cave conservation conscious cavers in a couple of cars creep up Winnats Pass to go a short way into a cave and pull crap back out. I was rigging, with Leo hot on my heels. We soon reached the bottom and were on the Flats, this was as far as we needed to go; on a previous trip just a week or so ago I’d spotted a heap of discarded wood and metal cable down a couple of the pots along the Flats, given its proximity to the surface I thought it was ripe for retrieving. Leo and I climbed down the pot and started sorting through all the rubbish. There was a lot of rotten wooden stopes, some iron bars, old shoes, plastic bits, items of clothing, carbide packs, an old battery pack and some bones. I crawled to the very bottom of the sloping floor of the pot, disturbing some large rocks on the […]

As I write this I am huddled on the floor of Graham View; the epicentre of ULSA’s operations. I have stayed the night to gather valuable intel on the inner workings of their club and provide here a comprehensive report. Much like the British and Germans in the Trenches, ULSA and SUSS decided to bury the hatchet in the festive period and so ULSA allowed a few of us to join them on their seasonally traditional “Christmas Cracker” trip. This trip is usually organised by Alice and involves a mystery location, mulled wine and mince pies. I gathered a group of keen people, two of whom had to drop out (standard caving trip attrition) and Saturday morning at 8am sharp saw Adelaide, Olly and Me heading to Leeds on the train. We arrived at Burley Park station and met an impatient Nathan who told us we were behind the others. Nathan knew the “secret location” of the trip and would not relent upon pressing interrogation. Arrival at Inglesport Café proved that Brendan is far easier to break, revealing the location in an instant upon asking; Christmas Pot and Grange Rigg, of course – what better location for a festive trip? We parked […]

Members present: Myself, Jethro Pryke, Corin Donne and Roderick Ramsdale-Capper With the deluge that we experienced in Derbyshire from Storm Angus, the original trip to p8 was cancelled. This is because of the amount of water entering the cave meant it was probably a bit too sporting for novices. So, an alternative to this problem was a quick visit to suicide cave and Winnats head cave. The evening started off with some quick SRT (for Corin and …) and rigging (for myself) training in suicide cave. Suicide cave hasn’t got much too it, not even very many bones, which I sort of expected with the cave. But I have been there now, no need to go again. That was all over fairly quickly, so we then headed up to Winnats head cave. It was dry until we entered the first chamber where there was a stream entering and from that point on, it was a pretty wet trip. I always love slipping down through the boulders of this cave, but you always have to have that sense of awareness around you. As we got into fox chamber, I was amazed to see that there was a reasonably large stream appearing […]

Members present: Myself, Rachael Rix, Liam Overett, Tom Butler, James Deakin, Adelaide de Diesbach, Michael Holliday, Antonia Headlam-Morley (A big group!) I awoke with a bit of a heavy head from the night before, and dragged myself down for some breakfast to elevate my mood. Trips were being organised, and I think I ended up putting myself on 3 different trips before finally picking a trip to go on – a visit to Sidcot Swallet and Goatchurch Cavern. It took some time herding everyone up, convincing a very rough Michael to come caving and getting abused by dogs, but eventually we were on our way. It is a lovely drive as we drop down from the plateau and into the gorge that is Burrington Coombe, although not nearly as impressive as Cheddar Gorge that we visited on the Sunday. We were dressed up in all our caving kit and on our way to the caves, and visible on the ground was the amount of rain that Storm Angus had bestowed in the area. The valley is pretty much dry with no surface streams as far as I was aware, but there was a great deal of fluvial sediment at the […]

This was my first trip on my first Wales weekend and yes, like almost everything in Welsh it is impossible to say. However I was to find out that Pwll Dwfn is not a typical Welsh cave. After the hectic trip organising in the morning I found myself on a trip with Jack, Rachael and Tom, three cavers rather more experienced than me. This suggested a more interesting trip though, which is just what I wanted. This trip was also had a fair bit of SRT, probably the only cave in Wales with SRT. We got all the kit sorted, which was a bit more of a faff than usual as no one had done this cave before so rope lengths weren’t known exactly. Soon Pedro was loaded and we set off to Pwll Dwfn. Despite getting a bit lost on the road and then having trouble finding the cave using a description from a guide, we managed to find the entrance. Tom found bolts right at the entrance so rigged them and slithered down into the cave. I went down after Jack and spent a while making sure I was on the rope, only to find the drop was […]

I seem to have missed the last few TSG Halloween weekends for some reason. I imagine it’s got something to do with all the drinking and dressing up and general merriment that seems to be involved. Not my cup of tea generally. It may also have been simply due to my being particularly busy at this time of year. This year the event wasn’t actually hosted on the Halloween weekend, which meant I wasn’t busy at the time. Damn. Here goes then. Myself, Nat and Sam actually waited until the Saturday to head out to the TSG though a significant contingent had gone up on the Friday night. When we met up we packed up the car and headed down to Morrissons to get the food for the weekend. A very brief series of deliberations led us to the conclusion that we didn’t really care all that much so we just grabbed the stuff for chilli to save time. Of course, we needn’t have bothered saving time, because, despite insisting in block capitals in the e-mail that costumes were compulsory, Nat had neglected to bring anything to dress up as. As you would expect Sam and I spent the best […]

You may recently have read a very nice little trip report by Nat about a cave some of us explored whilst yachting around Mallorca. If you haven’t you can find it here, it’s well worth a read in its own right and this report acts as a brief addendum. I can’t really match Nat blow for blow in terms of enthusiasm, but in her excitement, I fear a few key elements of the trip may have fallen by the wayside. Plus I’ve a little sark to sprinkle over proceedings. The whole thing was panning out to be a sham even before we’d left as half of our kit was cobbled together from the possessions of the people on the previous trip; lights, wet suits, helmets. You name it, someone had forgotten it. Once we’d parked the boat and started travelling around the headland to the entrance my status as the weakest swimmer on the holiday became abundantly clear as I fell behind my fellows somewhat. It’s not like this hadn’t happened before, we’d been out there for the better part of a week and done a lot of swimming. What changed today was that Jack had borrowed my mask, so […]

It has been related to me for several months now by a few members of SUSS that Streaks Pot is a great trip. Like, really terrific. Just spectacular from start to finish. Some have even gone so far as to say, in hushed and furtive tones, that it may even redeem the rest of the miserly crawls that make up Stoney Middleton. Well I’ve been now, and whilst it’s fair to say that elements are a step up from the rest of the dreck in Stoney, I can safely report that these individuals were, to a man, huffing some kind of paint thinners when they went down. Presumably their poor solvent-addled minds have since blocked out the trauma with falsified memories of fun, games and other such lark. Time to set the record straight. As is so often the case with SUSS we were a little late setting off. This was largely my fault because I only get in from work late and need to eat if I’m going caving. This is why I’ve not been on evening trips for ages and if you want me back you’ll just have to deal with it. That said we managed to fit […]

Layby Pot – Saturday 18th June At the pub the night before Jreg and I asked Will to teach us to survey for exped. The next day bright and early (2pm-ish), we set off for Stoney Middleton. We arrived after listening to Will’s helpful chat up advice, pulled over at the layby and started getting changed. Will went for a stomp in the undergrowth to look for the cave and said we were in the wrong layby. We piled everything back in the car and Jreg ran down the road after us as he was nearly fully changed. Second layby lucky, we found the cave. The main surveying issue of the day was that Jreg couldn’t work out how to turn the phone on. We took a GPS coordinate of the tree, Will handed me the phone and Jreg started fiddling around with the Disto and learning the difference between splays and legs. At the bottom of the entrance pitch we took the obvious larger passage straight ahead and started surveying. Despite being very repetitive, surveying turned out to be quite fun. The main disadvantage was that because of the accuracy needed, we couldn’t just power through the cold crawly bits because you have to stop every time the passage […]

In a trip which featured more piss and fag smoke than a night in the Cobden we made a substantial amount of progress on our various exploratory efforts in P8. On the way to the cave Leo demanded we stop in Castleton so he could use the TSG toilet – a massive gamble as he didn’t know the code for the inner door. Luckily he bumped into Martyn Grayson leaving the Chapel, he graciously opened up the pearly gates to allow Leo access the porcelain thrones contained within. We had a little chat with Martyn, explaining our plan for the evening – he said that the lower face in Ben’s Dig is well worth a go and (even though I said the same thing when he suggested it two years ago) I’m certainly up for taking on the task. We arrived at the P8 car park at the same time as Henry in his wee Micra. We all got changed while Ash (who we were carrying dive gear for) had 3 or 4 cigarettes to line his alveoli for the dive ahead. Henry, whose main aim was to hinder our efforts this evening at any cost to himself, had forgotten his SRT kit. […]

For about two years I’ve been meaning to explore the far reaches of Ben’s Dig in P8 – going back to the arousal of my interest when I surveyed it with Jeff a couple of years ago (Link to trip report for those who are interested). We reached a point at which we weren’t comfortable carrying on and left it “for another day”. Now, that day has come. I went in fully prepared; disto, phone for recording survey data, paper in case my phone packed in, coffee, and plenty of snacks. We zipped down to Mud Chamber where I pointed out a rope high up in the ceiling – not the way to Ben’s Dig but an interesting and clearly not very well visited bit of passage as you really need to know where the rope is to spot it. Tommy thought it was worth a go so he sent Botch – the crippled fresher – up first. Sadly he didn’t make it to the rope as the approach to it is a steep, nearly vertical mud slope above an exposed drop. We plan to return with rope to rig off. Next we went to Ben’s Dig – there are two […]

Given how many people have been saying they really want to do Titan now it’s back open, I was quite surprised that this trip ended up being only me and Jethro. Usefully though, this did make for a swift departure from Sheffield, allowing us to get to Hitch and Hike and pick up the key before they closed. Soon we were changed and walking over to the entrance in a completely un-forecast gorgeously sunny evening. A bit of fiddling with the new lid and Jethro got on with rigging the entrance pitch while I worked out how to keep the key without strangling myself; I really need to patch my oversuit pockets. Once we were both down the entrance, I caught up with Jethro at the breakthrough window. Both of us were sufficiently distracted by the single massive anchor that it took us a minute to spot the normal bolts that are positioned to allow the rope to hang nicely down the pitch. Confusion over, Jethro vanished down into the darkness, and eventually “Rope Free” echoed back up the chasm. I set off down the rope, very glad to have a Scurion instead of the club Pixa I had last […]

I first heard about the ‘Chamber of Horrors’  whilst in the pub as a poor unsuspecting caving fresher. The description of the giants/oxlow connection left me concerned for the sanity of my new-found friends, if slightly disbelieving that ‘suck the ceiling’ was an instruction to be taken literally. Nonetheless, it sounded like a desperately unpleasant trip and not at all a place I ever wanted to go to. A few years passed; and last Thursday, during a very similar pub night, I found myself seeking companions for this very trip, clearly the madness is infectious. As it was the 50th Anniversary of the first connection, the entire system would be rigged for the weekend, making it logistically much easier, and also giving us some excellent talks to look forward to once we got out. Leo, Creg and I set off from Sheffield with minimal faff on Saturday morning, and stopped at the TSG to see Tony and for us all to buy neoprene hoods (totally worth it) and for Leo to buy a wetsuit. We also saw the Eavis-es, who reassuringly confirmed that everything on the Oxlow side was rigged; we didn’t particularly fancy having to do the connection twice. […]

Sunday 1st May – JH to Peak via White River  – Glen, Jreg, Leo and Nat At Thursday’s pub, I decided that I wanted to do a JH through trip as it was a bank holiday and enlisted other people who were drunk and suggestible. We arrived on Sunday morning at the TSG and met Benji, Anne and Alistair which we used as an excuse to procrastinate further as everyone suddenly discovered a desire to visit the shop. We changed at the TSG, left a call out with Benji and piled into Glen’s car smelling of damp used caving gear. We arrived at the top of JH, and Leo set off ahead through the Cartgate so that he could rig with Jreg and I lurching behind the tacklebags. I remembered from my previous trip to stay high on the stupidly high traverse line halfway through as otherwise I end up sat on my short cowstail swinging like a demented overgrown baby in a bouncer. We all disappeared down Bitch Pitch and I announced my arrival at the Cartgate by forgetting to pick my feet up entirely and faceplanting. Whilst Leo rigged the top half of Leviathan I thought I would lighten the mood and stave off […]

Trying to get through to Geology once before and being thwarted by Gamble’s burnt meringue, no-one remembering the route description and having a prohibitive definite time to be back for – I was keen to actually make it to Geology this time. After confusion over who was actually coming, the facebook conversations and what time we were setting off, eventually Helen, Jack, Jethro, Just Liam and I were all assembled in the car; an hour after we were supposed to have set off. As I haven’t touched my stuff since the Annual Dinner, I was quite looking forward to the wet trip as it improved the state of my kit (probably). The drive over was interesting as Liam tried to befriend the sheep numbered B4, C3 & 8H, there was an argument on the difference between Lamb and Mutton (btw – Lamb is under a year old) and I accidentally threw my phone at the window because of twitchy hands. People got changed and then as Liam assumed the usual position for someone to do his torse up, Helen pointed out that he could extend the tape. Liam was beyond excited at this, let out an orgasmic noise and started jumping up and down like a kid on […]

They say that he who faffs last faffs longest. This is demonstrably not true, as evidenced by the all-hassle, all-faff trip that we undertook last Saturday. Due to an unfortunate run in with an angry Greek road, I have been left essentially one handed for the near future, and as such can’t really do SRT, and shouldn’t really get my cast dirty or wet. Luckily I was not the only SRT-challenged fresher, as Ivy had only done one tower training, so between us we managed to arrange an SRT minimal trip led by Glen and Creg (despite his protests) Dragging myself out of bed was my first challenge of the day. Due to the late entrance of Rob and Helen the night before with an interesting idea for a drinking game (dubiously dubbed ‘Fuck Leo’ or ‘Get Leo Fucked’), I couldn’t exactly remember getting into said bed, although I am told it involved a prolonged search for an elusive light switch. After forcing down some breakfast, it was decided, after relatively minimal deliberation, that we would head to the valley entrance of the Kingsdale master system and wander about the streamway, as there was only one small pitch and minimal […]